T.O. suspended indefinitely

[Chip R]

Is there any truth to the rumor that ESPN is starting a new network ESPNTO that is going to follow TO around 24/7 now that he's suspended?

[WVRed]

Maybe the bengals can trade for him

No thanks. We have a receiver who contributes a lot more and isnt near the headcase.

Funny Keyshawn got mentioned. That is exactly who TO, not to mention the entire Philadelphia Eagles organization, reminds me of. Team gets to the Super Bowl(or in Tampas case, wins it), and the outspoken player who was tolerated is the media darling. When the team self destructs or underperforms the next season, hes viewed as the problem and is suspended.

The two situations are a lot alike. Plus if you look at Keyshawn and Moss, neither one had a high trade value. For that matter, Owens didnt either when he was with SF.

I have a feeling TO will be playing at Qwest Field next season for the Seahawks while Shaun Alexander gets shipped east to Philly.

[GAC]

Is there any truth to the rumor that ESPN is starting a new network ESPNTO that is going to follow TO around 24/7 now that he's suspended?

They were playing all their old interviews with TO earlier this morning. Sitting there watching this idiot's smile while makes some of his egocentric statements makes me wish someone would really clean his clock on that field. That's if/when he ever gets back on it.

[GAC]

He's gone for the year!

In a Philadelphia news conference, Reid said the team intends to deactivate the wide receiver in each of the four games remaining following the conclusion of Owens' suspension.

According to Reid, the NFL has been notified by the NFL Players Association that it intends to pursue a grievance relating to the Eagles' right to act in this manner. Should the grievance be successful, Owens would be due the monies he will lose as the result of being suspended. He is in the second year of a seven-year, $48.97 million contract he signed when he joined the Eagles in March 2004.

But an NFL agent with years of experience counseling players, Jack Wirth of Worth, Ill., termed the grievance a formality. "It has no shot," said Wirth. "It's not going to hold water. I'm sure there are lots of things that are not even documented that the Eagles could introduce at a hearing."

Through the four games of his suspension – the maximum suspension in the NFL for "conduct detrimental" – Owens will not be paid. As a member of the team's 53-player squad, he would be paid for the four games when he is deactivated.

What the Eagles apparently are going to do is to wait until February to sever the player, which would mean the team would not have to pay Owens a $7.5 million roster bonus due him.

By the 2006 season, Owens will be 32. Because of his conduct, he has little chance of winning a contract of the sort he has been lobbying for, according to Wirth.

"He can go out into that great, wonderful market and see if anybody wants to give him $15 million at the age of 32," said the agent. "It's not going to happen. You tell me a team that would want to jump for that. That's cap suicide. You can't do that. The cap ramifications are terrible."

A team that would enrich Owens in effect would be surrendering control to him, Wirth said. "He owns you," the agent said. "He can do whatever he wants."

Wirth said Owens is in a "no-win situation" and that his conduct is going to cost him millions. "That's a pretty extravagant ego," Wirth said.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports...-1s8owens.html

They are gonna pay him to stay away.


He just put his house in Philly up for sale.

Regardless of his talent -what organization would want to take the risk on a guy who has caused such turmoil and upheaval in his two previous organizations? I look at what he did in that Philly clubhouse alone, and I'd stay far away from this cancer. This guy is a nutcase and is the most outspoken, self-centered player in the NFL. I mean - to get upset because they didn't publically recognize your

Isn't it funny that earlier this week he publically ridiculed McNabb's QB abilities and said this team would have gone farther with a Brett Fahr as QB... It's just funny.

[Blimpie]

Drew Rosenhaus = Spawn of Lucifer

[Chip R]

Someone's having a news conference this afternoon.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051108/...s_owens_future

Terrell Owens Calls News Conference By ROB MAADDI, AP Sports Writer
1 hour, 8 minutes ago



PHILADELPHIA - Terrell Owens and agent Drew Rosenhaus will have a news conference at the Owens' house in Moorestown, N.J. this afternoon. Owens' brief but tumultuous time in Philadelphia ended yesterday when the All-Pro wide receiver was told not to return to the team this season.

"This decision is a result of a large number of situations that accumulated over a long period of time, during which Terrell had been warned repeatedly about the consequences of his actions," Eagles coach Andy Reid said.

