Boyzmamacita
CowBabe Up!!!
- Messages
- 29,047
- Reaction score
- 64,100
Bills happy, T.O. content after Cowboys owner 'ran for the woods'
Terrell Owens admits he was disappointed the Dallas Cowboys released him, but he's embracing his new home with the Buffalo Bills.
Albert Breer
Archive Email Albert Breer
Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009 - 2:55 p.m. ET
Owens: "Jerry, you ran for the woods."
Every time Terrell Owens steps on the field, every time he touches the ball, every time he stretches a hamstring out ...
Every time, the reaction is the same.
Western New York clearly is behind T.O. Clarity comes with every step he takes, and the chants and cheers that follow him.
It's an odd couple if there ever was one. Owens is showtime. Buffalo is slow time.
Owens acknowledges his new dichotomy, just as he confirms the land of the NFL's brightest lights, Dallas, Texas, wasn't as good a fit as it seemed on the surface.
"Me being in Dallas," he told Sporting News, "It was like I supposed to be there."
Owens no longer is in Dallas, of course, and the explanation for that depends on whom you talk to.
"Hey, I didn't see him as a distraction, not intentionally," a Cowboys official said. "But he was in the sense that every time something happened, it became a distraction. And whether there was truth to it or not, the distractions had their affect."
Owens readily admits he was "disappointed" things didn't work out in Dallas. But any anger pointed in Dallas quarterback Tony Romo's direction has since subsided, it seems.
In fact, like many Cowboys players and coaches, Owens now looks at Romo's injury and subsequent absence and resulting re-acclimation period in midseason as when the Cowboys' -- and in turn his own -- season turned down a wayward path. Still, Owens sees ways where the Cowboys could've overcome.
Not surprisingly, they involve Owens getting the ball more often than he did. The mercurial receiver says Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett didn't do enough to do that or keep defenses guessing.
"It was all about game-planning," Owens said from Bills camp. "Going into games, you have to make adjustments. That's part of football. And a lot of people, they don't want to harp on that. They want to harp on that I may drop a ball here or there. OK, that's one ball or two. You gotta think about the whole game."
The belief in Dallas was, by the time the offseason started, Garrett and Owens no longer could co-exist. And when Garrett failed in his attempt to land the St. Louis Rams head coaching job ended, Owens' tenure in Dallas was all but done.
Yet, Owens found comfort in a strong relationship with owner Jerry Jones, a trust he felt was violated when the Cowboys released him in early March.
Jerry Jones says he doesn't mind that Terrell Owens calls him a liar."You feel like you're being lied to, it's just disappointing," Owens said. "I think he knows what he did. We had a conversation earlier, when I first got there, and he had some story he had told me. And all I can say is, 'Jerry, you ran for the woods.' "
Asked to explain, Owens repeated himself: "Jerry, you ran for the woods."
Apprised of Owens' contention at Cowboys training camp last week, Jones responded that the decision he made wasn't based on any individual as much as it was about the development of his team.
"He said that I ran for the woods?" Jones told Sporting News, with a grimace. "To his credit, our relationship was outstanding and everything I ever asked him to do he did. That's what he was about.
"In making a decision (to release Owens), it was about the development here of Roy Williams and our other young receivers. If you look at the makeup of our team, there is going to be a spreading around of the ball. We had huge resources, relative to where our team is, committed to Terrell."
Jones added that Owens calling him a liar doesn't bother him, "because I know what our relationship is, and what it was."
So the Cowboys carry on without Owens, and Owens tries to make like his mentor Jerry Rice, who was let go by San Francisco late in his career but resurfaced and redeemed himself in Oakland.
By all accounts, Owens has been on his best behavior in Buffalo.
Bills safety Donte Whitner, a team leader, was invited by Owens to do charity work in Dallas, see a Raptors game in Toronto and visit his home in Los Angeles. Whitner calls Owens "misunderstood."
Owens has taken second-year wide receiver James Hardy under his wing, too. Hardy keeps a "T.O. Notebook" and writes down 10 questions every night to ask Owens the next day.
"If he makes a great catch," Hardy said, "he comes over to me and says, 'You see how I did it?' "
And while Trent Edwards isn't as effusive, both the quarterback and Owens are working to build an on-field relationship. Unlike Donovan McNabb and Romo, Edwards isn't going to great lengths to buddy up to Owens, taking a more business-like approach.
Then, there's the fact Owens shined brightest in his first year in Philadelphia and in his second year in Dallas, out from under Bill Parcells' thumb and coming off a hand injury.
There should be a similar motivation here for Owens after all that's happened in the last year.
Does he light up when asked about Buffalo? Not really. But at this point, football is more important than flash.
"Anytime there's a football on the field, and they got a quarterback and I'm playing receiver, I can succeed," Owens said. "My success relies on what I can do once I get my hands on the ball."
