TO vs. Tuna

Parcells already tired of T.O.’s selfish ways
Tuna won't say it publicly, but he's sick of Owens’ doing only what he wants
COMMENTARY
By Jim Reeves
MSNBC contributor


Updated: 2:04 p.m. ET Aug 16, 2006
In his first mini-camp as Dallas Cowboys coach in 1989, Jimmy Johnson once pointed a player toward the “asthma field,” which, of course, was the Jimster’s euphemism for the exit door at the team’s Valley Ranch training complex.

Too bad Bill Parcells, the Cowboys’ current boss, doesn’t have a “pain-in-the-neck field” he could point to right about now.

There is no escape hatch for Parcells and the Cowboys, though. They’re stuck with Terrell Owens, and they know it.

Parcells simply has to grin — around gritted teeth — and bear it.

In a battle of wills between the legendary Cowboys coach and the infamous “I love me some me” T.O., Owens has clearly drawn the lines of battle.

Just as clearly, he’s winning that fight, too.


Owens’ string of missed practices due to an alleged tender hamstring stretched to 14 straight through Tuesday’s morning session. He has logged more miles on his (stationary) bike in the last week than Lance Armstrong in winning seven Tour De France titles.

Cowboys insiders say Parcells is seething inside, but he has resisted being baited into a public confrontation over Owens’ disinclination to practice with his teammates, placidly deflecting daily questions from the media.

“I really don’t have much to say,” Parcells said Tuesday when he was asked again about Owens and when he might practice. “This subject is getting redundant.”

No kidding.

In a perfect world, the Cowboys wouldn’t have to deal with this kind of distraction, but this is what happens when an overly excitable owner starts thinking “Super Bowl” and signs the NFL’s biggest headache and problem child to a three-year, $25 million contract, including $10 million guaranteed this season.

Jerry Jones asked for this. Now he’s got it.

So, unfortunately, does Parcells and so do Cowboys’ fans all across the country.

A poll in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Wednesday morning asked readers whether they were more steamed about 14 days of 100-plus temperatures this month or Owens missing 14 straight Cowboys’ practices. Early returns showed the weather was still rankling respondents more than T.O.’s absence from practice, but that might change if Parcells finally gets fed up and draws his own line in the sand.

Can he do that and expect to win?

Probably not, but at some point he has to stop letting Owens walk all over him and salvage his dignity, his pride and his reputation.

He can tell Owens and Jones to go to hell.

Parcells has always been a stickler for players practicing and if they don’t practice, they don’t play. Wide receiver Terry Glenn, not under the T.O. exemption umbrella, caught grief from Parcells for missing Tuesday’s practice with painful blisters on his feet.

“He’s definitely on me,” Glenn told reporters. “I can’t have nothing wrong.”


A few yards away, Owens peddled slowly on his stationary bike.

“We need to see something here pretty soon, that is the truth,” Parcells said Monday. “We need to get (Owens) in the offense. He’s missed a lot of work.”

Even Jones suggested after Owens wasn’t with the team in Seattle for the opening exhibition game that he needs to get used to practicing at “75 percent.”

“Terrell only knows one way, that’s 100 percent,” Jones said. “As he goes on into his career, if he can consistently practice at that 75 to 80 percent (level) that will help. It’s not a criticism.”

Heaven forbid.

Owens brought in his own medical team to advise him on dealing with the hamstring issue, an affront to the Cowboys’ doctors and training staff, and has clearly sent the message that he’ll return to practice only when he’s good and ready.

On Tuesday morning, he ran several 100-yard sprints, seemingly at full speed, but was back on his bike alongside the field for the afternoon practice.

“I know he wants me out there on the football field,” Owens told a large group of reporters Monday. “And I told him, ‘Bill, I want to be out there just as bad as you want me out there.’ It’s just a situation where we all have to be patient with one another.”

Patience, of course, has seldom been one of Parcells’ virtues over his 19-year career as an NFL head coach. Yes, he’s had problem players before, including Lawrence Taylor in New York, but Taylor at least understood his own on-field responsibilities and responded to Parcells’ coaching style. It’s almost always been Big Bill’s way or the highway.

This time, Parcells might have met his match, however.

Owens is letting everyone know that he does what he wants to do, when he wants to do it and how he wants to do it.

Unfortunately for Parcells and the Cowboys, there doesn’t seem to be an “asthma field,” much less a “pain-in-the-neck field,” anywhere in sight.

 

Didn't read that whole thing, but the Cowboys knew what they were getting into when they signed T.O. He is a selfish prick, and no amount of good coaching is going to change that. T.O. has ruined each of the previous two franchises he played for, what makes the Cowboys and Tuna think they can stop that streak?

 

Not trying to defend Owens as he clearly likes to rub people the wrong way but Smitty missed 13 straight practices with nary a sniff of complaining within the organisation. Of course, Smitty is way more fimiliar in this system but i do find it odd that no media is mentioning the fact that a similarly skilled and important athlete for his team was exercising prudence too.

 

Smitty isn't known for faking, that's why.

 

Also, if John Fox had come out and said something about the importance of Smith being back in practice to the press or some other similar hint-hint , nudge-nudge I imagine Smith would have been back to the practice field that day.

 

Smitty ain't going to Richardson over Fox's head either. As far as I know.

 

The Tuna ain't done yet.

Not that I have all that much respect for Al Davis, but it's too bad TO didn't go to Oakland, because big Al wouldn't stand for this crap. Just ask Marcus Allen. He'd make Biletnikoff tell TO to ride that bike all season long. During games and everything. That would be great.

The audacity of this jerk never ceases to amaze me. He's blowing off a 4-time COY, 2-time SB winner, and a lock-HOFer. TO isn't worthy to carry Parcells' clipboard.

 

I think we got the better end of the deal--the Cowpies got TO and we got Keyshawn.

 

Tell you what, I do not think Al Davis would need to say a word in Oakland. I still think Randy Moss when properly motivated can be the best in the league and TO would certainly bring out the best in Moss. I think Owens would just look like second fiddle to Moss. And that would be the best thing that ever happened to him.

 

who gives a flying fuck about TO?