There is no such thing as bad press when you're a football player. As long as you're well-known, there will always be a team out there willing to pay you more money than you're worth. Witness Keyshawn Johnson and Warren Sapp, who are better known for their mouths than their football skills. They're both pulling in big-star money because the league sees them as stars, despite strong evidence to the contrary.
This year, the best story in the NFL might be Steelers QB Ben Roethlisburger, New England's great start or the resurgence of the New York football teams. However, the biggest story has been and will continue to be motor-mouth wide receiver Terrell Owens.
To be fair, Owens has had an All-Pro-caliber season, reeling in 49 catches and nine touchdowns so far. However, his performance has been far overshadowed by his on-field antics and off-field quotes.
After an eight-year career as a San Francisco 49er (during which time he chased off then-teammate Jerry Rice, alienated fans, caused a mini-riot in a game at Dallas, and never won anything of consequence for his team), Owens decided he wanted to leave. San Francisco was only too happy to oblige, as he had a bad relationship with everyone in the franchise, most significantly QB Jeff Garcia. The 49ers shipped Owens off to Baltimore for a draft pick - problem solved.
Except Owens decided he didn't want to play for Baltimore; he wanted to go to Philadelphia instead. No matter that he signed a binding contract with San Francisco. Hedecided he simply would not show up in Baltimore for his physical.
Of course, Baltimore backed off on the trade, and eventually Owens made his way to Philly. One would wonder, at this point, why any team would want a player like him. Did the Eagles ever consider that if he was unhappy with the play-calling during a game, he might be inclined to just walk back to the locker room and go home?
Owens and the Eagles have thrived thus far, and Owens has used his team's success to put himself further in the spotlight. Two weeks ago, Philly faced the Baltimore Ravens squad that he spurned a few months ago. Ravens linebacker and team leader Ray Lewis took his insult of Baltimore personally, and many observers expected a showdown between the two.
Unfortunately for those who, like me, want to see Owens get the snot beaten out of him, the two never locked horns on the field. However, after a late-game touchdown catch, he took the opportunity to mimic Lewis' pre-game dance ritual, which only infuriated Lewis and the Ravens. After the game, Lewis called him a "coward" for it.
Unsurprisingly, the media lambasted Owens for the dance. But, they still put him on their back-page covers, which seems to be all that really matters to Owens. In the days following the incident, he appeared on several sports-talk television shows (clad in hats and shirts advertising his own Web site) to call further attention to himself.
Owens whined to the media that he was being treated unfairly by them. Imagine that! People only know him and not Javon Walker (the NFL leader in receiving yards thus far this year) because the media engage him every time he does something to get attention.
And yet, here he was, claiming that the media were being too nice to Lewis and too harsh on him. Here he was, classlessly bringing up Lewis' double-murder trial (for which he was acquitted).
Terrell Owens is like a child. He pouts when he doesn't get his way. He avoids taking responsibility for his own actions, instead deflecting blame to the mistakes of others.
Philly has thus far not had to deal with his blame game. It reared its ugly head last week during the Eagles' first loss of the season, as Owens was seen on the sidelines yelling in QB Donovan McNabb's ear.
It will be very interesting to see what happens when the inevitable occurs and he crosses the line and pisses off McNabb or coach Andy Reid. Will Philly dispatch him or live with his antics? And if it decide he's not worth the headache, will yet another team take a flier on him and gamble that his production can somehow outweigh all his negatives? If recent history is any indication, he can do whatever he wants. There will always be a team ready to take a chance on a back-page tabloid star.
