http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/football/14975161.htm
No doubt Terrell Owens' plan is to disrupt yet another Eagles season with the carefully timed release of T.O., his 242-page prepared statement. A preliminary glimpse, however, suggests that this thing is really much worse news for the Dallas Cowboys, Owens' new team, than it is for the Eagles. Why? Because the moral of this particular story is that Owens is still every bit the no-class, no-clue team-wrecker he was in Philadelphia. The man portrayed by Owens and coconspirator Jason Rosenhaus is a sociopath, coldly unconcerned with the consequences of his actions and guided by a self-deluding logic all his own. If you're Jerry Jones or Bill Parcells or especially Drew Bledsoe and you read this mess, you have to be very, very afraid. It is clear in retrospect that we in Philadelphia were negligent in the summer of 2004, when Playboy magazine published the interview in which Owens implied that former San Francisco teammate Jeff Garcia was gay. Friends in the Bay Area pointed out that Owens eventually would turn on Donovan McNabb, too, but that seemed crazy at the time. Hey, we were young and foolish. The Eagles had their best team in a generation and everything looked possible. Owens was in his full-on charmer mode, thrilling fans at Lehigh with his speed and grace and vacuum-cleaner hands. This unfortunate choice of words - "If it looks like a rat and smells like a rat..." - was just a remnant from whatever had transpired with the 49ers. Not our concern. Wrong. See, there are two possibilities. Either Terrell Owens is a fundamentally good person (and great athlete) who struggles occasionally with authority and inadvertently causes commotions, or Terrell Owens is a fundamentally selfish and cruel person (and great athlete) who can hide behind a wide smile and charming persona for short periods of time. In 2004, from the perspective of a Philadelphian, Owens looked like a misunderstood guy who had learned from his mistakes. And, hey, the Niners were a disaster area, right? In 2006, we know better. And if you had any doubts, his latest ghostwritten autobiography should sweep them away for good. (How many books do you think Owens has read in the last three years? Is there any chance he's read as many as he's had published?) It would take most of today's Sports section to address all of Owens' claims. Some, of course, could only be affirmed or denied by getting statements from the other people involved. That was not possible on short notice, made necessary by the puzzling marketing strategy of releasing the title only to random Wal-Marts. (Your humble narrator was inside five of the megastores yesterday. They were all, um, Wal-Marty.) The one constant throughout Owens' version of events, carefully phrased by the less-distinguished Rosenhaus brother, is that he is never to blame for anything. He has the mind-set of the average 4-year-old, before concepts such as right, wrong and personal accountability have had a chance to take root. He signs a contract with the Eagles against the advice of the NFL Players Association, but that's not his fault. He continually agitates McNabb, just as he used to do with his San Francisco quarterbacks, but that's McNabb's fault. He has the ability to read McNabb's mind, assuming that McNabb is jealous of Owens' popularity. In his quest for more money, he criticizes McNabb's Super Bowl performance in the most cowardly fashion, then hides behind the fact he didn't use McNabb's name. It goes on and on like that. McNabb was wrong, coach Andy Reid was wrong, the 49ers were wrong, his former agent was wrong, Eagles president Joe Banner was wrong, the arbitrator who upheld his suspension was wrong - the world is wrong and Terrell Owens is right. There's a name for that kind of logic: insanity. Unless you're a Galileo or Albert Einstein, and it's safe to say Owens is not. For a lot of Eagles fans, a fresh round of Owens-related nonsense will be as welcome as another thunderstorm. He's gone. He signed with the dreaded Cowboys. Enough already. Surely Owens' first priority is to sell books by creating a fresh round of controversy. His second, though, is to toss a big ol' stink bomb into the Eagles' camp. He's proven how much damage he can do to this team when he's here, so why not try a little long-distance sabotage? But the joke ultimately will be on the Cowboys. Just as the Playboy interview should have sounded alarm bells here, the 242-page prepared statement should scare the hell out of the Cowboys. The guy in that book, the human toxic-waste spill, is now in their locker room, fouling up their chemistry. That third book should be a real doozy. Gregory S. Williams [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list medianews@twiar.org To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
