Winning the FedEx Ground NFL Player of the Year Award was icing on the cake for Jamaal Charles’ amazing  season and it was a triumph for him that many Southeast Texans — you know who you are — share in. Charles prevailed over the other finalists — Houston’s Arian Foster  and Atlanta’s Michael Turner — in a fan vote on the NFL.com website. Based on phone calls and conversations I’ve had in the past few weeks, I know voting from our precinct was heavy. We’ll never know whether Jamaal would have won without the local vote -- Chiefs fans really love him — but I’d like to think fans in this area helped put him over the top. I know for a fact he really appreciates the efforts made on his behalf . . . Amazing, isn’t it, that of  all the great players who’ve gone on to the NFL from the University of Texas as higher draft choices over the past decade, the one who was never full appreciated nor properly used when he played for the Longhorns stands as the most decorated after the 2010 season. Charles was the lone former UT star voted first team All-Pro and now he’s claimed an award that proclaims him the top back in the NFL in 2010. I’ll always wonder how many yards he could have piled up at Texas, if he’d be in an offense that featured him -- like Cedric Benson and Ricky Williams were featured -- instead of being almost an afterthought in a pass- crazy scheme that devalued the running game. And yet, despite leaving after his junior year,  he’s still the school’s fourth all-time leading rusher .

    Looks like I may owe Jerry Jones an apology and what better day than Super Sunday to deliver it. A study released in the medical journal Clinical Cardiology this week suggests an emotional loss in the Super Bowl may be hazardous to the heart health of fans of the losing team. The study cited significantly increased heart attack death rates against the norms in research done in Los Angeles County after the Rams suffered a tough loss to Pittsburgh in the 1980 Super Bowl and a lower heart attack death rate in Raiders fans after they won the 1984 Super Bowl. So it looks like Jethro really does have the best interest of Cowboys fans at heart. By making enough bad decisions to keep Dallas out of the Super Bowl since 1995, he’s preventing heart attacks. What a prince of a human being ! ! ! Jones, as you would expect, is front and center on some of the Super Bowl proposition bets. The Bodog.com betting site has the over/under on Jethro sightings by Fox Sports cameras during the game telecast at 2.5. Give me the over. They also list him at 100 to 1 to be shown on the cover of the Monday USA Today holding the Lombardi Trophy. Other interesting props are a 2.5 over/under on Brett Favre mentions during the telecast and 10-to-1 on a punt hitting the JerryWorld video board during the game . . . A warning for parents watching the big game at  home with kids. Be wary of the fourth quarter Skechers ad featuring sultry Kim Kardashian. After watching it, the president of Skechers quipped, “I had to take a cold shower.”

    Thanks to Texas Tech backing out on a game at TCU for the second consecutive year, and the Mountain West Conference recently shifting TCU’s scheduled home game against Boise State to Boise, the Horned Frogs are in a near panic over trying to find two home games at a late date.  Lamar had high hopes of filling  one of the slots in what would have been  a “money game” for the Cardinals. The NCAA, however, delivered a puzzling ruling that Lamar didn’t have enough players on scholarship after two years to count as a legitimate game for TCU. What baffles LU coach Ray Woodard is that Georgia State had the same number of players on scholarship (57) after two years as Lamar and is being allowed to count on Houston’s 2011 schedule  . . . Really nice gesture toward Dan Hooks and the West Orange-Stark coaching staff by former Nederland quarterback Don Clayton, on behalf of Region V of the THSCA. Clayton, the head coach at Katy Cinco Ranch, and the Senior Director for Region V, designated the WO-S coaches for the organization’s “Courage in Action Award” for the way they dealt with quarterback Reggie Garrett’s death. “No one can ever be prepared for this type of situation but Coach Hooks and his staff showed the character that Texas High School coaches possess and in turn do their best to impart to their players,” wrote Clayton.  “We sincerely appreciate Coach Dan Ray Hooks and the West Orange-Stark staff for showing Courage in Action.” . . . Saints QB Drew Brees is missing out on the excitement of playing in the Super Bowl this year, but he’s getting a nice consolation prize. Brees, the former Austin Westlake QB, headlines the 2011 class of the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame. Others going in include players Quan Cosby, Harvey Williams, Pat Culpepper, Bobby Lackey and Junior Miller, Coach Emory Bellard and Houston Chronicle sportswriter David Barron.

    One of the wildest stories of Super Bowl week concerns two residents of the St. John’s Homeless Shelter in Green Bay winning a Dallas Convention and Visitor’s Bureau contest offering a payoff of two game tickets, airfare, hotel accommodations and $500 in spending money. Quida Wright and Aaron Holmes reportedly had 90 cents between when they were walking the streets in downtown Green Bay last Saturday and correctly told a “mystery man” representing the agency Visit Dallas the secret phrase — “Have you been to Dallas lately?” that made them the winners. They had seen the phrase on a Dallas CVB Facebook site . . . Despite this week’s miserable weather, expect the Super Bowl to return to JerryWorld in 2016. That would be Super Bowl L. Troy Aikman has already been named to succeed Roger Staubach as point man for the North Texas Super Bowl committee. That committee, by the way, budgeted $100,000 for perks for NFL owners this week, just to make sure they will be receptive to Aikman’s pitch. Included are $3,500 in hotel costs per owner, a $500 Neiman Marcus gift card, limousine service and freebies to museums and entertainment facilities . . . Hard to believe, isn’t it, that Green Bay is the 10th different NFC team to play in the Super Bowl dating back to 2001 and none of the 10 had a star  on their helmet. Along with Dallas, the only NFC teams who spent the decade on the outside looking in were Atlanta, Minnesota, San Francisco, Washington and Detroit.

    The University of Texas football program is already ranked No. 1 for the 2011 season. No, not for being the best team, but for having the highest paid staff of assistant coaches. According to USA Today, Mack Brown’s assistants will make $3.65 million next season, or about 20 percent more than last year. That tops the previous record of $3.325 million for Tennessee’s 2009 coaching staff. Throw in Brown’s $5 million and UT’s coaching compensation will be over $8.5 million . . . Don’t put too much stock into how the experts rate your team’s recruiting class. Ray Grasshoff, author of a highly regarded book on recruiting — Beyond Friday Nights: College Football Recruiting for Parents and Players — dished up some interesting research on players who signed in 2006. According to Grasshoff’s findings, six of the eight teams ranked in the top 10 in recruiting that year by three national sites failed to finish in the final AP top 25 this past season. Included in that elite group of no shows were USC, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Penn State and Notre Dame. TCU and Stanford, meanwhile, neither of which ranked in the top 50 in 2006 recruiting, were No. 2 and No. 4, respectively in the final polls. Oregon, which ranked 49th, played for the BCS national championship . . . What a statement day last Wednesday was for former Port Arthur athletes. Hours after Jamaal Charles picked up his Fed Ex award, Lincoln ex Stephen Jackson erupted for a season high 39 points for the Charlotte Bobcats. It was Jackson’s second 30-plus game in the last four. He also torched Golden State for 31.

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