IRVING, TEXAS ? Expect Terrell Owens to have a monster debut season with the Cowboys. Expect him to return to his Pro Bowl form. Expect him to be driven to prove all of his doubters wrong.

Owens will work harder than he’s ever worked in 2006. He’ll play harder than he’s ever played. He’ll be a better teammate and a better person than he’s ever been. He’ll be out to prove he got a bum rap at Philadelphia and, before that, San Francisco.

For a year, anyway, the Cowboys will see the lovable, talented side of Terrell Owens. So did the Eagles. But then that second year, watch out.

Ask Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb. Ask then-Eagles offensive coordinator Brad Childress. Ask new Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg. All went to bat for Owens when coach Andy Reid was deciding whether the Eagles should pursue the mercurial receiver in 2004.

Against his better judgment, Reid made that trade with the 49ers. San Francisco’s headache would eventually become his. Just as it will eventually become the headache of Jerry Jones.

Owens will say and do all the right things in 2006. I remember the interview I had with him at the Eagles’ training camp in the summer of 2004, before he ever caught a pass wearing Philadelphia green. Ego? What ego?

“This ego thing is new to me,” Owens said then. “Everybody has an ego. I’m pretty sure Andy (Reid) has one.”

“There are probably a lot of egos on this team,” he continued. “Put them all together and work with them toward a common goal – winning.

“A lot of guys can put our egos aside for the good of the team. I don’t know where these reports of having an ego come from. I’m no different than Jerry (Rice). He had an ego. It saddens me that everyone is making a big deal and seems to think I have an ego. But it comes with the territory.”

Owens said all the right things that summer. He vowed there’d be no repeat of the quarterback-wide receiver friction in Philadelphia with McNabb that there was in San Francisco with Jeff Garcia.

“I wouldn’t have fought so hard to get here if that was the case,” Owens said then. “He (McNabb) is the general. I can be the assistant general, however the rank goes. I’m somewhere in there.”

Owens scooped for a year. He might have been the league’s MVP in 2004 had he not suffered a fractured fibula on a horse-collar tackle by Cowboys safety Roy Williams in the 14th game of the season.

After the Eagles reached the Super Bowl and Owens staged a miraculous recovery from his injury to play in that championship game, he wanted to become the general. Owens wanted to be paid like the general, and he wanted his voice heard like a general’s voice should be heard.

The Cowboys had some players in the locker room who could stand up to Owens. Had. The strongest presences at Valley Ranch have been evacuated this offseason. Keyshawn Johnson. Gone. Dan Campbell. Gone. La’Roi Glover. Gone. Dat Nguyen. Gone. Who’s left to remind Owens that football is a team game?

Owens turned on McNabb in his second season. He also turned on Reid. Just as he turned on his quarterback and coach (Steve Mariucci) at San Francisco.

Do you detect a behavioral pattern? I bet Cowboys coach Bill Parcells does. I bet Cowboys quarterback Drew Bledsoe does. But they shouldn’t be concerned for a year. Owens must prove what a good player and good guy he is in 2006.

All bets are off in 2007, though.