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Wed. Nov 09, 2005

Ta Ta To T.O.

The tent stakes have been ripped up and the greasepaint wiped off, as the Circus of Terrell Owens departs Philadelphia. Leaving great steaming piles of elephant dung behind. Let’s poke at them.

Look, here’s a big pile now: “For once, Terrell Owens put aside his pride, admitted he was wrong and pleaded for a second chance with the Philadelphia Eagles.”

A second chance? I think they mean a third chance. Or a fourth chance. You see, he’s already been suspended once by the Eagles, during the preseason. And he had a chance to “admit he was wrong and plead for a second chance” ... last week. Which he blew off in a rote manner.

Peter King explains: “Owens got into fisticuffs with [team ambassador Hugh] Douglas [...] FOX’s Jay Glazer reported it was because Douglas accused Owens of faking a sprained ankle. But there was more, as you know. After Owens ripped the Eagles’ public relations staff and the organization for not recognizing his 100th career touchdown reception right after it happened, and after he agreed with an interviewer that Michael Irvin was right when he said the Eagles would probably be unbeaten if Brett Favre was their quarterback, Reid wanted Owens to apologize to the team, to the organization and to McNabb personally. T.O. issued one of those lukewarm, two-faced jobs to the organization on Friday, but had several chances on Friday and Saturday to make things right with McNabb and refused. I’m told Owens even had the McNabb apology written underneath the one he gave to the press Friday, but refused to read it.”

It cost him his job. Now he wants to really apologize, in a manner he didn’t last week. What a sad joke.

I can’t help but be reminded of a serial wife beater. He beats his wife on Thursday, and on Friday offers a half-assed non-apology: “I’m sorry you made me beat you like that, baby. I hope you learned something.”

She responds by going to the Redskins game and leaving his butt behind. He says that’s her loss. She further responds on Monday by saying “I’m filing for a divorce and taking half your stuff.”

Oh. When he sees she’s really really serious about it this time, then the apology comes again, in a slightly more compliant form: “I’m sorry, baby. I won’t beat you again. I won’t beat you like I did the woman before you. I promise, I’ll change.”

Sometimes the wife believes it. Because she still thinks she needs him. But sooner or later, she gets tired of the bumps, bruises, and broken promises to change. She decides she’s been stupid to put up with his abuse as long as she has, and if she hopes to retain a shred of self-respect … he’s got to go.

Of course, the NFL isn’t quite that simple a soap opera.

[Chicago Bears quarterback Jeff] Blake told me people spent too much time focusing on Owens’ antics. He added that when today’s NFL players find themselves wanting to escape unhappy situations, they have no other choice but to act like fools. I laughed when Blake first told me that. I get it now [...] Once Owens decided his relationship with the Eagles had soured, he was hell bent on one thing: making everybody’s life miserable.

I’m sure he’s sitting somewhere with a big grin on his face because this was exactly what he wanted once his hopes for a new contract vanished months ago. I’m also betting that somebody else will try the same course of action in the near future. When it comes to changing addresses in the NFL, acting like a fool is becoming a more convenient way of doing business.

Sports Illustrated: Jeffri Chadiha: Owens, other NFL players have no choice but to act up

Let’s put this in perspective. T.O. was in the second year of a seven year contract he willingly signed … but he wanted a new one. Why? Primarily because he’d gotten a new agent since that deal was made, and that new agent had to make a new deal to get a cut of it. So he had to suffer by on a measly $200,000 per game for 16 games, $3.2 million. And even now, in the worst case, he’ll get paid $1 million for sitting out the rest of this season.

So he plays the fool, and makes everybody miserable. If that was the plan, it was executed with savant-like brilliance. In theory, this will allow him and his agent to make a new deal with a new team for next season.

Well, I think the Fool Bubble is about to burst. You see, “acting like a fool” to change your NFL address is not an effective long term strategy. It’s a one shot strategy. When you have the genuine talent that someone like Terrell Owens has (or Keyshawn Johnson, who pulled the same stunt in Tampa Bay), you can likely get away with this. Once.

T.O. played his Fool Card to get out of the 49ers jail (and lets not forget his refusal to play for the Ravens, the first team to which the 49ers traded him). If he has now played the Fool Card again to get out of Philadelphia, what reason would any future employer have to think he would not quickly do the same to them? Could it be that he is not “playing a Fool Card,” he’s actually … a fool?

Think of how the news would hit his new team. Any starting quarterback who had T.O. foisted upon him would know he’d just gotten a very talented pair of hands to catch his passes, and a very potent and vocal critic. Right in his own locker room, and in the media.

T.O. has shown us no other path. It’s what he has to offer. It’s what he does. The question for some apparently is, can you endure his toxic nature long enough to win a Super Bowl?

And as justified and correct as coach Andy Reid, president Joe Banner and owner Jeff Lurie are in their decision to let T.O. go, the question must be asked: What they did might be in the best interest of the team, but is it in the team’s best interest to win?

Are they choosing morale and morals over the chance to win a Super Bowl this year? Strip it to the core. Ask yourself, Can the Eagles win the Bowl this year without Terrell Owens?

ESPN: Eagles pay a price for principle

I don’t think that’s the question at all. I think Andy Reid had to ask himself, “Can the Eagles win the Bowl this year with Terrell Owens?” Can the team, an entity comprised of 50+ athletes and this fragile and vague factor called “chemistry” ... can it survive eight more weeks of one player disrespecting the established team leader, as well as team management, both in private and in public?

How many more locker room staredowns or fights can the team survive … and still win the Super Bowl? How many times can one player step so far outside the behavior of all the other players, and not have it destroy that fragile and vague thing called “chemistry.” How many times does Donovan McNabb have to stoically take being publicly and privately disrespected before T.O. becomes invisible to him, on and off the field.

This is not an isolated incident. Look at the Tale of the Tantrums. Like the serial wife beater, this was not going to stop. It was just going to quiet down until the next time the cops needed to called. These antics were going to have an ongoing detrimental effect that would have torn the Eagles apart, or at the very least distracted them from their potential this season. That’s the short term impact.

And there’s the long term statement this makes as well. If the Eagles are going to “pay a price for principle,” it sends a message to the rest of the team … “your dedication to the team is appreciated and respected, and we will not stand by and watch it destroyed by any one individual, no matter how talented.” It says to someone like Donovan McNabb, “we’ve got your back. We’ll deal with your light work. You just play ball.”

That’s long term smarts. But, no doubt, the NFL has its share of short term stupid: “Talent characteristically trumps temperament in the NFL and, while most franchises will see Owens as poison, others will find a way to rationalize that he can still be an elixir within an ailing passing attack.”

If Terrell Owens is an elixir, he is one that requires you to hold your nose as you quickly gulp it down, and one that gives a fast and potent buzz. However, you better have your fun quickly, because shortly after gulping it (eight games or so), you’ll be projectile vomiting for weeks thereafter.