Didn’t T.O. Put a Football in the Middle of the Dallas Star?
“I promise you that I won’t let you down,” Terrell Owens to Jerry Jones at the press conference announcing the signing of Owens to the Cowboys.
According to Jay Glazer, the “inside reporter” for the Fox pre-game show, he reported that the Dallas Cowboys are taking the page out of the Philadelphia Eagle playbook when dealing with Terrell Owens. They are documenting everything that he does or does not do, whether it’s a league or team violation of policy or not, just in case T.O. becomes T.O. later in the year.
It seems to me that is a lot of effort for one player. If the team knew in advance that they would have to document his every move, why did they decide to pick him up? Using all the team resources on one player when football is still a team sport seems fruitless and frustrating. If I played on the Cowboys, I would be frustrated and angry that T.O. can come in and disrupt the chemistry that was established.
T.O. is an exceptional athlete, but the psychology it takes to deal with him just diminishes his talents and wastes everybody’s time. It’s a shame that there is still an element of professional sports, with football in particular, that coddles these high maintenance athletes that tramples on everything that teamwork and sports stands for.
I know my workplace wouldn’t put forth that type of effort to keep me around – they would just let me go and I’d wager that other businesses would do the same. Pampering these professional athletes shows young people the horrible example that if you are that good, you can do just about whatever you want. It is further evidence that just how out of touch professional sports and professional athletes are with the rest of society.
I thought that Bill Parcells would have been the coach to rein Terrell Owens in. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen much evidence of that happening. I wonder how Vince Lombardi would have handled him?
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment