The newest ranch hand arrives

By David Landry  |   Tuesday, June 06, 2006  |  Comments( 1 )

Dallas Cowboys
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There are few guys who could steal space on the sports pages from a performance like the Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki's Thursday night, and there are few cities in which the local NBA team on the cusp of their first-ever championship appearance is overshadowed by a footballer who won't put on the pads for real until September.

Unless, of course, you're talking about Terrell Owens and that American football axis of Dallas, Texas.

Friday's headline news in gridiron-crazy Texas was all about the imminently quotable superstar on his first day of mini-camp. Welcomed by a throng of reporters (his favorite welcoming committee!), T.O. answered questions for fifteen minutes, positivity oozing from his demeanor. "I'm looking forward to the opportunity that I can make to help this team win. That's why they brought me in here." Indeed it is, as the Dallas Cowboys' brass decided to "take a chance" in signing the guy who once made for the final piece in the puzzle of Philadelphia's NFC Championship title.

And after questions were asked and flashbulbs popped, Terrell Owens went out and played a little football.

Has any mini-camp workout received such press coverage? Would it be over the top to claim the coverage may have been worth it? By all accounts either Cowboy-sponsored or from independent media corners, Owens hasn't lost a fraction of a point off his all-star caliber and little rust was collected in his attitude-induced seven-month long sojourn away from football.

Informal stats say that T.O. was nearly perfect, reportedly catching every pass thrown to him and repeatedly burning CB Anthony Henry.

And then there was more off-field stuff. Owens offered no comment on the Philadelphia story, because his tome entitled - what else? - T.O. (Ah, so that's what he was doing for that seven months!)

"It's as close to the truth as I can tell," Owens said. Hmmm...

While Owens may show greatest proficiency in spouting the truth as we see it, the fact that thirty-one Cowboy opponents don't like hearing is that T.O.'s stats just don't lie: over 10,000 career yards receiving. Over one hundred TD receptions. A 2002 season in which he bagged exactly 100 for exactly 1300 yards. In the abstract, T.O. can probably be given credit for much of the 13-1 run the Eagles experienced in 2004 on the way to the Super Bowl before an injury put him out for most of the rest of the way.

When asked about the new offense he'll be working with, Owens admitted some tweaks to his style will be needed, but served notice to the rest of the league: "Once I get the ball in my hands it will be similar to the West Coast offense - I am going to take it and I am going to score with it." No opponent is going to admit to Owensophobia yet; after all, it's been a single workout for the man. But just as doubtlessly, the entire NFL will be following the Sharpie spokesman the rest of the way. And if there's one thing T.O. is always good for, it's a show.
Now all he needs to work on is a nice Nowitzki-like sneer.

More on Terrell Owens (and those other Dallas Cowboys, too) at Realfootball365.com
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