updated 3:25 p.m. ET July 22, 2008

IRVING, Texas - Even Terrell Owens will find it difficult to draw top billing this time, with so many other sideshows to gawk at when the Dallas Cowboys open training camp.

As Owens has so eloquently put it before, “Getcha popcorn ready!” It’s going to be a show.

There will be plenty to see with the Cowboys, whose bitter ending to a 13-win season in January made it 11 seasons without a playoff victory — though it has done little to dampen super expectations for 2008.

First, there is the player who wants to be formerly known as “Pacman” and doesn’t know for sure if he will be allowed to play this season.

How about the Tank that Dallas got to roll out only half of last season after he returned from his NFL suspension.

Roy Williams went to his fifth straight Pro Bowl last season, even though the hard-hitting safety often went to the sideline on passing downs. And that could happen again, especially if “Pacman” — sorry, Adam — Jones is playing.

Jason Garrett, the supposed successor-in-waiting for coach Wade Phillips — who in his only season in charge so far led Dallas to its first NFC East title since 1998 — is more firmly in place.

Plus, who knows, maybe Jessica Simpson stops by to see her beau, Pro Bowl quarterback Tony Romo.

With all that and more when the Cowboys open camp Friday in Oxnard, Calif., not too far from Hollywood, they have the ingredients for a made-for-TV show.

Oh, Jerry Jones took care of that.

Never missing a chance to promote the Cowboys brand, Jones enthusiastically agreed when HBO executives wanted to again feature the team in the “Hard Knocks” series.

When last highlighted by the cable network six years ago, Dallas was coming off a 5-11 season and was on the way to another. That was pre-Bill Parcells, before T.O. and Romo.

Somehow last season, a franchise-record 13 victories, the NFC’s top seed and an NFL-record 13 Pro Bowl players didn’t equal a playoff victory. Dallas lost to the New York Giants, the eventual Super Bowl champion and NFC East foe the Cowboys beat twice in the regular season.

Their depth chart loaded with all those Pro Bowlers and returning players at nearly every other position, the Cowboys are considered a prime Super Bowl contender 12 seasons after their fifth championship.

But long before finding out if “America’s Team” makes it to February, or falls short again, there are all the sideshows to watch.

Un-'Pac'ing Jones
Able to get a once-elite and still young cornerback-kick returner, filling two areas of need with one player, Jerry Jones was willing to take a chance on a player seeking to shed his nickname and troubled past.

The Cowboys won’t really lose much if “I want to be Adam or Mr. Jones” doesn’t work out, because they’d get a draft pick back from Tennessee. But Jerry — the Cowboys’ only real Mr. Jones — hopes for another successful reclamation, like Owens and Tank Johnson previously, and several other players when Dallas was winning playoff games in the mid-1990s.

Adam Jones’ situation is a bit different. He was suspended by the NFL all last season and couldn’t even work out with the Titans. He has been arrested six times and involved in 12 incidents requiring police intervention since being drafted sixth overall in 2005.

While Jones was cleared in June for practices and preseason games, commissioner Roger Goodell might not decide until the week of the Sept. 7 season opener if the player will be fully reinstated.

The commissioner has to be convinced there will be no more trouble.

“I’m going to do my part,” Adam Jones said.

“He knows it’s his last straw, so he’s going to take extreme caution to everything he does,” said Johnson, who has a locker near Jones at Valley Ranch.

Deion Sanders has become somewhat of a mentor for Jones in Dallas. Jones has since requested to be called by his real name, though he initially stuck with the nickname given him by his mother and that he’s been known by his entire life.

“There’s really just a lot of negativity behind it,” Jones said. “It’s just time for a change.”

Tank rolling forward
Tank Johnson was still serving his eight-game NFL suspension for violating probation on a gun charge and had to wait two months to play after signing last September.

Johnson, whose last game with the Chicago Bears was in the 2007 Super Bowl, initially kept a low profile while serving his penalty and getting acclimated to a new team. But the boisterous spirit is back, and the nose tackle is ready to have a real impact on the field.

“I am a beast right now,” Johnson said. “You learn the plays one by one instead of 50 at a time. When you come in Week 11, they already have 50 plays in. ... Now I know where I am going.”

Dallas took a chance on Johnson after starting nose tackle Jason Ferguson tore his right biceps in last year’s opener. Johnson started only one of the nine games he played, but showed enough that Ferguson was traded for draft picks this spring.

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