PORT ARTHUR — It’s titled The Dallas Cowboys: The Outrageous History of the Biggest, Loudest, Most Hated, Best Loved Football Team in America. It’s written by an accomplished Texas author named Joe Nick Patoski who blew through Southeast Texas a couple of years ago gathering memorabilia from area schools to put on display as part of an exhibit titled “Texas High School Football: More Than the Game,” at the Bob Bullock State History Museum in Austin. It’s 770 pages long and will be at bookstores on Oct. 9. Based on skimming a galley proof that arrived last week, it’s the must read book of all time for Cowboy fans. Patoski tells all, including pulling no punches on the Jimmy Johnson-Jerry Jones warfare. My favorite quote thus far is Jethro talking to Arkansas chicken king Don Tyson about Jimmy. “I hate the son-of-a-bitch,” Jones said of his then coach. More on this book when I’ve had time to digest it . . . Speaking of Jones, it will be interesting to see how he deals with the latest Dez Bryant calamity. Reckon Jethro has figured out yet why 23 teams who drafted ahead of the Cowboys wanted no part of Bryant, despite his talent. As has been pointed out in this space before, Bryant is a ticking time bomb capable of going off at any time. Since Jones isn’t likely to do anything but babble, and Bryant will probably skate through the legal process, here’s hoping the NFL steps in and sits him down for the maximum four games that’s within its jurisdiction to do. Anybody who slaps his mother around, and for what obviously wasn’t the first time, needs to be sent a harsh message. If that leaves Dallas short at wide receiver, one of Jethro’s favorites, Terrell Owens, is available.

One of the college football stories I’ll be watching with great interest this year is how Iowa fares offensively with PN-G ex Greg Davis as its offensive coordinator. Although I didn’t agree with the way Greg used, or perhaps more accurately didn’t use Jamaal Charles as Texas’ offensive coordinator, I have tremendous respect for his offensive expertise. He took more of the blame than he should have for the Longhorns’ tumble to 5-7 two years ago, but has landed in a good place with a terrific head coach in Kirk Ferentz and a talented senior QB in James Vanderburg. How much leeway the run-oriented Ferentz gives Davis to open things up should be a fascinating ongoing story . . . Davis, by the way, is following in some pretty impressive Southeast Texas footsteps at Iowa. Former Lincoln assistant Carl Jackson spent 22 years in two different coaching stints with the Hawkeyes, was their offensive coordinator from 1989-91 and was part of five Big Ten championships. Another Bumblebee making a significant contribution to the Iowa football program was defensive lineman Jonathan Babineaux. Babineaux, switched to the defensive line after playing fullback as a freshman, earned All Big Ten honors and was dominant enough to be drafted by Atlanta in the second round of the 2005 NFL draft . . . Few schools have harvested more high quality talent out of Southeast Texas than SMU, as was reflected by school’s all-time team recently put together by the Dallas Morning News. Beaumonters Jerry LeVias (wide receiver from Hebert), Jerry Ball (defensive tackle from West Brook) and Louie Kelcher (defensive tackle from French) were all named to the first team. Thomas Jefferson’s Gary Hammond made the second team as a wide receiver.

Todd Dodge’s son Riley, who spent some time during spring football practice learning the offense Brandon Faircloth runs at PN-G in preparation for  his first coaching job at Austin Westlake, has reversed his field. Texas A&M’s new coach Kevin Sumlin offered the former Southlake Carroll schoolboy All-America QB  a chance to join his staff as a graduate assistant, and he felt it was too good an opportunity to pass up. He’s already on the job. Todd, of course, played at UT, so he’s probably glad the Longhorns and Aggies won’t don’t have a game scheduled in the near future . . . King Hill, the former Rice All-America QB and Bum Phillips’ offensive coordinator with the Houston Oilers during the Luv Ya Blue Days, was buried Saturday after finally losing a long and courageous battle with cancer. If I had to list the five nicest people I’ve dealt with in some 45 years of writing sports, King would be on the list and close to the top. An incredibly gifted all-around athlete, his claims to fame included being the first player taken in the 1958 NFL draft and being one of the last collegians to letter in three sports — football, basketball and golf — in the same year. Rest in piece, my friend . . . Put me down with those who say Joe Paterno’s statue needs to be removed at Penn State. But I totally disagree with those who scream that the school’s football program should get the death penalty. Who would that help? For starters, it would be an economic disaster for State College, Pa., costing hundreds, maybe thousands of jobs. The financial losses would also have a major impact on other Penn State athletic programs.

Baseball’s all-time hits leader Pete Rose continues to get no slack from MLB on going into the Hall of Fame, but it sounds like he may be in line for a Viagara commercial. Rose, 71, has been dating smoking hot 31-year-old model Kiana Kim since 2009, they are not planning to get married and the TLC network announced last  week it plans a reality TV show on the couple. For those who missed it, and I’m guessing most everybody did, Rose and Kim went on the Howard Stern Show in 2010 and talked about having sex three times a day . . . Thanks to Bill Veeck, the father of off-the-wall promotions who once sent a midget up to pinch hit in a major league game, there has been no shortage of creative baseball ideas to lure fans into buying tickets. Especially in the minor leagues. Enter the St. Paul Saints of the AAA American Association. For their Aug. 10 game with Amarillo, the team has changed its name for an Atheists Night promotion. For that game, tied into an atheist conference in town that weekend, they will become the Mr. Paul Aints. The letter “s” will be covered on all the Saints signs around the ballpark. Player jerseys will have Aints across the front and will be auctioned for charity. Can’t wait to see the blowback on this one . . . A recent Sports Illustrated MLB players poll asked who was the game’s most overrated player. Winner in a landslide was Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees with 17 percent of the vote. Two other Yankees — Derek Jeter (9 percent) and Nick Swisher (5 percent) were in the top four. That sounds about right.

Time will tell how good or bad a move Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey made in throwing $25 million over three years at Jeremy Lin. My first inclination, since the Rockets didn’t have a point guard, was that it’s a good move that could elevate to great one if Morey can somehow manage to land Dwight Howard or Andrew Bynum. Yes, Lin is turnover prone and probably isn’t as good as he seemed during the “Linsanity” period, but he’s bright and quick, can break down defenses with penetration and has a terrific upside. At the very least, Morey deserves credit for devising an offer on Lin that left the Knicks hamstrung . . . Not all news for Jerry Jones this past week was bad. Forbes magazine, in its annual ranking of the world’s 50 most valuable sports franchises, had the Cowboys tied for No. 3 with the New York Yankees at $1.85 billion. Topping the list were two European soccer teams — Manchester United ($2.23 billion) and Real Madrid ($1.88 billion). Three other NFL teams — No. 5 Washington ($1.56 billion), No. 6 New England ($1.4 billion) and No. 9 NY Giants ($1.3 billion) were in the top 10. Bob McNair’s Houston Texas were No. 13 at $1.2 billion. All 32 NFL teams were in the top 50 . . . Here’s a real financial shocker. According to Sports Illustrated’s annual rankings, Tiger Woods is no longer the highest earning U.S. athlete. Tiger dropped to third with a mere $56.4 million in golf winnings and endorsement and sponsorship deals in 2011. The new No. 1 is boxer Floyd Mayweather at $85 million. No. 2 is golfer Phil Mickelson at $60.8 million. Kobe Bryant ($48.3 million) and LeBron James ($45.9 million) round out the top five. My prediction for 2012 is that Woods and James will be 1-2.

Sports editor Bob West can be e-mailed at rdwest@usa.net.