Owens was suspended for Sunday night's 17-10 loss at Washington, and will remain suspended for three more games without pay. After that, the Eagles plan to deactivate him for the rest of the season.

Though he's perhaps the best wideout in the NFL, Owens caused far too many distractions with his selfish behavior.

"We gave Terrell every opportunity to avoid this outcome," Reid said.

Owens was suspended Saturday, two days after he said the Eagles showed "a lack of class" for not publicly recognizing his 100th career touchdown catch in a game on Oct. 23. In the same interview with ESPN.com on Thursday, Owens said the Eagles would be better off with Green Bay's Brett Favre at quarterback instead of Donovan McNabb.

Owens also was involved in a fight last week with former Eagles defensive end Hugh Douglas, who remains with the team as its "ambassador." Owens apologized for his comments about the organization in a brief statement Friday, but didn't apologize to McNabb or the team.

"The league has been notified by the players' union that they will be grieving our right to take that action," Reid said, "therefore there is nothing more that I can say at this point."

Owens summoned police to his house late Monday because there were some people on his property. He said he wanted to be left alone, had no comment and would contact the news media when he did want to speak, police at the scene said.

Later, two pizzas were delivered to Owens' home. Someone answered the door — not Owens — and gave deliveryman James McDevitt a $5 tip. McDevitt said he left the tip on the door step.

Rosenhaus, refused to comment. Owens' relationship with the Eagles took a drastic turn after he fired longtime agent David Joseph, hired Rosenhaus and demanded a new contract just one season into the seven-year, $48.97 million deal he signed when he came to Philadelphia in March 2004.

Owens is scheduled to earn $3.25 million this season, meaning the four-game suspension would cost him almost $800,000.

The Eagles will have to pay Owens nearly $1 million to stay home the final five games. They could've simply released him already, but they didn't want his signing bonus to affect the salary cap or allow him to go to another team.

Owens will either be traded or cut after the season. He's due to receive a $5 million roster bonus in March 2006, so the Eagles will decide his fate before then.

Owens made more than $9 million last season, when he helped lead Philadelphia to the Super Bowl.

Two years ago, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers decided they'd had enough of Keyshawn Johnson and made a similar move.

After Johnson criticized coach Jon Gruden, the Super Bowl champion Bucs deactivated the star receiver and sent him home for the final six games with pay.

The Eagles are 4-4 this season. And McNabb, who feuded with Owens throughout the summer and has been a constant target of his criticism, finally took a stand in the matter, saying the team might be "better off" without Owens.

"Obviously it is tough losing a guy of his caliber, his ability, but I think we might be better off," McNabb said after throwing an interception that sealed the loss to Washington.

"We're 4-4. We're not 1-7. I think that's the way to look at it. For the guys in the locker room, we win together and we lose together," he said.

Asked to elaborate on how the team could be better off without its top receiver, McNabb emphasized the remaining players are united with the same goal of winning.

Rookie Reggie Brown filled in for Owens against Washington and caught five passes for 94 yards, including a 56-yard TD reception. But the Eagles' offense continued to struggle and couldn't score the tying touchdown with three shots from the Redskins 7 in the final minutes.

The Eagles were 17-5 with Owens, including a 24-21 loss to New England in the Super Bowl. In that game, Owens had nine catches for 122 yards after defying his doctor's advice and playing 6 1/2 weeks after ankle surgery.

They're 2-1 without him in games that matter, winning twice in the NFC playoffs.

This was the second time Owens has been suspended during his controversial 10-year career. In 2000, he was suspended one game by San Francisco coach Steve Mariucci following his infamous touchdown celebrations on the Dallas Cowboys' star logo at the center of Texas Stadium.

Owens clashed with management this summer and earned a one-week exile from training camp after a heated dispute with Reid that followed a shouting match with offensive coordinator Brad Childress.

Owens forced a trade to the Eagles last year after eight seasons with the 49ers and invigorated the offense with his superior skills. He had 77 catches for 1,200 yards and 14 TDs in 14 games.

Soon after Philadelphia lost to the Patriots, Owens took his first shot at McNabb, suggesting the five-time Pro Bowl quarterback was tired in the fourth quarter of the loss.

