SUPER BOWL XXVIII DAILY REPORT

It pays to be an offensive linemen for the Cowboys. Besides the $64,000 each player can get for winning two playoff games and the Super Bowl, the Cowboys’ offensive linemen have already been given:

--Airplane tickets to anywhere in the country and custom-made boots by quarterback Troy Aikman.

--Airplane tickets to the destinations of their choice by running back Emmitt Smith.

--Gold chains by wide receiver Michael Irvin.

--A case of filet mignon and case of wine by quarterback Bernie Kosar.

--Silver meditation balls by quarterback Jason Garrett.

Jason Garrett? Meditation balls?

“Troy can afford the plane tickets better than I can,” said Garrett, who completed nine of 19 passes for 61 yards this season. “The meditation balls are just something I picked up. I’ve used them through the years. I was in a store and the lady said she could mass produce them.

“They are two silver balls about golf-ball size that have a jingle inside them when you run them together. They are supposed to relax you through the nerve endings in your hand. The pamphlet they come with says they have all kinds of positive effects on you.”

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Steve Tasker, the MVP in last year’s Pro Bowl, had to convince hotel security this week that he was a player with the Buffalo Bills.

“I started to go in and they stopped me,” said Tasker, who is smaller than some of the ball boys employed in the league. “I was carrying a camera, which I guess is taboo. The security people didn’t know me.

“I said, ‘Hey, I’m a Buffalo Bill.’ Once I told them (who he was), they apologized. I can’t blame them. . . . I guess I don’t look like a football player. As long as I don’t wear my jersey, pads and helmet nobody knows who I am. Even if I did have all that stuff on, they’d probably say, ‘Hey, is Tasker your favorite player?’ Or figure I was Tasker’s little brother.”

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Only one guarantee this week, from Irvin:

“Let me tell you something. There is nothing I can say that is going to make the Bills play any harder than they already have in their minds that they are going to play. When (cornerback) Nate Odomes lays down in his bed the night before the Super Bowl, he’s thinking, ‘I’m going to eat Michael up.’

“Now I can sit here and talk about Nate or talk about Nate’s family, talk about his mother, it’s not going to make him play any harder. He’s still laying down every night saying, ‘I’m going to eat Michael up.’ I guarantee that.”

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The Bills were thumped in last year’s Super Bowl, 52-17, in large part because they turned the ball over nine times.

“We would just get off the field, try and take a rest and there would be a turnover,” Buffalo nose tackle Jeff Wright said. “We got tired; they wore us down. With all the turnovers we were fighting two teams: them and ourselves.”

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Pool report on Cowboy practice: It’s not exactly a Jimmy Johnson guarantee of victory, but close enough.

After winning last year’s Super Bowl, Johnson admitted that he had told assistant coaches after Thursday’s practice that his team would win Super Bowl XXVII.

Any similar vibes this year?

“I feel good,” Johnson said with a grin.

Defensive end Charles Haley did not practice for the second day in a row because of a sore back. Johnson said Haley will be active for Sunday’s game, but he is not expected to start.

“I’m just hoping that one of the guys on the team can inspire me to really go out and play hard so I can overcome this thing,” Haley said. “My back is really hurting right now. It has to calm down a lot before I can go out there and play.”

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Pool report on Bill practice: Look for the Cowboys to cry foul if they lose.

The Bills took advantage of poor weather, and while the Cowboys remained outdoors, they moved indoors to work in the Georgia Dome.

“We got in some good quality work, and I was glad to use the site of the game,” Buffalo Coach Marv Levy said. “The concentration was good, as was the execution. I like what we did.”

Linebacker Richard Harvey, who left Wednesday’s practice early because of a sore knee, participated without problems Thursday. Levy said he was encouraged by Harvey’s progress.