The Dallas Team Bus? Yes, but Those Aren’t Cowboys

Mark Blaudschun of the Boston Globe reported that the Dallas Morning News will cover the Super Bowl with 31 reporters.

“When the Cowboys win, we sell 35,000 extra papers the next day,” said Dave Smith, executive sports editor of the Morning News. “We can’t write enough stories about them.”

Writes Blaudschun: “On game day, (Dallas) area sports bars are gearing up for record crowds, with lines for seats at tables expected to be formed at noon, 5 1/2 hours before the local kickoff time. The hamburgers must be terrific.”

Trivia time: Only one player has won the Super Bowl most-valuable-player award while playing on the losing team. Who was he?

Good luck: TNT’s Kevin Kiley says that Bill Parcells, the new coach of the New England Patriots, faces “the biggest rebuilding job in the last 50 years in the NFL. He’s got an inadequate stadium, no fan base, an owner (James Orthwein) who’s selling the club and the worst team.”

Leftovers: Fran Tarkenton, who was the quarterback in three of the Minnesota Vikings’ four Super Bowl defeats, reflected on that stigma by saying, “The Super Bowl winner is omnipotent. The loser is forgotten. The poor guys who lose on Sunday will be chopped liver.”

Brown’s legacy: Much has been made of the fact that Dallas Cowboy running back Emmitt Smith is the first rushing leader to play in the Super Bowl.

However, Cleveland’s Jim Brown won rushing titles in 1957, 1964 and 1965, when the Browns played in NFL championship games.

Padre put-down: Reggie Jackson, wondering why any free agent would sign with a team with a paltry tradition: “Like the Padres. I would never want to be a Padre. I mean, how do you get into the Hall of Fame as a Padre?”

He might want to ask Tony Gwynn.

Waste of time: Pete Gent, a former Dallas wide receiver, wrote a scathing novel about the team titled, “North Dallas Forty.”

Bill Livingston of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes that Gent wasn’t much for playbooks. “Spotting a rookie poring over one, he said: ‘Don’t worry about it, kid. Everybody gets killed in the end.’ ”

Standing tall: Collectors might wonder why the 1990 Ted Williams figurine is an inch taller, at nine inches, than the 1989 figurine of Joe DiMaggio.

“Williams insisted his figurine be taller than DiMaggio’s in order for him to sign the contract,” Bob Gartlan reported.

Is that all?Senior golf tour player Rocky Thompson, at an awards dinner earlier in the month at La Costa: “I’d like to have Fred Couples’ face, Fred Couples’ body, Fred Couples’ swing--and Fred Couples’ ex-wife’s bank account.”

Trivia answer: Linebacker Chuck Howley of Dallas in the 1971 game against the Baltimore Colts.

Quotebook: Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post on Big East basketball: “The last group to shoot so badly so consistently was the Iraq Republican Guard.”