McNabb responded harshly and the two didn't speak for a prolonged period in training camp. They eventually reconciled their relationship and performed well together on the field — Owens has 47 catches for 763 yards and six TDs this season.

However, Owens continued to throw verbal jabs at McNabb.

[GAC]

I just listened to his "apology". It can be replayed on ESPN's website.

The problem is - why shouldn't anyone doubt his sincerity in that apology? And in his heart does he really believe what he read before the public, or is he now just doing so because they got him where it hurts the most - they took him off that playing field (which was his stage), and dented his wallet.

I don't think this guy will ever learn. Maybe I'm wrong; but if I were an organization, I'd sure show doubts about bringing him in, regardless of his immense abilities. Especially at the amount of money he wants. Not worth the risk.

[RedsBaron]

Drew Rosenhaus = Spawn of Lucifer

Until I saw the news conference featuring Rosenhaus, I thought Owens was the biggest jerk in pro football. I was wrong. Rosenhaus is an even bigger jerk. He and Owens deserve each other.

[RFS62]

Until I saw the news conference featuring Rosenhaus, I thought Owens was the biggest jerk in pro football. I was wrong. Rosenhaus is an even bigger jerk. He and Owens deserve each other.

No kidding.

How long before TO turns on Rosenhaus and blames him for his bad judgment?

[GAC]

Rosenhaus is also Chad Johnson's agent.

[Blimpie]

I just listened to his "apology". It can be replayed on ESPN's website.

...and ESPN Radio...and ESPN News...and ESPN Desporte...and ESPN Sportscenter....

[Chip R]

Until I saw the news conference featuring Rosenhaus, I thought Owens was the biggest jerk in pro football. I was wrong. Rosenhaus is an even bigger jerk. He and Owens deserve each other.

And I think that's exactly what Rosenhaus wanted to happen. He wanted to make himself look like the bad guy and TO would look much better by comparison. He knew that was the only damage control that would work. He was in this thing for one reason: to get Owens a new deal. Unfortunately for Rosenhaus and Owens it backfired miserably because Owens couldn't keep his big mouth shut. It's one thing to hold out for more money and a new deal. Players can respect that because they know they could get cut or forced to have their contract renegotiated. But when you start throwing your teammates under the bus, that's where you start to lose whatever respect they had for you. I know someone will pick up Owens this offseason but there are a lot fewer teams out there that are willing to take that chance now. That's going to cost Owens and Rosenhaus money. It may hurt Rosenhaus more than Owens though. Players see this "strategy" by Rosenhaus and they may not be willing to either keep him on as an agent or hire him in the first place.

[Blimpie]

Owens may get a new deal, but not at seven years. Certainly not at $ 7 million per year, either. He's painted himself into a corner and no other players in the league seem to care. Yesterday, he thanked some of his Eagle teammates "who stuck by him this season." Who was that? Not one teammate has come forward and said that they understand why T.O. is doing what he is doing. Why? Because he torches them all every chance he gets.

Yesterday, I heard rumors that he was wanted by Oakland, Atlanta and Minnesota. Today, I heard the New York Jets. Nobody is gonna take a flyer on him IMO. For the remainder of this year, I don't think he's going anywhere but to his house to hold a few more bad press conferences. Really, as long as he has ESPN devoting special programming to him each and every night, he will be happy as a clam. Same with Rosenhaus.

Rosenhaus has misplayed his cards with the Eagles terribly ever since training camp. He is a marginal agent--at best; yet, his players act like they will run through a wall for him. I don't get it. He didn't get T.O. the big deal he was currently playing under--that was T.O.'s former agent's doing. So what exactly has Rosenhaus done for T.O.--except for giving him bad career advice? Nada. At some point, the player has to hold him responsible for these messes he keeps putting them into.

[Chip R]

Here's a story form the San Jose Mercury basically making ESPN a partner in all this.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...s/13107699.htm

ESPN also had a role in Owens' demise

BY PHIL SHERIDAN

Philadelphia Inquirer


PHILADELPHIA - To talk T.O., you have to talk TV.

