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http://cbs.sportsline.com/nfl/story/9025728
Let's hear it for the Philadelphia Eagles.
The club made the right and necessary decision when it suspended wide receiver Terrell Owens on Saturday for comments he made in a TV interview earlier this week. My only question is: What took so long?
The Eagles last summer banished Owens for a week of training camp after he clashed with offensive coordinator Brad Childress. But this time Owens went far, far beyond, taking down the team's franchise quarterback and the organization itself with comments that can only be described as idiotic.
The Eagles gave him a chance to apologize, and he did. Sort of. Listen to his comments Friday, and you might notice there was something missing. It's called sincerity. So, 24 hours later, the team did what it should have done right away.
It removed him from the locker room and left him home for Sunday's game with Washington.
Good for Philadelphia. Good for Andy Reid. Good for the Eagles.
This club won long before Terrell Owens appeared on the scene, and it will win after he presumably departs next year. Owens can't seem to grasp that. In his almost pathological craving for attention, he failed to understand that the Eagles never were -- and never are -- about one individual.
OK, so Donovan McNabb is close, which might explain why Owens put a bull's-eye on the guy after last season's Super Bowl. But Owens savaged quarterback Jeff Garcia in San Francisco, too. And head coach Steve Mariucci. And anyone who wouldn't grant him what he deserved.
Or believed he deserved -- which was maximum exposure.
But he took on the wrong coach and the wrong team. The Eagles went down this path with Jeremiah Trotter in 2002, remember? Now, I'm not trying to equate Trotter's behavior or his personality to that of the churlish, me-first Owens, but Trotter did take on Reid's concept of team unity and chemistry when he demanded more, much more than the Eagles were willing to spend.
So the club released him, and he followed the megabucks to Washington. Two years later he returned, and he re-signed with the Eagles in the offseason after Kansas City offered more.
In a way, the team went down this road with McNabb, too. The quarterback was supposed to be indispensable to Philadelphia's success, so when he fractured his ankle in the second half of the 2002 season critics said the Eagles were finished.
Then they won the division and advanced to the conference championship game.
Someone needs to give Owens a history lesson. Or a good spanking. George Santayana once observed that those who can't remember the past are condemned to repeat it, and I guess Owens must have missed that class. So he plunged headfirst into a battle he could not win, and now he sits on the sideline -- and what do you bet he's lining up national TV interviews as we speak?
Let him do it. The Eagles did what they had to do, and Owens -- not the club -- should be embarrassed. He gained the attention he so badly wants, but he lost what little credibility he had left when he returned to the team and made nice with McNabb -- with the two the subject of a Sports Illustrated cover story that alleged they had made up.
Yeah, sure.
The only way to deal with Owens is to remove him from the public eye, and while the Eagles can't control whom TV decides to interview, it can decide whom it puts on the field. So Owens will sit.
San Francisco did the same thing in 2000 when Owens danced on the Cowboys star in Dallas. Mariucci, then the coach of the 49ers, spoke to him after the game and suggested Owens apologize.
He did not. Instead, he said he would do it all over again if he could. When Mariucci read the comments the next morning, he intervened, suspending Owens for a week.
The Eagles won't say how long Owens will be out, nor should they. He's on their clock, they're not on his. He returns only when they decide he can be part of a team and not a distraction.
But I'll be honest with you: After what he said this time, I'm not sure he should return, period. He's a time bomb waiting to explode -- and the Eagles just defused him.
Maybe it should stay that way.
Let's hear it for the Philadelphia Eagles.
The club made the right and necessary decision when it suspended wide receiver Terrell Owens on Saturday for comments he made in a TV interview earlier this week. My only question is: What took so long?
The Eagles last summer banished Owens for a week of training camp after he clashed with offensive coordinator Brad Childress. But this time Owens went far, far beyond, taking down the team's franchise quarterback and the organization itself with comments that can only be described as idiotic.
The Eagles gave him a chance to apologize, and he did. Sort of. Listen to his comments Friday, and you might notice there was something missing. It's called sincerity. So, 24 hours later, the team did what it should have done right away.
It removed him from the locker room and left him home for Sunday's game with Washington.
Good for Philadelphia. Good for Andy Reid. Good for the Eagles.
This club won long before Terrell Owens appeared on the scene, and it will win after he presumably departs next year. Owens can't seem to grasp that. In his almost pathological craving for attention, he failed to understand that the Eagles never were -- and never are -- about one individual.
OK, so Donovan McNabb is close, which might explain why Owens put a bull's-eye on the guy after last season's Super Bowl. But Owens savaged quarterback Jeff Garcia in San Francisco, too. And head coach Steve Mariucci. And anyone who wouldn't grant him what he deserved.
Or believed he deserved -- which was maximum exposure.
But he took on the wrong coach and the wrong team. The Eagles went down this path with Jeremiah Trotter in 2002, remember? Now, I'm not trying to equate Trotter's behavior or his personality to that of the churlish, me-first Owens, but Trotter did take on Reid's concept of team unity and chemistry when he demanded more, much more than the Eagles were willing to spend.
So the club released him, and he followed the megabucks to Washington. Two years later he returned, and he re-signed with the Eagles in the offseason after Kansas City offered more.
In a way, the team went down this road with McNabb, too. The quarterback was supposed to be indispensable to Philadelphia's success, so when he fractured his ankle in the second half of the 2002 season critics said the Eagles were finished.
Then they won the division and advanced to the conference championship game.
Someone needs to give Owens a history lesson. Or a good spanking. George Santayana once observed that those who can't remember the past are condemned to repeat it, and I guess Owens must have missed that class. So he plunged headfirst into a battle he could not win, and now he sits on the sideline -- and what do you bet he's lining up national TV interviews as we speak?
Let him do it. The Eagles did what they had to do, and Owens -- not the club -- should be embarrassed. He gained the attention he so badly wants, but he lost what little credibility he had left when he returned to the team and made nice with McNabb -- with the two the subject of a Sports Illustrated cover story that alleged they had made up.
Yeah, sure.
The only way to deal with Owens is to remove him from the public eye, and while the Eagles can't control whom TV decides to interview, it can decide whom it puts on the field. So Owens will sit.
San Francisco did the same thing in 2000 when Owens danced on the Cowboys star in Dallas. Mariucci, then the coach of the 49ers, spoke to him after the game and suggested Owens apologize.
He did not. Instead, he said he would do it all over again if he could. When Mariucci read the comments the next morning, he intervened, suspending Owens for a week.
The Eagles won't say how long Owens will be out, nor should they. He's on their clock, they're not on his. He returns only when they decide he can be part of a team and not a distraction.
But I'll be honest with you: After what he said this time, I'm not sure he should return, period. He's a time bomb waiting to explode -- and the Eagles just defused him.
Maybe it should stay that way.