Based on his press conference Thursday, Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells has gotten weary of the T.O. questions. Parcells refused to answer any "Terrell questions" and that was that. Who can blame the 65-year-old coach? Parcells is coaching a football team, not a one-receiver circus.

Randy Galloway, a long-time columnist in Dallas, calls the Owens' acquisition "Jerry's $10 million disaster." But that isn't truly the case. Owner Jerry Jones thinks his money has been well spent.

Owens has made the Cowboys almost daily national sports news. Who cares if the Cowboys last won a playoff game in 1996? Dallas is big news again and part of that reason is that Owens is a Cowboy. Love him or hate him, most fans want to watch what happens to T.O.

Parcells and Owens have generated new interest in the Cowboys and have allowed Jones to start construction on a new stadium. Jones plans to charge $110 for those $55 tickets he now gets in Texas Stadium.

Quarterback Drew Bledsoe recently sent T.O. a text message saying "stay with me" after the receiver said he wasn't the one pulling the trigger.

Owens loves to point fingers. But none of the Dallas coaches or Bledsoe pointed out that on that critical interception in the fourth quarter in which Owens stutter-stepped his route and then went into fourth gear to get open, well, that isn't exactly how that play was run in practice all week. Owens improvised, and Bledsoe was made to look like a schmuck.

Owens lost 24 practice days, and maybe that explains his imprecise routes. He's rounding some routes off and, basically, wasn't where Bledsoe expected him to be on a few of the passes last Sunday.

The one coach I was proud of on Sunday was Todd Haley, the passing game coordinator. Owens said enough crap in Haley's ear that in normal circumstances the assistant coach might have slammed his headset and taken a swing at T.O.

Take a seat Daunte

A lot has been written about how Dolphins coach Nick Saban verbally abused Daunte Culpepper in practice last Friday after a poorly thrown pass. Culpepper fought back, but many thought that Saban used the incident as a calculating opening to bench his starting quarterback and go with Joey Harrington. That rationale makes a lot of sense.

However, there is no denying that Culpepper didn't resemble the reckless player he was in Minnesota. He wasn't moving that well laterally, and he has been sacked 21 times in four games. Now, Culpepper is back in the rehabilitation room, working to get stronger and more flexible. Both Culpepper and Saban are now saying all the right things. Meanwhile, Harrington will be Miami's starting quarterback for at least two more games, possibly longer.

This is good news for the Lions. They will receive a fifth-round pick next year if Harrington plays 35 percent of the team's offensive snaps. Otherwise, the Lions planned on collecting a sixth-round pick in 2007. Harrington has played in 20.6 of Miami's offensive plays.

In case you're wondering, Harrington's Miami jersey costs $300, while his old Detroit jersey goes for $60.

Some things only get worse

The Indianapolis Colts have never been strong stopping the run. It has been their downfall in past playoff defeats. Tony Dungy prefers an undersized but extremely fast defense. However, this defense is now allowing 167 rushing yards a game, up from 110 yards last season.

Dungy isn't happy with the tackling. But Titans coach Jeff Fisher, whose winless team almost upset the unbeaten Colts, said it best last Sunday. "They're not equipped to stop the run for four quarters." Fisher said. "That's the way they're built."

Call him 40-points Turner

The Chicago Bears went 214 games between 40-point offensive games. The offensive coordinator in both games was Ron Turner. He was Dave Wannstedt's offensive coordinator in 1993, when the Bears whipped the Bucs 47-17, and he's performing the same duties for Lovie Smith. The Bears put up 40 points on Buffalo last Sunday.

"He does a great job of scheming an opponent's defense," Rex Grossman said of Turner. "He tells me, 'If you see this look, go there; if you see that, go there.' I feel I'm back there kind of stealing."

Chicago's new deep threat, Bernard Berrian of Fresno State, has six touchdowns among his 47 career receptions. That's six points on one of every 7.8 catches.

Belichick cheers for La Russa

Just like his old friend Bill Parcells, New England head coach Bill Belichick likes spring training baseball and he's become a big Tony La Russa fan. He wore his No. 10 St. Louis Cardinals' replica jersey to his Tuesday press conference.

"I was in training camp with (La Russa) this year for a couple of days," Belichick said. "It was a lot of fun. I learned a lot. I don't know anything about baseball, but I did (learn) from him. Tony is a great leader and manager and tactician. Just the way he handles the team, sitting in the dugout with him down there and watching him manage the game and all, it was pretty enlightening. Tony is just totally consumed with baseball. He's into baseball like I'm into football, like Billy Donovan and Pat Riley are into basketball."

McNabb for MVP

Donovan McNabb leads the NFL with 1,602 yards passing and 11 touchdown passes. And gone is the dink-and-dunk passes of previous seasons based on McNabb's gaudy 9.1 yards per attempt average. Terrell Owens is probably wishing he could take back all his criticisms and be in Philadelphia once again. The way McNabb is throwing, T.O. would have more than one touchdown catch.

Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, who was an assistant with the Packers in 1995-96, compared McNabb very favorably with Brett Favre in his heyday. In those two Green Bay seasons, Favre passed for 8,312 yards and 77 touchdowns.

"Donovan has put in the hard work," Mornhinweg said. "And it takes hard, hard work to play quarterback at the level he's playing. He's been a great player since he stepped on the field as a rookie. However, he's learned how to play the quarterback position so well. You combine that with all of the great physical attributes he has, and you get what we have here."

Bucs, Simms rolled the dice

A lot is being made of Chris Simms turning down $10 million in bonus money from the Bucs in the off-season. But the real truth is that both parties took a chance when Simms decided to accept a $2.1 million and become a restricted free-agent.

The Bucs knew they would have to pay a lot more than $10 million to keep him if he had a spectacular season, and Simms knew he would have more options than Tampa Bay if he played extremely well. OK, maybe Simms looks to be the loser right now on this deal after being severely injured and with coach Jon Gruden talking up rookie Bruce Gradkowski.

But this was part of the deal from the very beginning. Simms wasn't sure about his future with Gruden and vice versa. There is more to Simms than $10 million. He wants to play, and he wants to be wanted, too.

Please listen to Howie

After the Simms injury, Howie Long said every stadium should be equipped with an MRI machine in order to thoroughly examine injured players. The cost is around $1 million per machine, which doesn't seem like much when team payrolls are over $100 million annually.

For example, if there was a MRI machine in Denver on Monday night, doctors probably would have detected Baltimore Ravens' Corey Ivy's lacerated kidney and hospitalized him in Denver. Instead, Baltimore's team plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Pittsburgh where Ivy is now hospitalized.

Still hope in Steel City

At 1-3, the Pittsburgh Steelers appear headed to become the 12th Super Bowl team in 40 years to fail to make the playoffs. However, since 1990, 19 teams have made the playoffs after starting 1-3, including the Bears last season and the Steelers in 2002. Believe it or not, five teams have started 1-4 and made the NFL playoffs.