This Cowboy Is Willing to Ride to L.A.’s Rescue

When I heard Monday an NFL team was encamped in Oxnard, 63 miles from downtown Los Angeles, I feared the worst.

But when I arrived, there were no security guards using billy clubs on spectators, no tarps covering the fences to maintain paranoia order, no need to secure a nose ring to blend in with the fans.

There was a crowd of people, all right, happy and well-behaved--a giveaway clue it was not the Raiders who were here, and what a relief to know I wouldn’t be bumping into James Garner.

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“JERRY, JERRY, Jerry,” chanted the crowd, and over the P.A. system Toby Keith was singing, “I Should Have Been a Cowboy,” as folks stood four-deep, waving freshly-purchased banners and trying to get a closer glimpse of all the no-name players on America’s Team.

Here they were, all right, the Dallas Cowboys, back in Southern California--where the Raiders used to work--for two weeks of training camp after ending a 27-year relationship with Cal Lutheran in 1989, and more proof, of course, that owner Jerry Jones will go to all ends of the earth to sell his team’s sports paraphernalia.

“Being here will probably cost us between $700,000 and $800,000, but I look at it as an investment in the Cowboys and the future of the NFL,” Jones said after giving the mayor of Oxnard a Cowboy helmet. Well, I don’t think he charged the mayor for the helmet.

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THERE IS really no one better in NFL circles in figuring how to make money than Jones, and it has been my contention for some time he belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame because of his financial wizardry and for winning three Super Bowls with a combination of Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer as his coaches.

Try and win a Super Bowl with Switzer as coach.

For that matter, with the collection of quarterbacks this team has now, if Jones wins the Super Bowl, one more confirmed miracle and the Vatican will probably approve him as a saint.

Now some other people look upon Jones as an ego gone amok, a wannabe NFL coach who couldn’t separate an NFL prospect from a gathering of editors. And some will never forgive him for abruptly ending Tom Landry’s coaching career.

Praise him or criticize him, there’s no argument he’s a character, and a charismatic character with great clout, know-how--and for those who still care here--serious motivation to bring a football team back to L.A.

“I want football in Los Angeles,” said Jones, who was born in El Segundo before moving as a youngster to Arkansas. “That plays a part in why we’re here in California for camp. I think the biggest black hole in the NFL right now is having no team in L.A.”

It’s no accident, of course, that Jones would mention the black hole, because it has been his contention for some time that the ideal team for L.A. is the Raiders. He also thinks Tony Banks can lead the Cowboys to 10 wins this year, so he has made it very clear he has some screwy ideas.

But now that Al Davis has been sacked in an L.A. courtroom, it’s more likely the Raiders will remain in Oakland, and Jones can begin making more sense when he talks about L.A.

“I think ultimately a team is going to move to Los Angeles, and in my estimation soon--real soon,” he said, and wouldn’t Jones be just the ideal flashy owner for the Hollywood Stars?

Maybe that’s why he has dropped 55 pounds in the past year, taking his cue from Lara Flynn Boyle and Jennifer Aniston--thinking that’s how you’re supposed to look out here.

“I was in a meeting recently,” Jones said, “and an owner stood up and said, ‘What is it going to take for me to move to L.A., right now?’ In fact, I was just with [Denver owner] Pat Bowlen for our preseason game, and we were going over league matters, and at the same time we said, it’s not good for us not to have a team in L.A . . . we’re losing a generation of NFL fans.”

That’s a lot of lost revenue, and when Jones makes that point with his peers, they will listen.

“Any time there is an economic value of the highest order sitting out there, someone is going to take it,” Jones said. “It’s a sure thing.”

I know this: It’s a sure thing if Jones champions L.A.’s cause.

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THE COWBOYS, winners for the first and maybe only time all season after exchanging the suffocating heat of Wichita Falls, Texas, for Oxnard’s cool breezes, are talking about splitting camp like this on a regular basis.

More than 3,000 fans came to watch Dallas practice for free on a field adjacent to the River Ridge Golf Club--making it 3,000 more than ever got to see the Raiders during their 10-plus years of closed practices here.

Jones showed a Super Bowl ring to the crowd, and had them proclaiming themselves Cowboy fans. Then he went to the fence to sign autographs. When he spotted fan Gina Cardona flashing a tattoo with the Cowboy star on her left biceps, he began beaming. And no doubt thinking.

The Cowboys will probably be selling tattoos today.

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USA TODAY ran a picture of the gigantic billboard--rented by the University of Oregon for $250,000 in Times Square--displaying Duck quarterback Joey Harrington in full uniform. For most New Yorkers, it was the first time they’d ever seen someone from Oregon.

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THE FACT that Beijing officials couldn’t handle 1,500 people waiting to see Kobe Bryant is one thing--they can work on crowd control. I’m more concerned about the report that police hauled off one fan by his hair.

I’d like to know if we’ll ever see that guy again.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in an e-mail from Diane:

“You are not funny, not talented, not smart and not fit to be in the same room with a class act like James Garner --much less on the same sports page Jim Murray once blessed. Please resign or just go away. Forever!”

Is it something I wrote?

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com