The Dallas Cowboys will never surrender the spotlight.

Dracula will quit drinking blood first.

They're on a mike with Mike and Mike. The Cowboys pop up on NFL Countdown, give 100 percent on Total Access and frequently play in prime time. If you get weary of the 2008 players, don't worry. Troy and Jimmy and Emmitt and Moose and Deion and rest of the alumni are there to break it all down.

Put it this way. My friends in the media will begin to ignore the Boys at exactly the same time Drew Pearson gets called for offensive pass interference in a playoff game with a certain Midwestern team.

Such is life when the rest of us share the planet with America's Team.

I'm only kidding, of course. By now, I'm way beyond gritting my teeth when someone calls the Cowboys America's Team.

Who am I to argue? My Vikings have beaten Dallas a few times, but the Cowboys have whipped them, too. I could point out that the Chicago Bears have been more historically significant. There probably wouldn't have been an NFL without George Halas. Nor can the Cowboys match the legendary, Knights of the Round Table aura attached to Vince Lombardi's Packers.

Nonetheless, the Cowboys have been highly visible and frequently dominant over the past 40 years. Dandy Don, Bullet Bob, the Doomsday Defense, Captain Comeback, Too Tall, The Triplets, Jerry and Jimmy , T.O., Tony and Jessica and that godawful pink jersey are all part of the football culture. We can't forget them. Clint Longley will make a comeback before that happens.

So the rest of us, the fans who don't follow America's Team, simply must strap it on and deal with all the Cowboy hype.

Accept the fact that Dallas will be always be news. The Cowboys can be as sleek and ruthless as Gordon Gekko one minute. They can be as outrageous as Bluto Blutarsky the next. It won't matter. You're going to hear about it.

It's a chance to educate yourself. For example, if you study the struggles of the 2008 Cowboys without dwelling on Adam Jones' second career as a boxer, you realize how mortal they can be. They're not immune to injuries and rotten luck. Jerry Jones has made some great decisions. He's also made a few bad choices. And will Wade Phillips follow the parade out of Dallas begun by Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer and Chan Gailey and so on? Will he get a slip as pink as Jessica's jersey?

And face facts, you Cowboy haters. Jerry Jones, even when he looks like he just stepped out of the crypt, is a fascinating man to watch. Marathon runners should have the endurance that man owns when he sees a chance to indulge in some self-promotion.

That said, you always know what's on his mind. He's far from dull. And he helps keep the Cowboys and the NFL on the radar. That's not something I'm used to. Beyond us Viking fans, nobody is crying Wilf on a regular basis.

And if that's still not enough, if you still cringe when The Star floats across the screen, think. You'll find a Cowboy worth remembering.

I, for one, miss Don Meredith. He was truly funny when he started his broadcasting career on Monday Night Football, although it might be hard for even him to find much humor in a blowout loss at St. Louis.

And yes, I miss Staubach, Hail Mary pass notwithstanding. The sports world tends to forget how productive he was and how late he began his days in the NFL, because of his time in the Navy. The tougher the crisis, the more dangerous he became. Ask the 1972 49ers about him.

And Staubach's statistics tell us something else. Under the NFL quarterback rating system, he stands 21st. Chad Pennington is No. 8. Now you know how seriously to take those numbers.

Ah, America's Team. They fly through the spacious skies. Marion Barber will trample the amber waves of grain. And Jerry Jones will seek the camera from sea to shining sea.

It's enough to make Dracula bare his teeth.

Contact Jim Sullivan at (319) 291-1434 or jim.sullivan@wcfcourier.com