One player Dallas’ offense better account for this afternoon, in what is almost a must-win game against Atlanta, is Lincoln ex Jonathan Babineaux. Babineaux, a defensive tackle in his fifth season, is having his best year as one of the anchors of the Falcons’ overachieving defense. He’s coming off a terrific game last Sunday night that included a key forced fumble in Atlanta’s 21-14 victory over the Chicago Bears. Last season Babineaux was No. 4 in the NFL in tackles for a loss (9.5) not counting sacks. Jonathan’s brother Jordan, of course, already has left his mark on the Cowboys with a game-saving tackle for Seattle on Tony Romo in a 2006 playoff game. Interestingly enough, Jordan and the Seahawks are in Dallas next Sunday . . . Cowboys owner Jerry Jones should thank the Lord every night for Dan Snyder owning the Washington Redskins. As long as Snyder’s around, Jethro can never be regarded as the owner whose meddling screwed his team up the worst for the longest. Snyder’s latest idiotic move is to take play calling away from head coach Jim Zorn and given that responsibility to Sherm Lewis, a long time NFL assistant who has been out of the game for several years and as recently as two weeks ago was calling bingo games in a retirement center. The latest example of Snyder’s ongoing lunacy promoted former Redskins great John Riggins to say the team’s fans are “almost in a hostage situation.”

Anybody who considers themselves a fan of football in this state should rush out and buy the recently published 50th Anniversary highlight edition of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football. Trust me on this, you will have a hard time putting down a magazine oozing Lone Star State football history, with features on the 50 most memorable players, coaches, teams, games and moments. You won’t agree with all the choices — I certainly didn’t — but you will revel in the trip down memory lane . . . I thought Southeast Texas really got shortchanged on Texas Football’s All 50-year high school selections, with only West Orange-Stark DB Kevin Smith named to the first team and West Brook’s Calvin Collins picked on the second team offensive line. Most glaring oversight was Lincoln’s Joe Washington being left out of a running back category that included first teamers Cedric Benson and Adrian Peterson, second teamers Warren McVea and Jacquizz Rodgers and honorable mentions Rodney Thomas, Wes Danaher, Robert Strait, Billy Sims and Jerod Douglas. No way Washington doesn’t belong somewhere in that group . . . On the 50-year All-College choices, Hebert’s Jerry LeVias was a second team WR, Kevin Smith was a second team DB, Bridge City’s Steve Worster was an honorable mention RB and Beaumont French’s Louie Kelcher an honorable mention defense linemen. To be eligible, a player had to play college football in Texas. Seems like an awfully strong case could have been made for TJ’s Gary Hammond, considering he made All-Southwest Conference at three different positions.

Strongest area of representation for the Golden Triangle was in Texas Football’s 50 Most Memorable Coaches. TJ’s Jimmy Johnson was No. 12, West Orange-Stark’s Dan Hooks was No. 22, TJ ex Todd Dodge was No. 24 on the strength of his mind-blowing run at Southlake Carroll, former Nederland, PN-G and Houston Oiler coach Bum Phillips was No. 32 and Newton’s Curtis Barbay was No. 37. I was stunned at Johnson only being No. 12, since no other Texas born and reared coach has won a national championship and a Super Bowl. Actually two Super Bowls. Got no problem with Tom Landry and Darrell Royal being 1-2, but it’s ridiculous for Mack Brown (No. 5), with one Big 12 championship and one national title, to be ahead of JJ . . . Also noteworthy in the highlight edition was the No. 26 ranking among the 50 Greatest Moments in Texas Football for the 1977 4A state championship game between Port Neches-Groves and Plano at Texas Stadium. That game was singled out because of the state record crowd of 49,953 which turned out to watch. No. 7 on the most memorable moment list was then SMU coach Hayden Fry making Beaumonter Jerry LeVias the first African-American scholarship football player in the SWC. No. 24 was Todd Dodge winning three consecutive 5A state titles at Southlake Carroll during a stretch in which his team was 79-1. Rated No. 1 most memorable moment, by the way, was Vince Young’s last minute TD that lifted Texas over USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl and won the national championship for the Longhorns . . .

The most successful manager in Houston Astros history — Larry Dierker — is a little ticked off that nobody in the organization valued his opinion enough to seek check his thoughts on the current state of the franchise and what the next managerial move should be. “It’s a little frustrating,” Dierker told Houston Chronicle columnist Jerome Solomon, “because they’ve done some things in recent years and I’m like ‘Wait a minute, have you thought about this?’ But nobody cared to check with me on it.” Considering the guy led Houston to four division championships in five years, and is enough of a student of the game to have written books about it, why wouldn’t you talk to him ? ? ? I was a Joe Torre admirer until I read where the Dodgers’ manager made a ridiculous excuse for Manny Ramirez after Game 4 in the NLCS. Ramirez, taken out of the game in the top of the ninth for a defensive replacement, didn’t bother to hang around and provide moral support in the dugout. Instead, he was in the shower when the Phillies rallied to win. What a great teammate, who, by the way, was 5-for-19 and drove in two runs in the series. Torre played Ramirez’ absence down by saying it was just “Manny being Manny,” and he’d done it before. Come on, Joe, you are better than that . . . Speaking of the Dodgers, how about the recent firing of the team’s CEO Jamie McCourt? Jamie, the highest ranking woman in MLB, was terminated after her separation from husband and team owner Frank McCourt. That ought to add a little intrigue in divorce court.

It was noted in this space a few weeks ago that the NFL, which for so long prided itself on parity, has become a league of haves and have nots. Here’s the latest update on that situation. Through six weeks, there have been six games when the losing team was shut out and 20 games where the point spread was 21 or more points. That’s the highest number of three-touchdown or more outcomes in 39 years, and there’s still 10 weeks to go . . . Sports Illustrated’s Peter King normally writes about the NFL, but an experience at Yankee Stadium for Game 2 of the Yankees-Angels ALCS crept into his weekly column. King wrote about how stunned he was to see a vendor selling 16 ounce cups of hot chocolate for $10. That’s right, $10 for a cup of hot chocolate. After doing some research, he concluded the Yankees were making $9.15 cents on each sale. No wonder they can gobble up more high priced free agents than any other franchise. And just one of many reasons my second favorite team after the St. Louis Cardinals is anybody playing the Yankees . . . Lamar ex Kenny Dawkins is still on the radar of the Houston Rockets. Dawkins, who had a tryout in Houston before the NBA draft, is one of 28 players being considered for a handful of spots on the Rockets D-League team — the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. He and other invitees will work out in front of Rockets and Vipers officials this afternoon at the Toyota Center.

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