ATLANTA -- You can call him selfish, everybody else does. Call him ego-centric, too, and to some degree it fits. And, yes, Terrell Owens rips quarterbacks like a jealous schoolgirl rips a rival girl.
But for all the negatives that come with Owens, the Dallas Cowboys tempestuous receiver, the package includes a good deal of good, too.
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| Terrell Owens: Headcase, heralded, hard worker, helluva player. (AP) |
How about Totally Outstanding?
I, for one, think he's worth the aggravation. Put him on my team, and I'll take my chances with all that other stuff.
For all the talk about his inability to join team functions and sleeping through team meetings and not listening to coaches' fire-and-brimstone speeches and questioning leaks by the team, Owens shows up to play each and every week. And now we come to find out Owens is showing up this season with strained tendons in his right ring finger, an injury that could result in permanent damage down the road since he will not have surgery.
Is that the act of a selfish man?
Owens has dropped his share of passes this season -- the injury has certainly played a role -- but he showed Saturday night against the Atlanta Falcons that he's sill one of the elite receivers and players in the game. In the Cowboys' 38-28 victory, Owens caught five passes for 69 yards and two touchdowns, one a 51-yard bomb in the second quarter.
Matched in man coverage with Falcons corner DeAngelo Hall most of the night, Owens beat him for both touchdown catches. The first came on a nice catch in the corner of the end zone for a 7-yard touchdown. The second came when he blew past Hall and hauled in a perfectly thrown pass from Tony Romo. On that play, he showed a real burst.
Hall seemed to be in Owens' ear all night long. From the very first play, he talked and talked and talked at him as Owens returned to the huddle. At times, Owens looked like he'd had enough, but he never snapped. Several times, Hall pushed him late as he went out of bounds, almost baiting him to come back at him.
After the game, Hall said that Owens spit in his face.
"Right before the first punt, we kind of got into each other's face, talking back and forth and I lost all respect for him when he spit in my face," Hall said. "He's not too much in this league to be going around spitting in guys' faces. I lost all respect for him."
It was one of those inside-the-game matchups that make for great theater, a good cover player against one of the best receivers in the game.