Staff writer Albert Breer covers the NFL for Sporting News. E-mail him at abreer@sportingnews.com.
Terrell Owens admits he was disappointed the Dallas Cowboys released him, but he's embracing his new home with the Buffalo Bills.
Albert Breer
Archive Email Albert Breer
Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009 - 2:55 p.m. ET
Owens: "Jerry, you ran for the woods."
Every time Terrell Owens steps on the field, every time he touches the ball, every time he stretches a hamstring out ...
Every time, the reaction is the same.
Western New York clearly is behind T.O. Clarity comes with every step he takes, and the chants and cheers that follow him.
It's an odd couple if there ever was one. Owens is showtime. Buffalo is slow time.
Owens acknowledges his new dichotomy, just as he confirms the land of the NFL's brightest lights, Dallas, Texas, wasn't as good a fit as it seemed on the surface.
"Me being in Dallas," he told Sporting News, "It was like I supposed to be there."
Owens no longer is in Dallas, of course, and the explanation for that depends on whom you talk to.
"Hey, I didn't see him as a distraction, not intentionally," a Cowboys official said. "But he was in the sense that every time something happened, it became a distraction. And whether there was truth to it or not, the distractions had their affect."
Owens readily admits he was "disappointed" things didn't work out in Dallas. But any anger pointed in Dallas quarterback Tony Romo's direction has since subsided, it seems.
In fact, like many Cowboys players and coaches, Owens now looks at Romo's injury and subsequent absence and resulting re-acclimation period in midseason as when the Cowboys' -- and in turn his own -- season turned down a wayward path. Still, Owens sees ways where the Cowboys could've overcome.
Not surprisingly, they involve Owens getting the ball more often than he did. The mercurial receiver says Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett didn't do enough to do that or keep defenses guessing.
"It was all about game-planning," Owens said from Bills camp. "Going into games, you have to make adjustments. That's part of football. And a lot of people, they don't want to harp on that. They want to harp on that I may drop a ball here or there. OK, that's one ball or two. You gotta think about the whole game."
The belief in Dallas was, by the time the offseason started, Garrett and Owens no longer could co-exist. And when Garrett failed in his attempt to land the St. Louis Rams head coaching job ended, Owens' tenure in Dallas was all but done.
Yet, Owens found comfort in a strong relationship with owner Jerry Jones, a trust he felt was violated when the Cowboys released him in early March.
Jerry Jones says he doesn't mind that Terrell Owens calls him a liar."You feel like you're being lied to, it's just disappointing," Owens said. "I think he knows what he did. We had a conversation earlier, when I first got there, and he had some story he had told me. And all I can say is, 'Jerry, you ran for the woods.' "
Asked to explain, Owens repeated himself: "Jerry, you ran for the woods."
Apprised of Owens' contention at Cowboys training camp last week, Jones responded that the decision he made wasn't based on any individual as much as it was about the development of his team.
"He said that I ran for the woods?" Jones told Sporting News, with a grimace. "To his credit, our relationship was outstanding and everything I ever asked him to do he did. That's what he was about.
"In making a decision (to release Owens), it was about the development here of Roy Williams and our other young receivers. If you look at the makeup of our team, there is going to be a spreading around of the ball. We had huge resources, relative to where our team is, committed to Terrell."
Jones added that Owens calling him a liar doesn't bother him, "because I know what our relationship is, and what it was."
So the Cowboys carry on without Owens, and Owens tries to make like his mentor Jerry Rice, who was let go by San Francisco late in his career but resurfaced and redeemed himself in Oakland.
By all accounts, Owens has been on his best behavior in Buffalo.
Bills safety Donte Whitner, a team leader, was invited by Owens to do charity work in Dallas, see a Raptors game in Toronto and visit his home in Los Angeles. Whitner calls Owens "misunderstood."
Owens has taken second-year wide receiver James Hardy under his wing, too. Hardy keeps a "T.O. Notebook" and writes down 10 questions every night to ask Owens the next day.
"If he makes a great catch," Hardy said, "he comes over to me and says, 'You see how I did it?' "
And while Trent Edwards isn't as effusive, both the quarterback and Owens are working to build an on-field relationship. Unlike Donovan McNabb and Romo, Edwards isn't going to great lengths to buddy up to Owens, taking a more business-like approach.
Then, there's the fact Owens shined brightest in his first year in Philadelphia and in his second year in Dallas, out from under Bill Parcells' thumb and coming off a hand injury.
There should be a similar motivation here for Owens after all that's happened in the last year.
Does he light up when asked about Buffalo? Not really. But at this point, football is more important than flash.
"Anytime there's a football on the field, and they got a quarterback and I'm playing receiver, I can succeed," Owens said. "My success relies on what I can do once I get my hands on the ball."
Staff writer Albert Breer covers the NFL for Sporting News. E-mail him at abreer@sportingnews.com.
