DALLAS — Days after Dallas Police Officer Darron Burks was shot and killed while on patrol, the vast community of those who knew and loved him was still in shock. 

As many as a hundred people gathered Sunday at the South Central Police District along Camp Wisdom Road in Dallas to share fond memories of the beloved classmate, teammate and friend. 

Following nearly two decades as an educator, Burks shifted his career to focus on the community in another civic-minded career. When he was killed, he’d spent just eight months as a police officer for the Dallas Police Department. 

While a steady stream of people laid flowers, balloons, flags and other memorabilia to remember the fallen officer, the group gathered in front of the memorial promptly at 4:04 p.m., representing his membership within the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., to remember the fallen officer. 

Burks joined the organization as a student at Paul Quinn College and his longtime friends said he always moved with character and integrity. 

“What a lot of y’all don’t know is that he was a righteous person all the way. Everything he tried to do in life was right. He lived his life right. He served his community right. When he taught students in the classroom in the educational career field that he chose. He did that right,” said Ken Frazier, fraternity brother and friend for more than 20 years. 

While Burks made his mark in the classroom for nearly two decades as an educator, few were surprised when he became a police officer 

“That was the career field that he chose to do, serving and protecting others who could not protect themselves, serving people who were less fortunate, the underprivileged. No matter what your socioeconomic background may have been, Burks was that type of person who would fill that gap and say, ‘Hey, if you need a helping hand, I’m here to give it all free to you,’” Frazier said.

Grief and disbelief still hung in the air as people cried, prayed and laughed through more tears. However, the community of supporters and a group of friends who’d become more like family vowed to remember Burks for the purposeful life he’d lived, rather than the tragic manner in which he died. 

“I wish more people could be like him, including myself. Right. Some attributes of his life and his character. It gives us something, you know, gives us all something to strive for,” said Chastity Colomb. 

A couple that knew Burks from his time at Paul Quinn College wanted their young daughter to see and hear the legacy that he left.

Former football teammate Billy Walker laughed with tears in his eyes as he remembered their college days. 

“You couldn’t find a flaw [and] He’s definitely going to be missed, especially by me,” he said. 

His wife De’Andrea Walker Lacy, also a classmate at Paul Quinn, grasped their daughter’s hand as they looked over the memorial. 

“I just let her know that those are the type of people in life that you want to meet and those are the type of people in life that you can take advice from. You can learn from a person like Officer Burks,” she said. 

A celebration of life service is planned for September 7 at Watermark Church in Dallas. 

NEW College Football Playoff Rankings | Georgia, Ohio State, Miami, Texas, Alabama, Michigan, Oregon

It’s a new era of college football. 

When the College Football Playoff committee starts releasing rankings later this season, they aren’t going to be the end-all, be-all given the new seeding rules of the 12-team field. But the rankings are still fun and people are still going to fight over them. They still matter. 

So after every weekend, after the dust settles from the games, I’m going to unveil my updated top 10. Miami throttled Florida 41-17 in the Swamp on Saturday causing the Hurricanes to vault up the rankings after week 1.

Let’s start with the first edition: 

1. Georgia (1-0)

We’ll get more context regarding how impressive the dismantling of Clemson was as the season progresses, but the Bulldogs had perhaps the most eye-opening win of the weekend. And they did it without running back Trevor Etienne. Though there are fair questions as to whether this team is actually as dominant as the Georgia teams from the previous three years, a deep, talented squad led by the best head coach in college football is off to a fast start. 

2. Ohio State (1-0)

If this were a preseason ranking, I’d have Ohio State No. 1. There is no question in my mind the Buckeyes possess the deepest, most talented roster in the sport. But it would be impossible to put them No. 1 right now because, well, resumes already matter. Ohio State got off to a slow start against Akron, but the Buckeyes could certainly claim the top spot in this poll if they turn out to be the team I think they can be. 

3. Texas (1-0)

The Longhorns suffered a major loss before the year when running back CJ Baxter suffered a season-ending injury. That put some pressure on Texas’ offense, but it is too good at other positions to fret too much. Quinn Ewers is out here hitting us with no-look touchdown passes, the receivers were getting open consistently and Arch Manning threw his first touchdown pass in Texas’ 52-0 win over Colorado State. Oh, and the defense pitched a shutout. We’ll find out a lot more about this Texas team this weekend in Ann Arbor.  

