Gold and Black is a multi-platform media company that covers Purdue athletics like no one else.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/368605
44 IllustrateD volume 25, issue 1 f n f l b o i l e r s BY KYLE CHARTERS AND TRAVIS BAUGH A fter a season in which he played only a game, and even then wasn't close to healthy, Anthony Spencer is hoping for a return to prominence in 2014. But his return date is yet to be determined. The vet- eran Dallas linebacker hasn't participated in the Cow- boys' training camp, instead sidelined as he rehabs from the microfracture surgery on his left knee that ended his 2013 season. Although he's not sure he'll be ready by Dallas' season opener on Sept. 7, he wants to avoid going on the physically unable to perform list. Doing so would make him unavailable for the first six games of the season. "I feel positive about it but at the same time it's still a possibility I could be on the PUP list," Spencer told the Dallas News in early August. "I am not really trying to push it too much. I am doing what I need to do. ... It's getting better." Spencer, an eighth-year professional, played only 34 snaps last season, before his knee injury — he had hoped to avoid surgery — proved to be too much to overcome. Unfortunately for Spencer, it came in a free agent year, after he had signed back-to-back franchise agreements in Dallas. Despite the injury, however, he re-signed with the Cowboys over the summer, inking a one-year incentive-laced deal that could be worth up to $3.5 million. Spencer's been able to do some things during camp, but only light agility work. As of mid-August, he'd yet to do anything contact-related. But the Cowboys were leaning toward keeping Spencer on the 53-man roster. "He's getting there," Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones told 105.3 The Fan in Dallas in mid-August. "It's getting there at a faster pace than we thought. We're hoping that when we get to our 53-man cut down that we'll be dealing with that problem. The problem is: Do we keep him on the roster because he's going to be ready to go in a game, or do we PUP him, which would mean we couldn't use him for six games? "It's looking like we'll keep him on the roster." One Last shOt FOr sheets Kory Sheets knows he might be down to his last shot. After being named MVP of the Grey Cup last season in the CFL when his Saskatchewan RoughRiders won the league's title, Sheets signed in Oakland during the summer. Now, he's competing to win the Raiders' third run- ning back job, behind three-time Pro Bowl selection Maurice-Jones Drew and former first-round pick Dar- ren McFadden. In Oakland's first preseason game, Sheets had 18 yards on five carries. He knows he has to show he can be a productive back if he wants to make it back to the NFL for a prolonged period. In 2009, Sheets played in two games as a rookie for Miami, getting one Dallas Cowboys Kyle Orton's future is murky after the former Boilermaker was released by Dallas this summer. spencer fighting for return