An article on the one & only...

Lifetimeboyzfan

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Could you copy/paste this article? When I hit your link, its asking me to log in to another site...
 
PoetTree

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Just Call Me Angel

DAL_owens_jones_59838.jpg

By: PoetTree
DCC Staff Writer

My friends...

I've been witnessing something frightening for the past few days. Or maybe longer. Maybe the past few days have merely been a hearkening to a condition that's existed for some time. But whatever the case, I think we can all use this opportunity to stare ourselves squarely in the face & choose, in truth, if this is who we desire to be.


Because, I can't help but feel we've lost sight of something... important....



A player, a man, named Terrell Owens is now signed to play football for a team called 'The Dallas Cowboys'. A harmless enough factoid, it would seem. But from viewing the reaction of a disturbing majority of fans, journalists and laymen alike, one would think a plague or curse had been cast down upon the town, its citizens and every former person who's had even an ancillary involvement with the team. And I wonder while watching this spectacle of fear & judgment: have we all lost our minds?

Because Terrell Owens and his antics aside, when exactly did we misplace our humanity? At what point did we begin to value anger, arrogance, jealousy and condemnation so greatly that we turn to "them" for guidance, rather than our true nature of Love? Or more simply, when did we begin to take football so seriously that we lost our ability to enjoy the game? Because the last time I checked, that's all this is.

And why, oh why is this Terrell Owens such a bad guy?

I mean, sure, he's done some name-calling. Good thing no one else on the planet does anything like that, huh? And let's see, he made a suggestion that he's worth more than he was getting paid. Yeah, I'm sure that's a rare concept for most people. And, um, what else? He, uh... he told the truth a couple of times, ya know, instead of just pushing the company line and being a "good soldier", so to speak.

And truth be told, though I risk upsetting an unspoken social conspiracy here... and thus could be vilified right along with #81... I believe it is those latter "infractions", as they seem to be seen, which speak to a deeper problem than one man alone could ever present. Aaah, but then again, maybe that one man could represent an avenue to solving the problem as a whole.

(More on this in a moment.)

First, let's address the whole "name-calling" thing. Yes, Terrell Owens basically came out and called Jeff Garcia gay. Well, ignoring the stupidity of using an ages-old, widespread sexual identity as an insult, shall we take a look at a few of the things that Owens himself has been called by the very people who are impugning him for such behavior?

"Lucifer", "Satan", "The Devil", "Plague", "Evil", "Malevolent"... "Cancer"

I mean, get a grip! Get a BIG grip!! 'Cause everyone who wants to point their crooked little fingers at this man and name him as something, which, if you'll notice, is a far uglier indictment than what Owens himself said, become in doing so the very thing they are speaking out against. It's called hypocrisy. And though it appears to be a very treasured American ideal, one with a time-honored tradition... almost as old as the one about being dishonest in order not to lose people's approval... it is this, in my opinion, which represents the far bigger problem than anything Terrell Owens has done or said.

After all, who doesn't remember the old "sticks & stones" adage from when we were children? So, he said something. So what? Was it a high-class comment? No, not really. Did it come from a small, petty place inside Owens' ego? Yep, there's no gettin' around it. But have pretty much every one of us felt, thought and/or done something similar in our lifetimes? Count on it. We just don't have our incidents reported repeatedly over cable TV. But there's not one among us who doesn't dwell in a glass house of some kind. Yet, we all still practice stone-throwing as a hobby.

*sigh*

And so, let's examine the contract situation. This, more so than anything else, has people up-in-arms about Owens' selfishness. He wanted more money. Gasp! He's certainly the first athlete to have that thought, isn't he? But here's my question, and I openly wonder if it's one the collective "we" have really entertained: Do you think, maybe, he deserved it?

I mean, sure, NFL teams agree to a contract with "you". But the moment they feel you're no longer performing at a level that is commiserate with said contract, they can either ask you to take a pay cut or ignore the contract altogether and drop you from the team. This is ubiquitously considered "fair play" in the sports world, and we need look no further than our own Larry Allen for proof of this practice. And so, why is what Terrell Owens did thought of as so villainous?

He felt he played at a level above & beyond what his contract compensated him for. So, he wanted more. He had propelled the Eagles to a theretofore unachieved level of offensive success and was perhaps THE key to their Superbowl run that season. He broke his leg in the 14th game of the league year, and of his own accord, did everything humanly possible to return in record time from the injury--for that aforementioned Superbowl. Furthermore, without the organization's endorsement & even having to sign a release of liability form in order to do so... thus ensuring that any injury risk (which was considered high) and the resultant affect it could have on his career, he bore all on his own... he came back and played, incredibly well, I might add, and laid it all on the line for his team.

And so, he felt that his contract... "his love"... was not on par with the love he showed for the organization & simply asked for that to be corrected. He didn't hold out. In fact, he was producing a league-leading performance under the auspices of that unworthy contract, still clearly laying it on the line for his team. He just wanted what he considered to be "fair" treatment. And whether you (or the team) agree that he was being treated fairly or not... and I think a case can be made that Owens' viewpoint was not exactly unwarranted... the fact is, it's how he felt. And he's perfectly entitled to his experience.

It does not make him wrong. It does not make him evil. And it certainly does not make him a cancerous human being. It just makes him a person, like all of us... in some way, shape or form... who's looking for a little love; who's seeking for the fulfillment that, in our highest, truest idea of "Self", we deserve.

The behavior that arose afterwards, which the media picked apart & spotlighted on Sportscenter every instant of the day and night, came only after he had voiced this desire and was painted ugly by every Tom, Dick & Harry with an opinion and a mouth. But the most wounding words, I guarantee you, were the ones we never heard; the ones by the organization itself.

The Eagles turned on him in order to protect this sanctified image they sought to uphold, and in doing so, made an enemy out of the man who had gone to war for them. And to me, this is the biggest problem this situation has revealed: our stodgy commitment to social dishonesty and the misplaced ability to look at life through innocent eyes and just... play.

This is a game, after all.

And when Terrell Owens was asked if he agreed with Michael Irvin... and let us remember that it wasn't even his own thought he was professing, but rather, an opinion on somebody else's... that the Eagles would be undefeated at that point of the season had Brett Favre been their quarterback, I'm not sure there's many people who didn't feel the same way: Yes! And yet, he was demonized for not spouting the company line & simply speaking the truth.

(Who knew the NFL was one of the few remaining Communist Nations left in the world?)

I mean, McNabb had been playing with a sports hernia all season, was hobbling around & clearly not performing to the level that we'd seen before. And yet, it's a blasphemous idea to concur with the sentiment that says his team would've been more successful with a player who's a future Hall-of-Famer and in tip-top shape? Gimme a break!

Owens had every right to have that opinion AND to express it. If McNabb had been willing to be honest with himself that his insistence to play in that condition was actually hurting the team--he could have admitted it, too. So, to impugn Owens' character, his very humanity, because he elected to be honest and not blindly spout the organizational line... an organization, I might add, that had turned on & demonized him at that point... in my opinion, which I am equally entitled to, paints an ugly picture of the selfish, hypocritical type of thinking that Owens himself is being publicly ridiculed for.

Can we all... just lighten up?!

'Cause I have this feeling that the NFL, and we as its fans, have all begun to take ourselves far too seriously. We wear our appreciation for these teams like they are some sacred identity & what happens to the teams, therefore, we imagine is happening to us. So, it's not just that Owens stood on the star all those years ago. It's that he disrespected "us", and now, in order to defend my Dallas Cowboys-identity, I've got to be angry at this man, judge this man, condemn this man and guffaw that he's now part of the team--invoking the spirit of treasured Dallas Cowboys past in order to justify my choice for hate!


There's a comedian that I'm a big fan of. He died in 1993. His name is Bill Hicks. He was sometimes known as "The Angry Prophet" for the way he ranted on & incised a variety of topics. From religion, to politics, to sex, to abortion, to drugs... and so on, so forth... no subject was sacred or off-limits. He laid it all on the line. Perhaps not unlike Terrell Owens does on the field and/or in front of a microphone.

Well, during one of his shows he told a story about performing in the South somewhere, where he inevitably did one of his skits about Christianity, only to be met after the show by a group of men who wanted to beat him up.

"Hey, Buddy!" they said, shoving him back against a wall. "We're Christians & we don't like what you said!"

To which Bill responded, simply: "Well, then... forgive me."



Maybe we can all practice a little of that, and remember to have some fun.

Repeat after me: It's just a game. It's just a game. It's just a game.

ALL OF IT... is just a game. Let's lighten up, and....




..... enjoy the show!

:thumbup:















Peace and Love

- PoetTree -
 
Sportsbabe

Sportsbabe

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Although I'm keeping one eye on TO until Thanksgiving, my only response to this article is:

:bow: :bow: :bow:
 
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