There's a saying in football locker rooms that other guys in here who played have probably heard. Never walk on a man's grave. You want to get disrespected in a big time hurry, celebrate another player's misfortune. Guys just will not do it. Did you ever even hear Hugh Douglas after TO got cut from the Eagles? They supposedly had a fist fight. Yet silence from Douglas.
Are there Cowboys players who are glad he is gone? Of course they are. No one is so great that everyone loves him. Some are quietly elated he is gone.
The idea that this is a media creation waiver is ludicrous. This is TO created. Once again he is gone because he cannot put the team above himself. Let's discuss some facts shall we?
Last guy to take the field for practice, every time. The reason, he wants to make his grand entrance. It's as if he is saying, "we can get down to business because I'm here now." All it says to me is he isn't the right kind of leader. Michael Irvin was a prima donna WR too. Michael Irvin worked hard in practices too. Michael called out guys too. Did Michael ever throw teammates and coaches under the bus? Did he ever act jealous that Emmitt was the focal point of the Offense? Did he make it a habit to be the last guy to show up for practice?
Leadership is not personality. TO is a great guy. I mean that in every way. He has a good heart and he is very personable and guys genuinely like him. The problem is he demands that you like him. He demands that the Offense focus on him. He demands time and attention. He beats his own chest to tell you how good he is instead of letting others be his publicity.
How do you think it feels to teammates who get some game focus in a loss who have to hear that the reason the team lost is that instead of focusing on getting the ball to TO, the team trid to get you the ball? Do you think teammates stand there and appreciate that they just got blamed for the loss?
Screw the team trying to take advantage of mismatches that Jason Witten creats with LBs who have to cover him and can't? That's the message that is good for the team?
"They unleashed me." I wish he had never said that. I really do. The interpretation of that was, "we won because I got the ball." Forget the blocking that the OL did to protect the QB. Forget the fact that the QB has to throw the ball for him to even do anything with it. Forge the fact the Defense still has to stop the other team too. He patted himself on the back and it didn't push the team forward. Guess what? It never does.
Owens was cut for one reason, and one reason only. The Dallas Cowboys want to avoid a repeat of 2008, the year of Owens. They looked at the Offensive roster in place without him and said, "we are going to give these young kids an opportunity that they would not have if Owens was still here."
It's really just that simple. Owens is gone so that Garrett and the rest of the Offensive staff can come up with ways to take advantage of the skills of guys like Williams, Austin, Felix, Bennett, and Choice. Owens is gone so that Tony Romo has to develop chemistry with Bennett, Williams, Austin, and maybe even Stanback. Owens is gone so that the team can focus on what they need to do as a team rather than what they need to do to placate Owens.
Media driven waiver? Oh hell no. Owens actions basically begged for this to happen. He put himself above the team. He put himself above the coaching staff. He blamed others for his failures. He has no one to blame but his own flapping gums.
The remaining Cowboys are not going to walk on his grave. But if you for one minute think that some of them did not privately let out a sigh of relief or do a fist pump, well, then you need a wake up call from the real world. No one has ever been as good as TO's opinion of himself. That's a shame really. Had he simply let the praise coem from other sources the man would receive the accolades he actually does deserve.
Take a lesson from the whale TO. The only time he gets harpooned is when he comes up to spout.