He's ours now, and I feel nauseous... I won't back down from anything I said previously, I'll never root for the SOB...
HOWEVER... I do feel somewhat better about some things connected to this mess, and thought I'd elaborate:
1) The Cowboys' newsgroup has been just inundated with trolls flocking over there, looking to stir the fecal matter... they obviously do this in the hopes of making us Cowboys fans who don't like Owens even more depressed, even more angry... that's like when they flock in after a loss, acting like morons... ironically, their trolling has the exact OPPOSITE effect on me; it helps me get over being angry at a loss, when I get back in their faces and give vent to some of my frustrations... and in this instance, it makes me feel a little less depressed and angry, because it's crystal clear that they're trolling because they're scared witless at the thought of TO in a Cowboys uniform, and the smell of their fear always makes me smile... anything that gets the trolls this worked up can't be all bad...
2) I was deeply worried about the possibility (actually, the likelihood) that TO would become a cancer, and wreck this team, both in the short term and in the long term... but once I got a good look at that contract, a LOT of these fears were allayed... that contract is positively ingenious, perhaps even brilliant...
For Owens, he gets to pocket a hefty paycheck each year of the deal... in a "normal" contract, the player pockets a large signing bonus the first year, but in future years, he just gets his base salary... this is why TO was upset about his contract last year, "all" he was getting was his base salary (and how could he feed his family on such a paltry sum, LOL)... but in this deal, he gets a bonus every year, meaning he'll pocket at least 7-8 million in each year of his deal... this should make him less likely to be a PITA over money down the line, he's gonna get paid every year...
For the Cowboys, structuring the contract that way means they can part company with TO at any time if he does cause more problems than he's worth, with minimal damage to the salary cap (if they cut him year 2 or 3 before they pay him the bonus due those years, they'll be on the hook for a little over a 3 million cap charge, hardly a major blow when the cap will be up close to 110 mil by then)...
So now, my biggest fear is that he'll cause problems when (not if) he doesn't get the ball thrown to him as often as he wants... for openers, the Boys won't throw the ball as often as the Iggles did, reducing the number of opportunities for him to catch passes... last year, the Iggles threw the ball 620 times, the Cowboys threw it an even 500 times... Parcells will throw the ball a bit more, obviously, with Owens in the lineup, but he's still gonna be a run-first coach... I'd anticipate Bill throwing the ball about 550 times this year...
In addition, TO has better receivers around him on the Cowboys than he did on the Iggles-- Glenn and Crayton are better than any WR Philly had last year, and Jason Witten is a somewhat better TE option (though the Iggles' TEs aren't bad)... so clearly, they're gonna be open more often, and Bledsoe is gonna throw the ball their way more often... this also translates into fewer opportunities for Owens... anybody expecting 90-100 catches from TO is being silly, it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't catch 75 passes... but I would be surprised if he doesn't give the Boys 1000 yards receiving and 10TDs... I still worry that this won't satisfy him, and that there will be blowups on the sidelines and in the press...
But those kinds of blowups don't have to destroy a team... you can still win with that kind of silliness going on...
So I'm not gonna turn into some TO fan, not at any point... I'd gag on my own hypocrisy if I tried... but now that he IS ours, it would be silly of me not to recognize reality, and contemplate what his presence will mean to the offense on the field... what it means to me is 1) Terry Glenn won't be gettin' double covered, not most of the time anyway, and this should help his numbers... and 2) opponents will not be able to stack the line of scrimmage to shut down the run, they'll have to respect the threat TO brings, and this will help Julius Jones' and Marion Barber's numbers (almost as much as a better offensive line will)...
It just might be that Jason Witten will see an uptick in his numbers too, now that Keyshawn is gone... Key was a primary target on 3rd and 3 or 4, and so was Witten, but now Witten will get more of those looks... Owens offers some threat in that short passing game, but not as much as Key did... his superiority came in his downfield abilities...
Finally, I'll say that I was singularly unimpressed with TO at that press conference, he seemed totally insincere, with one exception-- the time he told Jerry "I won't let you down"... now, that's obviously a self-serving remark, and of course if things ever do break down between the team and the player, he'll say he didn't let them down, but rather they let him down... but at the time, it sounded sincere... hearing that, I allowed myself to believe that maybe he does want to try to do better, if only briefly... he didn't have to say that at all...
So, I say to you, my friends and my antagonists, screw TO and go Cowboys... LOL...
