T.O. the time bomb is ticking (updated)
Posted: Thursday, December 13, 2007 8:38 AM
Terrell Owens is a self-absorbed, egomaniacal knucklehead whose world ends at the boundaries of his own skin. And the Dallas Cowboys can only thank their lucky star that he’s found someone outside the organization to focus his negative energies on.
He blew up on Wednesday for no reason at all.
You’ve probably read the story. On Sunday, Keyshawn Johnson, the former Cowboy who’s become one of ESPN’s 743 football analysts, rather innocently observed that Bill Parcells should get some of the credit for putting together the team that his successor as head coach, Wade Phillips, has taken to a 12-1 record.
No big deal and no great insight, right? Parcells was the coach, he put together the roster, inserted Tony Romo as quarterback, and rode off into the sunset, driven there at least partly by having to deal with T.O.’s ego on a daily basis. Johnson didn’t say Parcells was a better coach than Wilson, didn’t say that the Tuna could have done the same job Phillips has done. He just said Parcells should get some credit for putting the team together.
And Owens had a conniption. Instead of addressing Johnson’s comments, he ripped
his former teammate the ex-receiver up, down, sideways, crossways and kitty-corner.
“He's going to be a hater and throw me under the bus because he has to defend Bill,” Owens said of Johnson. “"I challenge him to come down here and take my job.”
Huh?
But wait, there’s more.
“We came out in the same year,” Owens continued. “He was a first-rounder and I was a third. Go compare our stats. He couldn't come down here now and be a third or fourth receiver on this team. Just compare our stats.”
You’ve got to have a screw loose – and a couple of shorts in the old circuit board – to take one comment from an analyst and take it as a personal attack. And how insecure do you have to be to rip a former teammate who is no threat to you or your job?
T.O. has been exemplary this year and a major part of the Cowboy’s success. But he’s a time-bomb, and he’s ticking. On Sunday, he wasn’t the go-to guy in the Cowboy’s come-from-behind win against Detroit. Let that happen again, and he’ll blow another gasket, because with him, it’s never about the team and always about T.O.
That won’t be a problem as long as the team wins and T.O. is a big part of it. He can help them get to the Super Bowl and maybe win it, and if he does, he will have been worth the investment.
But he won’t last long. He never does. Today, Wade Phillips is his best friend. Tomorrow, who knows what he’ll be?
Is he worth the chaos he brings to the table? Ask me after the Super Bowl.
