Yes, I Still Hate TO

There was a time when I felt bad for Terrell Owens.  No, it wasn't last week, when he again dominated sports headlines after attempting -- or not -- to commit suicide.

It was two summers ago, after it became clear the Eagles weren't giving in and Owens -- egged on by an agent whom God created just so other agents wouldn't look so bad -- wasn't going to be able to extricate himself from the rapidly disintegrating situation in which he found himself.

I read all the coverage, just like everyone else did, and as the sound bites and interviews started to pile up, I realized that TO did not then, and might not ever, "get it."  He was simultaneously too stupid, prideful, insecure and manipulative to ever understand just how badly he had screwed up with an organization, fanbase, coach and team who all desperately wanted to see him succeed.

That's the thing about Owens.  He's not a thoroughly bad guy.  This isn't some one-dimensional movie villain.  Listening to his teammates talk about him, it was clear that most of them really liked the guy, and didn't understand why he couldn't see what everyone else could see.  And as Owens' too-numerous defenders are so fond of pointing out, he's not a guy who shows up on the police blotter (before last week).

But that shouldn't obstruct the fact that Owens is a villain.  Hell, even Charles Manson has his good points.  That doesn't mean we should let him out of the hole any time soon.

...

As last season dragged on, and TO's transgressions piled up, I stopped feeling bad for him.  We don't know that much about Andy Reid.  The Eagles coach isn't one for letting much light shine in.  His whole public manner is based on deflecting as much attention as possible -- unless his team screws up, then he's always front and center to take the blame ("I've got to do a better job putting my guys in a position to succeed").

But what we do know about Reid is that he's a devoutly religious man.  He treats his players well and puts their personal well-being first in his dealings with them.  Reid reaffirmed that stance this preseason when he traded Hank Fraley to the Browns after a series of bizarre circumstances left that team without a quality starting center.  Fraley is a good player, who could absolutely have given the Eagles some quality depth this season.  But Reid, knowing Fraley was in the last year of his contract and had been a good soldier for years, wanted to give 'Honeybuns' an opportunity to go somewhere he could start. 

It is, of course, the shrewdness of Reid that he just happened to have five other backup offensive linemen he wanted to keep.

Owens, a petulant child incapable of seeing beyond himself, never recognized the type of person Reid was, despite the fact that he has spent far more time with him than the rest of us on the outside ever will.  He never understood that this was a person who actually wanted to help him deal with his demons and who truly cared about more than just Owens the football player.  And so TO attacked Reid, both publicly and behind his back, by working to undermine Reid's control over the team.

Unfortunately for Owens, he had underestimated his opposition.  Only too late TO realized he wasn't going to beat down Reid, so he went looking for his next target.

He found him in Donovan McNabb, his quarterback, the man who had lobbied hardest for him to come to Philadelphia.

Now I'm not going to sit here and pretend I know McNabb.  None of us really knows the athletes we spend so much time watching and reading about.  And it's especially hard to get a clear picture of someone like McNabb, who works very hard to control his public image. 

But what I do know about McNabb is what I have seen on the field.  I have seen a guy who single-handedly carried an anemic offense for years.  A guy who played hurt.  Who gave his team and this city everything he had out on the field.

A man who understands and fulfills his responsibility to stand as a role model, both because of his prominence and because of his race.

A man who never once backed down or blew up in the face of idiots who claimed his professional success was the product of an overly-sympathetic media or that the Eagles would have been much better off drafting Ricky Williams.

(Including, incidentally, the idiot writing this very piece, who went to college in Texas and watched Williams dominate the opposition for years.  Boy was I stupid.)

And here was Owens, publicly calling out this man, his quarterback, his teammate ... all because he wanted more money.  Something he had more than enough of anyway.

But even as Owens goaded him by questioning his leadership, his relative compensation and his professional abilities, McNabb said nothing.  Nothing that would have given the media types some good copy.  Nothing other than a warning to "keep [McNabb's] name out of [his] mouth" as Owens went to any length necessary to make a point that only his delusional mind could fully comprehend. 

McNabb held back, because it was his job to hold this team together.  If the price of Owens' talent was an endless stream of indefensible antics and derogatory statements, so be it.  For years, McNabb had carried this team on his back, even once finishing -- and winning -- a game in which he had broken his leg on the third play from scrimmage.  If this was just one more burden to bear, he could handle it.  He always had. 

But of course, he couldn't.  His body betrayed him, first with a badly bruised sternum that made it difficult to breathe, and then a sports hernia that sapped him of both his speed and his consistency.  When his body gave out, in a mid-season game against the hated Dallas Cowboys, McNabb was finally done.  His dogged perseverance for naught, a once-proud team imploded under the weight of injuries and the dissension sown by Owens.

For that reason, I hate Terrell Owens.  And because he has shown no remorse over what happened, because he does not even seem to acknowledge the possibility that any blame for what occurred could rightfully be tossed his way, I will continue to hate him. 

...

"That which does not kill me makes me stronger." -- Friedrich Nietzche

I never believed that quote.  In fact, I thought it was complete bullshit.  I've seen too many people go through hard situations and come out the other side diminished. 

But in Donovan McNabb's case, it was true.  McNabb is a different person, and player, than he was last year.  He's in the midst of taking that giant leap from "really good" to "great."  Listening to the post-game shows and other analysis, it's clear that people around the league are starting to notice.  In a couple of months, everyone will realize it.

It's interesting to note that only once, after the season was finally over, did McNabb address the Owens issue publicly, in a much-maligned press conference in which he referred to Owens' endless backstabbing as a "black-on-black crime," giving the tut-tutters in the press an opportunity to demonstrate their own moral superiority by condemning the way in which McNabb "trivialized" an "important issue."  This effectively ended any real discussion about what had happened.

Which was too bad, because there were a lot of untold stories there.  Like how too many of McNabb's teammates, who perhaps felt that Owens had a point about how the organization operated, let him down by refusing to publicly stand behind their leader until it was too late.  Or how Owens' incessant "look at me" preening while on the football field had rubbed off on too many of his young teammates. 

Thankfully, Reid took care of that crap this offseason. 

...

Here is the final, and most important, reason why I hate TO.  It's not because he put himself before his team, publicly denigrated a string of good coaches and teammates, and generally refused to accept that there was any purpose to life larger than his own gratification. 

It's because there are honestly people who think he was right.

I was back in Pennsylvania for a wedding at the time when the TO saga was first taking off.  I remember listening to WIP and being dumbfounded that there were actually people calling in to defend TO.

Now I understand the pattern of sports radio.  The producer lets through only the most asinine individuals who will serve as cannon fodder for a gleefully indignant host.  I get it. 

But the fact the there were actually people who believed that TO was in the right, that he was a "blue-collar" player who better represented the city of Philadelphia than Donovan McNabb, completely blew my mind.

It was one of those what-on-earth-is-our-civilization-coming-to moments.  If we have so completely lost the ability to say "this, this thing right here, is bad," then hope is gone, and we might as well just pack it in.

That is what makes TO such a pernicious influence.  That is why his intolerable conduct should not stand.

That is why I most hate him. 

And why you should too.