Jerry Jones Believes TO Can Still Play…Just Not For Dallas
The only ‘Owens’ Cowboy jersey JJ will let TO wear will be a shirsey
Terrell Owens has had an interesting career. Drafted by the San Francisco 49ers out of Chattanooga, Owens developed into one of the elite wide receivers in football, with unquestionable Hall-of-Fame talent who has been derailed at every stop in his career by his incessant need to be the center of attention. He’s talked his way out of team after team and burned every bridge he’s crossed as he left. He’s earned a reputation as a locker-room cancer and got bounced from San Francisco to Philadelphia to Dallas to Buffalo to Cincinnati to the Indoor Football League, and now all of those burned bridges Owens has left in his wake have finally caught up to him. His age and repuatation have left the boisterous T.O. without a job or many prospects at finding one in the NFL. Former boss, Jerry Jones, wants him to know that he’s got double-J’s support. No job, mind you…but some nice words at least.
From ESPN.com:
“First of all, he really can reach out to me at any time, because I consider him a friend,” Jones said Tuesday at the Cowboys’ minicamp. “We would feel good if he reached out. I think that he really, without having first-hand knowledge of what kind of physical condition he is in, I know he has the right stuff and could help someone.”
“Yeah, he can give me a call. I’ll even accept the charges if he needs to call collect!” That Jerry Jones is all heart. It’s an important thing to note, though: when Jerry says he “could help someone,” he made sure to follow up by adamantly explaining ‘someone’ will not be the Dallas Cowboys.
Despite Owens putting together the best three-year statistical stretch by a receiver in Cowboys history and setting the team record for sobbing in a post-game press conference (in his defense: that was his quarterback), Jones is sticking by his earlier decision of the Dallas Cowboys having nothing to do with Terrell Owens, but only as a player! They would still love to sell him a ticket to their lounge thing the players walk through on the way to the locker room. They’ll even give him the friends and family discount! Well, not a discount really, but Jerry will acknowledge your existence and you can’t put a price on that (according to JJ)!
Since being unceremoniously dismissed from America’s Team, Owens has seen his career spiral pretty rapidly. He spent one forgettable season in the great white north of Buffalo before coming to the logical conclusion of playing alongside Chad Ochocinco, formerly of the Johnson’s, in Cincinnati. He caught 72 passes for 983 yards with nine touchdowns during the 2010 season, and hasn’t seen an NFL roster since. He sat out in 2011 while recovering from knee surgery, but staged a tryout for NFL scouts and team executives…which nobody showed up to. They ended up streaming the workout online to get around their lack of attendance snafu, and the consensus was “Yeah, he looks all right,” by NFL GMs who continued not to want him on their team.
Things hit a low-point for T.O. when he finally accepted a contract with the Allen Wranglers of the Indoor Football League to play wide receiver while also acting as a partial owner. Or at least, we all thought that was low point. The actual low-point came last month, when Owens was released from the team and relieved of his ownership duties, supposedly for skipping a planned charity event.
T.O. is still holding out hope that an NFL squad will sign him for the 2012 season, but if a lower-rung level of football can’t even put up with T.O., what would make an NFL GM invest his time and money into an aging wideout with questionable knees and suspect hands? Most likely, we’ve seen the last of Terrell Owens in professional football, and the brash receiver will go off into the sunset of retirement…kicking and screaming and showing everyone how many situps he can still do the whooole way.
