"I lost": Joey McVey takes the final and throws the tight end job open

Joey McVey's email came in late Monday night, after the Cowboys had finished off the Eagles and the last numbers of Week 7 had settled. It was short and numbered, and the most important part was two words long.

"I lost," he wrote.

The final has Injury Prone losing to the Crimson Tide, 110.6 to 96.1. That is not the score that sat on the board Sunday night. That one read 108.1 to 91.8, and it is the one I printed in this space. The final moved both teams up a few points and changed nothing about who won. Injury Prone are 4-3, have lost two straight, and still lead the Delta by a game, because the Inexperienced Blitz lost to Dandy once Monday night was done and never pulled even.

"That's the one that stands," McVey wrote of the final. "Kmet's points are in it and I still lost, so nobody can say I'm crying about it."

I believe the part about not crying. The rest of his note is where I have to slow down, because it is where his account and the public record still don't line up, and my job is to show you both without pretending they match.

Here is McVey's account of the tight end spot, in his words, as of Monday night: "I set Cole Kmet at tight end Sunday. That's who I set. The board had Tommy in there and the league put Kmet back where I had him. Print it like that."

So I'm printing it like that, with his name on it. It is his account. I have not seen a league ruling or any notice of a lineup change, and I'm not going to supply one.

Here is what else is on the record. On Friday afternoon, the official injury report listed Kmet as out for the rest of the season. Tyler Warren, the starter McVey named for me last week, was ruled out Friday evening and was inactive Sunday. When I looked at the league scoreboard Sunday night, it had Kmet in the starting tight end spot and Tommy Tremble on the bench. And on Sunday night McVey told me, in writing, "Tommy got the start with Tyler out."

By Monday afternoon he was telling me the Sunday board "wasn't the lineup I set," that the league "caught it," and that "Kmet's back where he belongs and his points count." By Monday night, he had set Kmet, the board had Tremble, and the league had put it right.

That is three versions in about a day, and I can't make all of them true at once. I don't know why they differ. I'm not going to assign a reason to an owner who has answered every question I've sent him since Sunday, on the record, sometimes within hours.

But here is my take, and it is a take. The version McVey wants printed is the one that bothers me most, not because I think he is misleading anyone, but because of what it says he chose. If he set Kmet on purpose, then the Injury Prone lineup on Sunday was built around a tight end the official report had ruled out for the season two days before kickoff. A team named Injury Prone, of all teams, can't read Friday's report as a suggestion. "Out for the rest of the season" is the one phrase on that report that doesn't need interpreting. To be fair to him, this game was decided by more than 14 points, and the tight end spot didn't decide it, whichever name was in it.

The part of his note I would circle if I covered the Strikers is the newest one. Last week his order was Warren, then Kmet, then Tremble. Monday afternoon it was "Tommy's my guy today, and we'll be better there by Sunday." Monday night, when I asked whether "better" meant someone already in the building, he went further than I expected.

"Tight end is open," he wrote. "That's all you get. Free agency opens at midnight and I don't announce anything before it's done."

Open is a real word, and I'm taking it at face value: as of Monday night, by the owner's own description, Injury Prone do not have a settled starting tight end for Week 8. I don't know who he is looking at or whether he has talked to anyone, and I won't guess. When there is a new name on the roster, I'll write it.

Until then I'll watch, in the order I trust them, the next official word on Warren, Tremble's snaps for Carolina (his 54 in Week 6 told me more than his two touchdowns did), and the lineup Injury Prone actually post for the trip to the Strikers, the only depth chart that counts.

The schedule gives McVey a reason to want this settled quickly. After the Strikers comes a trip to Echo Paden's Blitz, and he has already circled it. "I see Echo in two weeks on her field," he told me Monday afternoon, before the Blitz lost and the tie he had dared them to make never came.

He closed his note the way he closes most things. "Strikers Sunday."

He's right about that much. Right now, by his own account, nobody can tell you who will be playing tight end in it, and that includes him.