With Cowboys owner Jerry Jones now realizing that it’ll cost money to call out game officials like Ed Hochuli, Jones will have to satisfy his urge to play verbal lawn darts with others.

He’s starting with the Houston Texans.

In a recent Los Angeles Times article regarding the Cowboys’ new stadium, Jones gave a quote that included a gratuitous slam at his neighbors to the south.  “The Cowboys have never been about checkered tablecloths and boots and hats,” Jones said. “They’ve been about glitz and glitter.  Leave the other stuff to the Houston Texans.”

Texans owner Bob McNair resisted the urge to turn the thing into a ten-gallon cat fight. 

“I’m not offended by what Jerry said,” McNair told the Houston Chronicle.  “I’m glad he knows we’re the Texans.  I’m proud to be a Texan and a Houstonian. . . .  Houston’s a hardworking city, and the Texans are a hardworking team.  I don’t see anything wrong with checkered tablecloths, hats and boots.”

McNair played this one just the right way, chuckling a bit as he took the high road.  Though Jones has owned the Cowboys for 19 years, he’s not a Texan — he’s an Arkans . . . an . . . sian.  It’s not the first time Jones has made true Texans cringe a little bit, and it surely won’t be the last.

And while Jones’ comments weren’t all that inflammatory, they served no purpose other than to potentially piss off a portion of the state that is still trying to recover from Hurricane Ike.