Jerry Jones treats Stephen A. Smith to Cowboys helicopter ride to stop him from trolling the team 

Stephen A. Smith is a well-known Dallas Cowboys hater. He has never shied away from that. He embraces his role in their fanbase. At every possible opportunity, Smith is there to slander the team. When they lose in the playoffs, he wakes up with a smile on his face. When they look bad on national television, he's giddy about showing up to talk about it on "First Take" the next day.

The fans know this well, but the players and personnel are probably aware of it, too. Owner Jerry Jones is almost assuredly aware of Smith's disdain for his team.

Smith recently visited Dallas. Jones knew he had a unique opportunity to try and win over the world's most famous Dallas hater. He invited Smith to take a ride on his Cowboys helicopter.

Smith said he knew he had to make an iconic entrance, saying:

"Now, you know, if this is me, I got to show up at the big time. I can't just show up in big thing. I can't just show up if I can't just show up at the Cowboys facility in just any kind of ordinary fashion. I needed to be here. I'm in the helicopter. My guy next to me ladies and gentleman."

Jones chimed in and was thinking about trying to get some of the heat off of his team, saying to Smith and the audience:

"Get him a stick horse or a mule car. Take this cowboy helicopter out here. If I could, possibly, get him on that helicopter, and it's real good, then I might get him to recant what he's said about the Cowboys. But I know one thing, he loves me up here today because he's going down."

Smith joked about pleading the fifth in response to whether or not he'd take it easy on the team and their fans from here on out.

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Are the Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl contenders?

Dallas Cowboys v Los Angeles Chargers

Any team, especially one who is considered the class of their division, is in play to win the Super Bowl. Division winners are often set up nicely in the playoffs, so it can help them on their way to a potential championship.

However, Dallas is not exactly Super Bowl favorites this year. They're contenders, but Vegas doesn't like them as much as a lot of other teams.

According to VegasInsider, the Buffalo Bills are widely considered the favorites. The rest of the teams are in this order:

• Tampa Bay Buccaneers
• Kansas City Chiefs
• Green Bay Packers
• Los Angeles Rams
• Los Angeles Chargers
• San Francisco 49ers
• Denver Broncos
• Baltimore Ravens
• Dallas Cowboys
• Cincinnati Bengals
• Indianapolis Colts

Dallas is, at least, ahead of the defending AFC champion Bengals, but their odds aren't that good. It would be a relative surprise to see them win it all, but worse teams with lower odds have done it before.