4. Alabama (1-0)

It was too easy to view Alabama as less dangerous because Nick Saban is no longer the head coach. But Kalen DeBoer may be one of the best offensive minds in the sport and he’s working with talent that he’s never had in his career. Alabama still looked pretty scary in its opener, beating Western Kentucky 63-0. The Crimson Tide will have plenty of opportunity to prove they are a national title contender on the field, but until then, it’s still safe to assume this team can play with anyone in the country. 

5. Oregon (1-0)

How much can you read into a clunker? It is still shocking to look back and see the Ducks playing a four-quarter game with Idaho when they were favored by 50, but that is how the Dillon Gabriel era started. Oregon is widely-anticipated to be a major threat to Ohio State in the Big Ten, and there is just too much firepower on that offense to think the Idaho game was anything other than rust. The Ducks will be very good this year. 

6. Notre Dame (1-0)

Notre Dame went into College Station in its season-opener — arguably its toughest game on the schedule — and got the job done. The Irish didn’t just win, but they looked more explosive on offense with a problem-solver at quarterback in Riley Leonard. He keeps defenses on their toes. The offensive line, which was a concern heading into the year, showed up for the challenge. Notre Dame’s defense is nasty. This is a team that has a real chance to go undefeated and will be a mainstay in this poll all year. 

7. Penn State (1-0)

Heading into the season, I was buying the West Virginia hype. Then Penn State rolled into Morgantown and beat the breaks off the Mountaineers. Quarterback Drew Allar seemed to take a step forward and the Nittany Lions made a huge hire in offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, who has the team looking more explosive on that side of the ball in the early stages of the year. The Nittany Lions also have one of the best defensive players in the country in Abdul Carter, so this team could be built to shock some people this year.  

8. Miami (1-0)

Miami and Florida came into the weekend viewed as relative equals. Miami left Gainesville with an emphatic 41-17 win over the Gators, proving these two teams aren’t in the same weight class. Cam Ward looked like a stud, Xavier Restrepo is an emerging star at receiver and the Hurricanes controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Three other ACC teams — Clemson, Florida State and Virginia Tech — opened the season with losses, so Miami looks like the class of the conference right now. 

9. Ole Miss (1-0)

Ole Miss is going to be an interesting case study of how far going all-in on the portal can take you. Jaxson Dart, who led Ole Miss to 11 wins this season, now big-time receiver Juice Wells and running back Henry Parrish to go along with stud wideout Tre Harris. On defense, Walter Nolen and Princely Umanmielen joined the team. Ole Miss beat Furman 76-0 in the season-opener and it hopes this team will compete for an SEC title and more. 

10. Tennessee (1-0)

Tennessee was a trail-blazer of the NIL era and it went all-in on quarterback Nico Iamaleava. But what happens if he isn’t good? Well, Tennessee doesn’t have to worry about answering that question. In just a few games, it has already become clear that he’s a stud. Iamaleava set a Tennessee record with 314 yards passing in the first half and the Vols cruised to a 69-3 win over Chattanooga. It’ll be fun to see how he performs in a big game next weekend against N.C. State.

If you watched the entirety of the Braves’ 3-2, walkoff loss to the Phillies on Sunday night, I’m sorry. If you didn’t, but you did watch their 5-4 loss to open this series back on Thursday, well, you didn’t miss much. At this point, the Braves are making the same mistake over and over, and their injury-riddled roster isn’t able to overcome it. So it goes, except where it’s going is a pretty lame place.

To recap: on Thursday, the Braves let Charlie Morton persist far too long despite not pitching particularly well, leading to a big blow. Then, Grant Holmes doubled up on fastballs to Nick Castellanos, and paid the price, as a two-run homer turned a one-run lead into a one-run deficit that become a one-run loss.

So, on Sunday, the Braves let Spencer Schwellenbach persist far too long despite not pitching particularly well, leading to a big blow that, in Schwellenbach’s defense, was not really his fault, just poor fortune to have two softly-hit bloops find paydirt, followed by an okay hit ball that split the defense instead of going towards an outfielder. Then, after the Atlanta bullpen shone as brightly as they have all season, forcing a tie game all the way into the 11th, the Braves botched a double play chance, and asked Holmes to face Castellanos with two outs and the winning run on third. In a 1-2 count, Holmes threw a fastball down the middle, and Castellanos hit it back up the box to end the game.