The Eagles' new reality is easy to confuse with reality television. The way this thing played out, the role of Andy Reid could just as easily have been played by Donald Trump.

"Terrell Owens ... you're fired.''

Without removing any responsibility from Owens for the events that led up to Monday's bombshell, it's also important to note that this whole thing was an ESPN production from first to last.

This was "Playmakers'' without the script or the bad acting. Well, without the script.

It was Mike Wise, the fine sports columnist from the Washington Post (and, notably, the one Post columnist without an ESPN contract) who put it best. Wise wondered in print when ESPN became "Al-Jazeera for spoiled athletes."

He was writing about Terrell Owens, among others.

Let's be fair. ESPN couldn't have engineered this thing without the misguided cooperation of a clueless attention-monger athlete and his equally pub-starved agent. What this was, it was the perfect storm of an infantile, camera-starved player and the greatest hype machine in the history of the planet coming together to blow the Eagles' season into tiny little shards of ruined hope.

Terrell Owens is a selfish jerk.

ESPN specializes in selfish jerkosity.

Game. Set. Mismatch.

It is an overused metaphor, but what the hey. The moth is drawn to the flame and the flame turns the moth into smoke and moth-ash. The TV lights drew Owens in and now this giant pain-in-the-ash is nothing but smoke.

Now there are astute readers out there who will point out that The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News have published a combined 3.7 billion column inches of copy about Owens. And faithful readers of this column (thanks to all four of you!) will note correctly that it has been devoted to Owens and Owens-related fallout roughly 92 percent of the time since April 2004.

You have a point. The media as a whole have milked this cow until it fell over. Headlines, deadlines, Web hits and podcasts - Terrell Owens was the "Neverending Story'' until, well, the story ended. Except, of course, there is the grievance and the post-suspension reaction piece and the what-comes-next story and the special edition when he signs with the Raiders in March.

Conceding all of that, here's the bottom line: Take ESPN out of the equation and this is a run-of-the-mill contract squabble between a star player and a football team.

Let's just focus on the sequence last week that brought the cauldron to full boil.

ESPN reported that Owens sprained his ankle in Denver and would likely miss the next two games. This was news because Reid, who has started every news conference since the day after he was hired with the word "Injuries," hadn't mentioned this mysterious ankle sprain after the game or a day later.

So Hugh Douglas, the self-proclaimed "bad-assador" who gets it as much as any player to pass through this hellish sports market in the last decade, called Owens out in the trainer's room. Not a politic move for any kind of assador (bad- or amb-), but let's just be grateful somebody noticed there was an elephant in the locker room.

A day after tussling with Douglas, Owens agreed to a lengthy sit-down interview with 19-year-old Graham Bensinger, a freshman journalism major at Syracuse University - where Donovan McNabb, of course, sits on the board of directors.

And this is where the ESPN factor comes in. Michael Irvin is to journalism what Liberace was to quantum physics, and he had served as Owens' on-air confessor. Graham Bensinger, once he needs to shave, may turn out to be the second coming of Edward R. Murrow, or even Howard Cosell, but for now? He's a kid that Owens figured would lob a few softballs his way.

Here's the best and most telling quote from the interview that was cut to two T.O.-killing minutes on ESPN last week. Asked about how unfair the media have been to the poor unfortunate multimillionaire backstabbing teammate from Hades, Owens said:

"You know, I know how the media is. I know how TV works. They'll throw a question out there and they'll edit it. You know, the way they want to put it out there to the world."

Then, knowing how TV works, Owens provided the sound bites that wound up biting him right on the portion of the anatomy he is such a pain in.

How perfect is that?

This is postmodern self-immolation. Owens' final crime was to echo the brain-dead analysis of ESPN's Irvin on ESPN, leading to ESPN commentators like Sean Salisbury and Mark Schlereth calling for Owens' head on, of course, ESPN.

It was great TV.

Unless you care even a little bit about the Philadelphia Eagles. Then it was just sick, sad and stupid. Then it wasn't reality TV. It was reality.

[Blimpie]

It was Mike Wise, the fine sports columnist from the Washington Post (and, notably, the one Post columnist without an ESPN contract) who put it best. Wise wondered in print when ESPN became "Al-Jazeera for spoiled athletes

:ughmamoru