Cliff Harris and Charlie Waters were part of the great 70's Cowboys teams, patrolling the secondary and laying the wood to the opposing defense. Today, they're selling books and celebrating Dillards 50th anniversary in Tyler, Texas. Both are in agreement and don't like the Terrell Owens signing.
"I've always been a team player and he's not. Personally, I think he will be destructive to the team and a negative influence on the team."
"For Owens to change, it's not like a zebra changing its stripes, but a zebra changing into a giraffe."
Ouch, no love for Eldorado from Harris. What about Waters?
"You have to trust your teammate. You always depend on your teammate doing his job. You have to have an appreciation of the unsung hero. For instance, my job may be to hit the guard and turn the play in and for (former Cowboy linebacker) Bob Breunig to make the tackles. You have to trust the guy next to you."
The 70's players are buying into the newfangled Cowboys, but then again, the older generation rarely approves of the newer generation. Granted, Owens is the extreme example of the newer generation.
This guy over at The Greyhound, the student newspaper for Loyola College, is struggling with the same problem some of us we're having; rooting for Owens even though we've hated him before. He also touches on what I wrote yesterday, that you root for the team, not the individual players. (Although ideally, you'd like to do both.)
Remember Jon Condo, our long snapper who ousted veteran Jeff Robinson last year, only to be ousted after botching some snaps in the San Fran game? Here's a little insight into that, with a quote about Parcells. Condo recalls the days after the 49ers game from last season.
"I had gone in (to practice) Monday to look at film and lift. I talked to (Coach Bill) Parcells and he asked me if I was going to let it (bad snap) bother me. I told him I wasn't, that I would learn from it, and he said that was good, that I should just keep my head up and keep on doing what I was doing."
[snip]
What he didn't know is that behind the scenes the man who had decided to cut him was actually working to help him land with another team. Because Parcells' daughter is married to Scott Pioli, vice president in charge of player personnel with the Patriots.
"He (Pioli) said he had talked to Parcells about me and that he had nothing but good things to say about me," Condo said. "I'd heard that about Parcells, that if he likes you he will fight to either keep you on his team or help you get on another team."
That's part of the reason Parcells inspires such loyalty in players.