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By D. W. O’Dell
 In the mixed up, topsy-turvy world of professional sports, it somehow seems appropriate that Terrell Owens signed with the Dallas Cowboys. After all, T.O. first gained national notoriety when he went to mid-field and stood on the Cowboy Star after scoring a touchdown. In a world where players go from the Red Sox to the Yankees, and the Dodgers hire their new GM away from the Giants, hatred of a bitter rival is almost a waste of time.
According to a poll at ESPN, a majority of people (62%) would not want Terrell Owens playing for their team. I guess that means they want their favorite team to lose. T.O. is one of the three or four best receivers in the NFL. How big of an impact player is he? One ESPN columnist noted that in January the Vegas odds makers put the chances of the Cowboys winning the Super Bowl next year at 75-1; after the T.O. signing the odds were 8-1.
Look at the Eagles: before T.O., the team lost three straight NFC championship games. With T.O. on a broken ankle they made it to the Super Bowl. They then dumped T.O. and ended the next season with a 6-10 record, watching the playoffs from home. Okay, some of that was Donovan McNabb’s injury, but without T.O. McNabb didn’t have a target to throw to. If you don’t want T.O. on your team, then you don’t want to win.
Yes, he’s driven his past two quarterbacks crazy. But Jeff Garcia stopped being a Pro Bowler once T.O. left San Francisco, and McNabb looked less effective after Owens was out of the Eagles starting line-up. Owens makes any QB look better.
Is Owens a spoiled, egomaniac jerk who screwed up a sweet deal in Philly? Yup. After leading the Eagles to the Super Bowl he could have been the toast of the town, but he chose to ruin it (and lose millions in salary and endorsements) by engaging in petty squabbling with Coach Andy Reid and team leader McNabb. The person most damaged by T.O.’s antics was T.O.
Should Cowboy QB Drew Bledsoe be worried? Maybe, but he knows he just got better by maybe 4 or 5 touchdowns a year, maybe a lot more. A better pure pocket passer than Garcia or McNabb, Bledsoe now has a target that can score from anywhere on the field. And the Cowboys paved T.O.’s way by releasing Keyshawn Johnson, another supremely talented athlete with an ego almost as big as Owens.’ Two guys yelling, “Just get me the damn ball” would have been too much. …But it is possible Owens will control himself in Big D and return to being one of the biggest weapons in the NFL.
Maybe the nay-sayers are right. Maybe Owens can’t fit in anywhere, and that he’ll have a confrontation with Bledsoe or Cowboy coach Bill Parcells and be gone in a year. But if I were an owner, I’d roll the dice for a talent like T.O. Keyshawn had a couple of good seasons in Dallas after being thrown out by Tampa, and Owens is twice the receiver Keyshawn is. Owens knows that even he will only get so many chances, and if he does in Dallas what he did in Philadelphia even he might not get another chance. |
