It has become a sad, yet common occurrence for the NFL that players’ shenanigans between games dominate the news more than their play on the field. From the usual drug habits that normally go unpunished to Chad Johnson sending his opponents Pepto-Bismol, players increasingly feel the need to spice up their lives in professional football.
Thank god we have someone like Terrell Owens, who reserves his antics for on the field every Sunday, so they won’t distract his team. If we had a league full of T.O.’s there wouldn’t be any problems with the NFL, right? Wrong.
Owens is just as bad as all his pot-smoking counterparts. Sure, he’s one of the best receivers in the league. And sure, his pom-pom, Sharpie and Ray Lewis dances are cute and entertaining, but there is much more to being a good football player then just putting up numbers and looking good while doing it. Heck, if I was 6-3, 226, and had Steve Young, Jeff Garcia and Donovan McNabb throwing to me, I could be successful too.
Owens is the worst team player there could be in the league, and he is just as much of a distraction as anyone else because of it. Terrell Owens is only concerned with Terrell Owens. When he realized that the 49ers were going to be forced to rebuild, T.O. managed to make everyone in the Bay Area despise him so much that they were forced to trade him. He started taking shots at his quarterback, whose arm wasn’t strong or accurate. Forget the fact that Jeff Garcia was a three-time Pro Bowler, whose early years in a Niners uniform far surpassed those of his two predecessors. When he noticed that those arguments didn’t have any warrant he changed his tune and started attacking Garcia’s sexuality. Bold move, big guy.
And he can’t help but wondering why everyone else makes him out to be the bad guy. He is nothing more then a whining, complaining baby. Having grown up in San Francisco I am all too familiar with T.O.’s M.O. It is amazingly easy to be buddy-buddy with your team when you are 10-1. Just wait until the Eagles hit a bump in the road and the real T.O. surfaces again. He’ll start Moss-ing his routes on running plays so defenses know what’s coming. He’ll start dropping balls at crucial moments in games and he’ll start blaming everyone but himself. People don’t love to hate him because of his me-first attitude. Maybe they just hate him.
