TAMPA - Cowboys owner Jerry Jones figured out how to finally get a Super Bowl to North Texas:

Build a $1.1 billion stadium with a retractable roof and retractable doors at each end to make the gigantic structure weatherproof just in case.

Now if he can only figure out how to build a retractable roof over all of North Texas.

Yes, this is Super Bowl week, and here is exactly why no Super Bowl has ever been played in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the 49-year history of the Dallas Cowboys: Tuesday's temperature at 4:30 p.m. was 31 degrees, with a wind chill of 21 and a predicted ice storm bearing down on North Texas.

Here, at the site of Super Bowl XLIII, the skies were a clear blue and the temperature 77 degrees, down about three degrees from when we left the annual Media Day festivities at Raymond James Stadium, forcing me to turn on the air conditioner in my car to combat some sneaking signs of sweat in January. Seriously.

Well, North Texas has two years to do something about the weather, since in two years to the week Super Bowl XLV will descend on the area, the first of its kind to be played in the new Cowboys weatherproof stadium rising in Arlington, Texas. How there will be a national moan if Tuesday's weather shows up in two years with the nation's media descending on our area.

Maybe that's why I was stopped dead in my tracks upon entering the Media Center here on Monday. There was a North Texas Super Bowl XLV booth set up, already promoting the game that's two years out. Normally, the following year's host committee sets up a booth, just as South Florida has for next year's game in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area.

But in all the years coming to Super Bowls, never have I seen the host committee two years out showing up to promote its games.

"We had the opportunity," said Tony Fay, the newly appointed director of communications of the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee. "We wanted to start communicating with the media.

"Start conversations with the people two years in advance."

Not only is there a booth here being manned by representatives of 12 of the region's Convention and Visitors Bureaus, but members of the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Committee will arrive here midweek to learn more firsthand about staging a Super Bowl. And that group will include the mayors of Arlington, Dallas and Fort Worth.

With hopes, of course, of minimizing potential weather conditions that time of year in North Texas by emphasizing the rich "football tradition of the region," Fay said.

Good plan.

Interesting concept the Cowboys apparently have, thinking seriously about hiring Dan Reeves as a "consultant." While the Cowboys are not confirming this move, NFL sources here at the Super Bowl are saying the former Denver, Giants and Atlanta head coach told San Francisco that's what he was going to do when recently turning down a spot on the 49ers staff.

Not so far-fetched, since last year, remember, the Cowboys were thinking of hiring Dom Capers as a "consultant" on the coaching staff. Also, if you remember, Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips even invoked the name of Reeves, for whom he's twice coached during his NFL career, during his season-wrap press conference as someone he would discuss any potential changes in his coaching style or how he does things.

To me, Reeves, who has been yearning to get back into the game and even let it be known he was interested in the Cowboys job back in 2007 when Jones was searching, would be a great fit. He still has a great NFL mind, having just turned 65 last week, and certainly would command instant respect on the coaching staff, with the players and the fans, too.

This would be some serious quality control.

Here is a new one on me, and this compliments of Arizona defensive end Bertrand Berry, who was talking about rookie running back Tim Hightower, remembering when he ran over a nice-sized defensive back early in training camp.

"If you bite when you're young, you will bite when you're old," said Berry, meaning expectations of Hightower shouldn't have been minimized just because he was a rookie.

So as I was walking through the throng of media folks here at Raymond James Stadium, couldn't help but think, well, what if these were the 9-7 Cowboys down here instead of the, uh, 9-7 Cardinals, who by the way figured out something the Cowboys and their fans never did: You can find yourself in the Super Bowl if you don't win every game or even if you give up like 56 points in a loss or even go through a stretch of losing three of five games during the regular season.

See, Marion Barber went through an entire season - again - without doing any interviews with the media. Well, you can't get away with that at the Super Bowl. All players are "required" to be available Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and I'm guessing the lead running back would have been at a podium out here on Tuesday, just as Edgerrin James and Hightower were.

Offensive linemen are no exceptions, either. Those guys are "required" to be out there, too, so those Cowboys heavies who prefer not to talk much during the season, even threatening to fine one another when they do, also wouldn't get away with that. And it dawned on me when talking with former Cowboys receivers coach Todd Haley, now the Cardinals offensive coordinator, that this was the first time I actually interviewed Haley after training camp, since former head coach Bill Parcells kept his assistants off limits during the season.

Maybe these Cowboys, if they are ever fortunate enough to advance here one day, should take note from Pittsburgh safety Troy Polamalu, who remarked from his No. 7 podium, "This is a pretty fun experience. Coach (Mike) Tomlin told us to embrace the experience."

Never fear, Miss TV Azteca, Inez Sainz, who seemingly made here national TV debut in the Cowboys locker room one recent year doing interviews and turning every head in there, still has a job. And yes, she is here in here ubiquitous painted-on jeans and skimpy top accentuating her every asset.

She had some competition, though, from Maria Menounos, here doing interviews for "Access Hollywood," and also the salsa dancer from "ET" giving out dancing lessons on the side but succeeding most with Steelers corner Bryant McFadden.

But Miss TV Azteca came up with a new attention-getting gimmick with the players: She had a tape measure in tow, measuring to see who had the biggest biceps. What ingenuity.

Oh, on the subject of playing the season one game at a time and not overreacting to a loss or a cluster of losses, former Cowboys assistant coach Clancy Pendergast, now the Cardinals defensive coordinator, had this to say about the very disease that plagued the Cowboys during a season of high expectations:

"Every game is a different animal. Game plans are different, you face different teams. Players have to stay on point, stay focused and take them one game at a time.

"And while we point out what went wrong, we try to focus on the positives."

Positives, huh? Imagine that? Focusing on the positives and ending up in the Super Bowl.

My vote for this year's Best Bit on Media Day, you know like dressing in drag and asking whatever or the girl last year donning a wedding gown and asking Tom Brady to marry her, goes to the Dunham and Miller Show of DFW's The Ticket (1310-AM) for coming up with "The Sports Fiddler."

Morning show co-host George Dunham carried a fiddle around during Media Day, and he and sidekick Gordon Keith conducted interviews with George playing a bar or two on the fiddle and Gordon interpreting the question. The players did bite on the bit, actually playing along, answering the questions.

The bit also was a hit with NFLLatino.com., extensively interviewing the twosome on camera.

Ah media day.

Here's to warm wishes for 2011.