With PGA running Cognizant, it’s in their best interest to boost field
MIAMI GARDENS — You can’t quite call it a challenge to Dolphins fans. But a wish? Sure, it qualifies as a wish.
Bradley Chubb would like to hear noise on Sunday when the Dallas Cowboys visit. A lot of noise. Because if Chubb is hearing noise, he’s not hearing Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott. He’s not hearing Dak yak. More specifically, he’s not hearing Prescott barking “Here we go!” before snaps.
If you’ve watched the Cowboys lately, you know Prescott’s battle cry. Even if you haven’t watched them, you might know it, because “Here we go!,” like most anything with America’s Team, has taken on a life of its own.
“Obviously, I’ve heard a lot about that,” said Christian Wilkins, who as a defensive tackle will have Prescott right in his ear all day.
“Here we go!” has taken off on social media. It inspired a song catching on with Cowboys fans. In short, “Here we go!” is a thing.
But what kind of thing?
“It’s funny,” Chubb said Wednesday. “It sounds funny, but at the end of the day, man, it works for them. So I assume they’ll continue to use it.”
It’s one thing if Prescott barked it occasionally. But if you’re on defense, would it not get on your nerves after hearing it 30, 40, 50 times?
“I think you kind of tune stuff out,” defensive tackle Zach Sieler said.
Or maybe, Chubb said, the Dolphins won’t have to.
“But the way our fans act, man, I might not hear it at all,” said Chubb, the reigning AFC defensive player of the week. “So hopefully we give them something to cheer about so we don’t hear ‘Here we go!’ ”
The battle cry, which the Cowboys swear helps get everyone in line with Prescott’s snap cadence, has been around most of this season, but it took off on Thanksgiving, when fans tuning into the Cowboys
Sunday’s game
Cowboys (10-4) at Dolphins (10-4)
4:25 p.m., FOX; streaming on Fox Sports, NFL+ and YouTube Sunday Ticket outside South Florida
Chubb finds it funny, effective
With Cognizant signing on as the title sponsor of the former Honda Classic, the focus now can return to boosting the field.
With the PGA Tour’s Championship Management division now running the event, it’s in their best interest to attract more elite golfers than the tournament has seen in recent years.
The field has been embarrassingly bad lately, mainly because of the schedule and the tour elevating several events around Honda, giving players an easy excuse to skip the tournament held at PGA National.
But the tour tweaked the 2024 schedule and at least one of those golfers, and local residents, who has stayed away the past four years after playing in five straight, believes Cognizant will benefit.
“I think it’ll help it,” Justin Thomas said Sunday at the PNC Championship. “Everybody is just so different in how they break the schedule up and how much they’re playing (early in the season).
“It’s tough. But I do think it’ll help the field, especially with how it’s been the last couple of years.”
Thomas cannot say now whether he will return, not knowing his exact schedule through February and March. Cognizant, which is scheduled for Feb. 29March 3, is once again followed by the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Players Championship and the Valspar Championship.
The 2023 field included four of the top 30 golfers in the world rankings at the time, its fewest in at least a decade. None in the top 10 played for the third consecutive year.
The main culprit was the schedule.