In his first mini-camp as Dallas Cowboys coach in 1989, Jimmy Johnson once pointed a player toward the “asthma field,” which, of course, was the Jimster’s euphemism for the exit door at the team’s Valley Ranch training complex.

Too bad Bill Parcells, the Cowboys’ current boss, doesn’t have a “pain-in-the-neck field” he could point to right about now.

There is no escape hatch for Parcells and the Cowboys, though. They’re stuck with Terrell Owens, and they know it.

Parcells simply has to grin — around gritted teeth — and bear it.

In a battle of wills between the legendary Cowboys coach and the infamous “I love me some me” T.O., Owens has clearly drawn the lines of battle.

Just as clearly, he’s winning that fight, too.

Owens’ string of missed practices due to an alleged tender hamstring stretched to 14 straight through Tuesday’s morning session. He has logged more miles on his (stationary) bike in the last week than Lance Armstrong in winning seven Tour De France titles.

Cowboys insiders say Parcells is seething inside, but he has resisted being baited into a public confrontation over Owens’ disinclination to practice with his teammates, placidly deflecting daily questions from the media.

“I really don’t have much to say,” Parcells said Tuesday when he was asked again about Owens and when he might practice. “This subject is getting redundant.”

No kidding.

In a perfect world, the Cowboys wouldn’t have to deal with this kind of distraction, but this is what happens when an overly excitable owner starts thinking “Super Bowl” and signs the NFL’s biggest headache and problem child to a three-year, $25 million contract, including $10 million guaranteed this season.

Jerry Jones asked for this. Now he’s got it.

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So, unfortunately, does Parcells and so do Cowboys’ fans all across the country.

A poll in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Wednesday morning asked readers whether they were more steamed about 14 days of 100-plus temperatures this month or Owens missing 14 straight Cowboys’ practices. Early returns showed the weather was still rankling respondents more than T.O.’s absence from practice, but that might change if Parcells finally gets fed up and draws his own line in the sand.

Can he do that and expect to win?

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Probably not, but at some point he has to stop letting Owens walk all over him and salvage his dignity, his pride and his reputation.

He can tell Owens and Jones to go to hell.

Parcells has always been a stickler for players practicing and if they don’t practice, they don’t play. Wide receiver Terry Glenn, not under the T.O. exemption umbrella, caught grief from Parcells for missing Tuesday’s practice with painful blisters on his feet.

“He’s definitely on me,” Glenn told reporters. “I can’t have nothing wrong.”

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