An open letter to Terrell Owens’ detractors

By Os Davis  |   Wednesday, July 26, 2006  |  Comments( 9 )

Dallas Cowboys
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Dear Everyone except Me in the Civilized Universe outside the Greater Dallas-Ft. Worth Metropolitan Area,

The subject at hand is one of the greater wide receivers of our era, Terrell Owens. Fantastic! I'd like to talk about an exciting gamebreaker of a player who has demonstrably proven that his ability to help put an on-the-cusp squad into the Super Bowl.

I'd like to write about good ole' T.O., the No.4 all-time receiver in terms of touchdown receptions. I'd enjoy writing about a guy with six 1,000-yard seasons and his five straight Pro Bowl appearances. And we could relive a few great moments from the career of a guy whose statistics quite clearly show his contribution to the passing offense (not to mention his QB's numbers), and ponder just what he'll do to the Dallas Cowboys' chances this year.

I'd like to, but I'm afraid this letter would lie online unread. Instead, it seems that folks would like discuss another spoiled jock's insipid comments to the likes of talking heads Bryant Gumbel and Jimmy Kimmel. Or maybe I could write up a review of "T.O.: The Novel, Episode I." (Shouldn't Simon & Schuster be prosecuted by a war crimes tribunal for crimes against the environment, i.e. destroying huge swaths of woodland for paper on which to print this thing?)

But why? Why? Why is everyone talking about this?

Didn't anyone see him in the "Real Sports" piece? Look at him: look at the grin on his face while talking about Donovan McNabb and spouting silliness like "The only thing I can really think of is maybe it was the way I grew up ... I got picked on so much blah blah blah et cetera..." Why the grin? Because you're watching him!

Did anyone see Private Parts, the Howard Stern biographical movie? Check out this exchange on the shock jock's overwhelming success on the radio, from the movie's dialogue: "The average radio listener listens for 18 minutes. The average Howard Stern fan listens for ... an hour and 20 minutes."

"How can that be?"

"Answer most commonly given? 'I want to see what he'll say next.'"

"Okay, fine. But what about the people who hate Stern?"

"Good point. The average Stern hater listens for two and a half hours a day."

"But...if they hate him, why do they listen?"

"Most common answer? 'I want to see what he'll say next.'"

Who's waiting to hear what comes from T.O.'s mouth next? Anyone?

When Realfootball365's own Andy Targovnik said that T.O. might yet "win over the hearts and minds of fans," well...I suggest that maybe he has already. Maybe he's gotten inside the heads of Cowboy detractors (now I know you're out there) like he does with opponents on a great Sunday.

Didn't anyone hear him on Jimmy Kimmel Live? After Kimmel pressed the man to make nice-nice with McNabb, T.O. pledged that he "will make an effort to an effort to beat the Eagles." This may have been the moment to pay attention to. T.O. is capable of Deion Sanders-like clutch performances, seemingly willing himself to great heights in big games. I'm sure you saw Super Bowl XXXIX, in which Owens loaded the Eagles' highlight tape with nine receptions for 122 yards, MVP-level play after what ESPN's John Clayton called at that time perhaps "the greatest recovery from an injury in 39 years of the Super Bowl."

Even when we must listen (hey, I do) to an athlete speaking about the imagined injustices done him or "telling it like it is," shouldn't T.O. be given a bit of a break? He did admit he was wrong about his problems in San Francisco during his recent media blitz, after all. And if we're listening to T.O., shouldn't we also be listening to say, McNabb, and perhaps criticizing his complaints of illness during the Super Bowl? Okay, sure, T.O. came off like an idiot in the aftermath, calling himself a "hero" (even though the media surely would have, had the Eagles won the Bowl) and negatively comparing McNabb to Brett Favre (even though McNabb is, in truth, no Favre).

But folks, as far as Simpson Bad Behavior Awards goes, T.O.'s childish rants and commentary are pretty low on the pole. This is nowhere near alleged rapist Kobe Bryant claiming Shaquille O'Neal had done the same and breaking up a championship franchise. This stuff is far below the level of Pete Rose gambling, John Rocker giving his views on America's race situation, or Michael Irvin partying his way to court and four years' worth of probation.

T.O. is just simply another dude of whom NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell was referring to when he said, "most professional athletes have been on scholarship since the third grade." He's what Jim Bouton meant by "a 15-year-old in a 25-year-old body."

And everybody knows the mass media feeds on this stuff. They have no interest in applying duct tape to the Lone Star Mouth. There's nothing happening in the NFL right now and, in fact, that's what T.O.'s quotes and sound bites mostly are: nothing.

So why are you listening? Let's talk some football instead.

Yours,

Os

P.S. I, for one, loved the Sharpie touchdown. Hilarious!

- Get more original Dallas Cowboys insight at Realfootball365.com.
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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CommentsComments: 9  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
Raiderusmaximus		04:36 PM
07/26/2006
HA HA HA! T.O. is a disgrace to football. The guy let his whole team down and McNabb was a gentleman the whole time through. T.O....
No.2
Shelly		05:43 PM
07/26/2006
Loyal Cowboys fan checking in...in regards to TO, I like his cockiness and his talent shows on the field. What's wrong with him...
No.3
stop		06:30 PM
07/26/2006
hey u know what Raidersmaximus, i bet u the real maximus the gladiator is probably laghing at all of us. why? because this is not...
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