Jones, Cowboys Have All Their Chips on the Table

With Parcells's Career Near Its End, Dallas Makes a Risky Bet on Owens

OXNARD, Calif. -- As he patrolled the two lush football fields alongside a golf course where the Dallas Cowboys held their training camp this summer, Bill Parcells sometimes could be spotted wearing a long-sleeve shirt with a picture on the back depicting two hands pushing a pile of poker chips to the center of a table. Next to the picture were the words, "Who's All In?"

In this NFL season, it's Bill Parcells and Jerry Jones.

In a go-for-broke league, no team has been more brazen in its Super Bowl-or-bust approach this year than the Cowboys. Jones, the owner who won three Super Bowls with former Cowboys coaches Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer, gave a three-year, $25 million contract to volatile wide receiver Terrell Owens. It's all to help Parcells, who won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants, get back into the playoffs after two disappointing seasons in Dallas.

"I do have urgency," Jones said as he watched a practice during camp. "The decision for me to bring T.O. on the roster was about winning. I feel like we have improved our core base of players. I think we have a quarterback, a quarterback situation, that can benefit from a balanced offense. T.O. can contribute significantly to a balanced approach. He's someone the defenses have to honor. I've had my finest hours on the field in the NFL when we were really balanced and we weren't compromised whether they were loading up for the pass or the run. We're trying to get back there to that."

Parcells's coaching magic seemed as potent as ever when he took the Cowboys to the playoffs in the 2003 season after being lured out of retirement by Jones. But that was followed by a 6-10 season in 2004 and a 9-7 season in 2005. Parcells often said how much he liked the core group of players on his team last season. But the Cowboys needed a little extra oomph, and now it's up to Owens to give it to them.

That's precisely what Owens did for the Philadelphia Eagles in his first season with them in 2004, helping them reach the Super Bowl after losses in three straight NFC title games. It all fell apart for Owens and the Eagles last season, and Owens's misdeeds that stemmed from a contract dispute led to him being suspended, deactivated and released. The Cowboys are crossing their fingers that they will benefit from Owens's talent without being victimized by his antics.

The early results have been mixed. Parcells's patience seemingly was tested when Owens missed 14 straight practices during training camp because of a sore hamstring, but continued to draw attention to himself even while riding a stationary bike next to the field. But Parcells avoided a public eruption and scolded reporters for, in his view, trying to stir up controversy, and the Cowboys say they're fully aware of what Owens can accomplish if he manages to behave himself.

"In order for one player to change the expectations for our squad, he has to be a pretty unique player," quarterback Drew Bledsoe said. "I think this guy is that kind of player. He's a very unique player. He can score at any time from any place on the field. That changes the dynamic of how defenses will approach us, and it changes what we expect from our offense."

Owens's relationships with Parcells and Bledsoe will be closely scrutinized all season. Parcells denied a report during training camp that he finally ordered Owens, through one of the team's trainers, to resume practicing after hurting his hamstring. Parcells said he was taking things day by day with Owens and just trying to learn about his new player. He managed to coexist with great but troublesome players in the past, such as former Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor. But Parcells said during camp that the early comparisons between his dealings with Owens and his dealings with Taylor weren't valid.

"I had so much history with Lawrence," Parcells said. "I was an assistant coach with Lawrence. When he first came in the league, I was his first coach in pro football. . . . We were in a room eight hours a day together for his first couple years. He's sitting right next to you. You know the kid. You get to know him. It's a little different. I have to get to know every new player that we have a little bit. So I try to do that. This kid [Owens] here, it's the same: You just go and you just talk to him directly. I don't mince my words with anybody on the team."

In the past, Owens's wrath was aimed at his quarterbacks -- Jeff Garcia in San Francisco and Donovan McNabb in Philadelphia. But Parcells said he wasn't fretting about the Owens-Bledsoe relationship.

"Let's go with where we are here and see what happens here," Parcells said. "I don't know whether they'll be compatible or incompatible. I don't know what will happen. Anything that I would say now would just be conjecture. Maybe [Owens's former quarterbacks] are the guys with the problem. Who knows? I don't know that. I don't know what the situation was. . . . This is just kind of a here-and-now thing. We'll do what we can do."

Bledsoe said he wasn't worrying either, even after he had a sideline confrontation last season with former Cowboys wideout Keyshawn Johnson.

"The receiver position, just in general, they're volatile guys that are highly competitive and oftentimes don't touch the ball as many times as they want to," Bledsoe said. "It's a position where that's just the nature of the beast, and you deal with it. I've dealt with a lot of these guys. [Eric] Moulds could be a pain in the butt at times up there in Buffalo. Keyshawn. Terry [Glenn, the Cowboys' other starting wide receiver], when he was young, went through some stuff. He's a different guy now, but it's the nature of the position. . . . I just try to treat them honestly. If I miss him, I'll tell him: 'Hey, I missed you on that one. I'll get you on the next one.' I expect the same honesty from them. And when you have it, it works pretty good."

Owens, for his part, says he thinks all will be fine as long as he produces. "I know what I need to do to be a better person, be a better football player and things of that nature," he said during training camp. "I'm just going to go accordingly."

There is plenty that could undermine the Cowboys other than Owens-related drama. The offensive line continued to be a problem area during camp. Bledsoe has plenty of mileage on him as he enters his 14th NFL season, and he often makes ill-advised throws under pressure. Backup quarterback Tony Romo had his moments during the preseason, so much so that many people in the league think that Parcells could go to him early in the season if Bledsoe struggles. But Romo never has thrown a regular season pass in the NFL.

Still, there are plenty of championship-caliber parts in place, from a promising defense to an offense that could mix the running of tailback Julius Jones with throws to Owens, Glenn and tight end Jason Witten. After Parcells said that kicking woes may have cost the Cowboys three games last season, the club signed the most accurate field goal kicker in league history, Mike Vanderjagt, as a free agent.

Parcells, who just turned 65, signed a contract extension with the Cowboys in January that runs through the 2007 season. Even so, some NFL observers suspect this could be his final season. Bledsoe concedes that, at 34, his window for winning a Super Bowl is closing, although he doesn't quite acknowledge that this is his last, best chance. But Owens said he likes the Cowboys' chances, and that if this indeed is a one-shot deal for them, it doesn't exactly make them unique in the NFL.

"I think the sky is the limit for me as far as getting to another level," he said. "If you want to say the star's the limit, there it is. . . . There are 31 other teams out there that are one-shot deals."