PRO FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : Cowboys Can’t Get One Past Favre

Despite the nice things the Dallas Cowboys are saying about the Green Bay Packers, they can’t fool Packer quarterback Brett Favre.

He knows that his team is exactly what the Cowboys were hoping to see Sunday in the championship game in Dallas.

And don’t think the Packers, losers of five games in Dallas in the past 28 months, including two playoff games, won’t be using that as motivation.

“As they were watching our game the other day, I’m sure they were cheering for the Packers,” Favre said, referring to the Packers’ semifinal victory over the San Francisco 49ers. “When we were up, 7-0, I’m sure they jumped off their seats.

“We were up, 14-0, I’m sure they were high-fiving. We were up, 21-0, they were hugging. The Packers they’ve beaten however many times, and the 49ers blew ‘em out earlier in the season, and they’re the defending Super Bowl champions.

“Now who would you rather play at your place?”

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Two days after the Packer victory, the San Francisco Chronicle was carrying an ad for a round-trip charter flight from San Francisco for the championship game in Dallas between the Cowboys and 49ers.

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The legend grows. When asked whether the biting cold of Green Bay especially bothers him during the week before the games, Favre, a native of southern Mississippi, smiled.

“I just stay inside the house,” he said. “It’s OK. Except I can’t use the bathroom outside like I do back home.”

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Most of the Philadelphia Eagles were stranded for more than a day in Dallas while their charter flight was unable to take off for snowbound Philadelphia. But all was not lost for the losers of Sunday’s semifinal game.

Proving that he is not a sore winner, Cowboy running back Emmitt Smith showed up at a Dallas area hotel Monday, offering to show the Eagles the town. Several took him up on his offer.

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Barry Switzer, Cowboy coach, received an interesting phone call earlier this week. It was from the mother of Packer tight end Keith Jackson, whom Switzer had recruited and coached at Oklahoma.

“She wanted tickets to Sunday’s game,” Switzer said, a revelation that will surely embarrass Jackson. “But that’s OK, I understood. When you recruit a player and his family, you recruit them for life.”

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Mike Holmgren, Packer coach, was describing an emotional conversation he had with defensive end Reggie White on the plane home from San Francisco Saturday night. White, playing with a hamstring injury that limits his playing time, will be making the first championship-game appearance of his storied 11-year career.

“We sat down, and he said, ‘I’ve never been this far before Coach.’ It was very quiet,” Holmgren said, pausing.

“Then I told him he still couldn’t have my Bud Light, and he’s not getting any more snaps, either. Nice try.”