Cowboys Scene

IRVING, Texas - At around 12:15 p.m., Terrell Owens danced into the locker room at the Dallas Cowboys Valley Ranch Training Headquarters and - pointing to the knockoff boxing belt around his waist - started jibber-jabbering at high decibels about being the champion of one thing or another.

Unintelligible. It was later explained to me that receiver Roy Williams brought the belt with him from Detroit and, according to Dallas Morning News chronicler Tim McMahon, Williams has "been getting his ass kicked in dominos since he got here" and, as a result, no longer was in possession of the belt.

Now, Terrell Owens had it. And as he spun and wiggled a few feet away, my otherwise pleasant conversation with Leonard Davis about distractions had been...distracted. Davis tilted his head at Owens and smiled in the universal language of "See what I mean?"  

Before I spend too long considering that, not only do these multimillionaires wear boxing belts around their waists and conspicuously carry on about a kids game but that I FLY 1,000 MILES TO BEAR WITNESS TO IT! we'll move on.

Upon arriving at the Valley Ranch comples, a seemingly upper-class neighborhood within Irving, I saw a line of cars near the entrance to the facility. It stretched about a quarter-mile n each direction away from the entrance. Chris from K104 in Dallas slammed his trunk shut, smiled and said, "All this for a 5-4 team?"

Locker room access was just beginning when we entered

Owens spoke first. When ESPN's Ed Werder asked a question about Fred Smoot believing his Redskins "exposed" the Cowboys in the first meeting between the teams, Owens demanded, "Next question."

Werder said Owens has been doing that to him since the first Washington game when the Cowboys were beaten 26-24 at Cowboys Stadium.

Another media guy said he wants Werder to ask Owens, "When will you answer my questions?" so that when Owens answers, "Next question," he's trapped. The Wisdom of Freddie Solomon.

Eventually, Owens did field the question about Smoot's alleged "exposure" comment harvested by Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post.

In response, Owens said, "I wouldn’t say they exposed us, we just didn’t play well. You look at the score, we lost by two points. There were some opportunities that we missed. If that’s the case I can say we exposed him the last time we played when I scored four touchdowns. It is what it is. We’re not worried about what somebody says. If he needs to say that to get himself hyped for this game then so be it, we’ll be ready."

It really is a tempest in a teapot, as Smoot's comment was, in essence, Dallas was coronated prematurely. Which they were. The exposure wasn't that Dallas is bad but that they are not unstoppable. And they ain't.  

As Owens spoke, his new book, "Has Anyone Seen My Shirt? I Believe I Misplaced My Shirt" which he promoted this week on David Letterman was conspicuously displayed above his locker.

Another scrum materialized around Roy Williams who seems quite pleased to be the center of attention in Dallas.

I busted in on a high-stakes political conversation Dallas Morning News writer Todd Archer was having with linebacker Bobby Carpenter. I apologized for the intrusion and peppered Carpenter with a litany of questions. He was very good. Which you'll see in my Tony Romo and Big Scene Cowboys stories later.

One tidbit I'll throw out is that, Carpenter and many of the Cowboys feel cleansed heading into this week.

"Bye weeks help out," he said. "If you're struggling, it gives a chance to go look at things and dissect them. It makes it feel like a new season coming up right now. We're a game above.500 and we know we have a seven-game season in front of us."

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