"It's inevitable: Somebody this week will argue that the New England Patriots have become America's Team.

Meanwhile, about 200 miles down Interstate 95, somebody else will argue that the New York Giants have become America's Team. In addition to indignant cynicism and feigned passion, the arguments will have this in common: They'll insist that the Dallas Cowboys, who have borne the nickname for more than 30 years, are no longer America's Team.

But, of course, such arguments, which seem to come around every other football season or so and to be pullulating this year because of a recent poll, are 24-karat flapdoodle, sterling nonsense, pure piffle. The Cowboys are America's Team forever.

As Bob Ryan, vice president and editor-in-chief of NFL Films, pointed out, a nickname is non-transferable. It's like an airline ticket. It can be momentarily misplaced, even stuffed into a drawer beneath a pile of socks, but it can't be used by anybody else."