Chan Gailey is trying to keep many factions happy in Dallas.

"I was just a little overwhelmed out there," Gailey replied. "It's all a little bit of a blur."

Hey, you coach the Cowboys. Isn't it always?

In the mini-era of Jerry Jones' ownership in Dallas, the Cowboys have been just about everything but dull, and you'd lose the ranch betting against a continuation of that trend here in 1999. From Deion Sanders to Leon Lett to the Missing Moose to Emmitt "Just Gimme the Damn Ball" Smith, it has been another magic carpet ride, assuming the carpet were tack-hammered to the bottom of a roller coaster. And we're barely two weeks in.

And all of this only serves to underscore the quiet sense of competence that Chan Gailey brings to the proceedings. At times, in fact, Gailey seems almost too good to be true, which certainly would cast doubt on his future in the Cowboys organization.

Then again, maybe this is the coach. Maybe this is the time. The Cowboys hit their home opener against Atlanta, a Monday Night Football special at Texas Stadium on ABC tonight, with a 1-0 record in a division, the NFC East, that is nothing if not up for grabs this year.

But if it is to be a success story, it most definitely will not come without the usual Dallas flair, and that is Gailey's cross to bear. Just beginning his second season after helping to drag the Cowboys out of the muck that pockmarked the end of Barry Switzer's tenure, he already has found himself face-to-face with melodramatics.

That's fact, come to think of it. Or was Smith just reciting the day's headlines when he got in Gailey's face along the sideline midway through the second half of that wild Washington game?

Smith was incensed at the play-calling, with Gailey trying to let Troy Aikman pass the Cowboys back into contention after falling behind 35-14 in the fourth quarter -- and Smith let Gailey know it, in terms (and at a volume) that caught the attention of the entire Dallas-watching world.

Gailey turned right around and called eight consecutive running plays. The Cowboys obligingly moved the chains. A comeback of major proportion was born. And Emmitt Smith spent a fair chunk of the next week explaining that he was in the middle of no controversy, that he likes and respects Gailey, and he supports what Gailey is trying to do offensively and isn't trying to undercut it.

Trauma city, right? But when the scenario was put to Gailey, the coach simply replied that, in fact, he had gone down the wrong road with the play-calling at one point in the Redskins game -- that the run strategy, in retrospect, was one he should have gone to earlier. In effect, Gailey conceded the point to Smith without a fight.

That sounds an awful lot like a coach backing down, and yet you never get such an impression from Gailey. Maybe it's the fact that Dallas improved from 6-10 to 10-6 in Gailey's first year on the job, and maybe it is simply because the comeback against the Redskins somehow resulted in a victory. Whatever, Chan Gailey generally comes off sounding more confident than malleable.

He'll need it with this year's model of the Cowboys. The Sanders situation has been played out to every possible theoretical end, but the upshot is that, absent a truly healthy Deion, that defense is totally capable of allowing major points to any number of NFL teams. Daryl Johnston's career-threatening neck problems leave Gailey without one of the most underrated offensive components in football. Lett's eight-game suspension, though expected, is a crusher along the defensive line.

Tough stuff. But if you figure Gailey to wilt under the pressure of it, you're looking in the wrong place. This is a man who says the person in history he'd most like to meet is Jesus Christ, who says if he were president for a day he'd allow prayer back in public schools. Faith is something that Chan Gailey brings in spades. Not a bad attribute to coach in the NFL.

"I can't tell you one bad thing about Chan Gailey," says Falcons coach Dan Reeves, who, like Gailey, hails from little Americus, Ga. "I don't know if you can say that about many people."

For a while there, it seemed like it was something you couldn't say about anyone connected with the Cowboys; and look around: That element of the team's image hasn't been entirely wiped out. But with Chan Gailey in position, it appears more as a muted element than it was once.

That is: Lately, the Cowboys have spent an awful lot of time talking about football. You could call it a start.