It feels weird to lose the first and last game of the series in this very specific way, but mostly everything about this season has been the bad kind of weird. I’m not really even sure it’s worth recapping the game in full, because fundamentally, blah.

The Braves got on the board first, thanks to a two-out solo homer by Michael Harris II off Aaron Nola in the third. A walk, a single, and Whit Merrifield beating out a double play ball scored a second run in the fourth.

Spencer Schwellenbach didn’t pitch particularly well, which is more or less where the trouble began. He had an 0/1 K/BB ratio through two innings, and his only two strikeouts of the game came within a span of three batters in one of his two perfect frames. He had a fairly low pitch count, which is something akin to the kiss of death for a Braves starter once the middle innings roll around, and in this case, said kiss was sloppy and gross as well as being toxic. Basically, Trea Turner hit a soft bloop to right, and then Bryce Harper hit the uber-bloop at around 65 mph down the left field line, putting the tying run on second. Schwellenbach got ahead of Castellanos 0-2, despite hanging a slider on the second pitch, and then hung another slider, which was hit into left-center to tie the game.

Again, there’s no knock on Schwellenbach here in particular — you live by the BABIP, you die by the BABIP. The only real issue was, again, the lack of urgency. Schwellenbach wasn’t pitching that well, relying on balls finding gloves, pretty much all game. Castellanos came up with the leverage index above 3.00, i.e., more than triple the importance of the average situation. The Braves are hanging on to a playoff spot by a thread, every other relevant team in the Wild Card race had already won, and, oh, again — they got burned by the exact same lack of urgency earlier in this series. But, you know, once more into the breach.

Much of the rest of the game, until Holmes was asked to face Castellanos again, was basically what happens when neither the Island of Misfit Toys nor the few legitimate bats in the lineup can do anything.

The Braves got a leadoff walk in the seventh, but it was erased on a double play. There was a leadoff single in the eighth, but Jeff Hoffman blew Jorge Soler away with an elevated fastball, which apparently caused Marcell Ozuna to sit on the fastball for four straight pitches, of which only one was a fastball (and it was too high and inside to offer at), and on which Ozuna struck out in pretty pathetic fashion. Matt Strahm suffered some serious issues in the ninth… or maybe he was just keenly aware that walking the bases loaded to face Orlando Arcia and Luke Williams (who pinch-ran to enter the game, to no avail, in the eighth) is apparently a legitimate strategy.

The Braves didn’t score in extras, either, though there was a bunch of weird stuff there, including pinch-hitting Adam Duvall, who hadn’t had a PA in over a week, to face a righty, to replace Eli White, who himself came in as a defensive replacement. In the 11th, both Travis d’Arnaud and Merrifield failed to score Ozuna from third with one out, just like Arcia and Williams a few innings earlier.

While all of this was playing out, the bullpen was oh so good. This bullpen, especially when the dregs aren’t asked to get outs, and a modicum of handedness is paid attention to, is straight nails. The team doesn’t seem to care, though, but again, so it goes. A combination of Dylan Lee, Pierce Johnson, Joe Jimenez, Raisel Iglesias (for two innings), and Aaron Bummer combined to post a 7/2 K/BB ratio in five innings, and one of those walks was a really bizarre sequence where Bummer, after retiring Kyle Schwarber, was not asked to intentionally walk Turner despite Turner’s run being completely irrelevant — he walked him anyway, but what a completely useless gamble the Braves took there.

Anyway, that brought the game to the sequence where Bryce Harper faced Bummer and hit what should’ve been a double play ball right at Williams. The problem was that Williams threw to Merrifield, who wasn’t at the second base bag yet, and Merrifield had to awkwardly run to the base and throw across his body, which let Harper reach safely. A few pitches later, Holmes made the same mistake he made on Thursday, and here we are.

The Braves will now return home to face the Rockies, but at this point, especially at this point, it’s clear that it’s no longer about whom they face. It’s more just — will this be a game where the deliberate decision to let your starter go a third time through blows up in their face? If no, then they’ll win. If yes, well, you hope at least some of the bats will come through, or else it’ll be another game like this one.

The Braves have 25 games to run out the clock on the final playoff spot, or I guess make a run and take one of the higher ones, though that seems unlikely at the moment. They could make things easier for themselves, but let’s be real: if they didn’t do it in this series, or in this game, after they already lost a game in this series to the exact same stuff — when are they going to?