Bates, Cowboys Are Still Around : NFC playoffs: Lions are next up for Dallas and veteran defender who has defied the odds.

When the Dallas Cowboys welcomed defensive back Bill Bates to their Thousand Oaks, Calif., training camp in 1983, they didn’t expect him to last.

A 200-pound free agent from Tennessee, he was big enough to play safety, but much too slow.

But the first time Bates hit anybody at Thousand Oaks, which was the first hour of his first day, Tom Landry changed his mind about him.

“The kid has a mean streak,” the coach said that night. “I think he’ll be here awhile after all.”

Landry was right about that. Nine years later, Bates is still on the team, and still knocking bigger NFL players down. He’s one of only four Cowboys who have bridged the years from Landry’s last playoff team in 1985 to Jimmy Johnson’s first.

And they’ll all be on the Silverdome field today when Dallas opposes the Detroit Lions at 1 p.m. (PST) in the final game of playoff Round 2.

The Cowboys upset the Bears in Chicago last week, 17-6. In a tournament as rugged as the NFL playoffs, can they win two straight road games?

Said Bates: “You have to play good on the road in the NFL to win championships, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”

Defensive end Jim Jeffcoat is another one of Landry’s boys who will be out there when teammate Steve Beuerlein faces Erik Kramer of Detroit in a battle of backup quarterbacks. What surprises Jeffcoat the most about the new Cowboys?

“They’re crazy,” he said. “They don’t believe they can lose.”

As it happens, neither do the Lions. Both clubs are on six-game winning streaks, and the victor this time will be in the NFC championship game next Sunday, playing Saturday’s Atlanta-Washington victor.

The two who have made the difference in Detroit this season are Kramer and wide receiver Brett Perriman, who led the Lions with 52 catches, for 668 yards, after coming over from the New Orleans Saints last summer.

“I really can’t believe we got a player this good for a fifth round draft choice,” Detroit Coach Wayne Fontes said.

No division champion enjoyed winning more this season than Fontes.

“We’ve come a long way, and we aren’t going anywhere,” he said. “We’re going to be up here for a long time.”