Who knew? I woke up this morning thinking it was a Sunday, just like any other day. But when I went over to the DMN website it turned out it was "Terrell Owens Day".
JJT has penned an incredibly long but very interesting story about the dichotomy between the person known as Terrell Owens and the famous enigma that is T.O. I've tried to travel this path before in some of my commentary on BTB, but never came close to the detail that JJT puts into his story. It was kind of an eye-opener for me because I always wondered what happened out in San Francisco where we started to see the problem child that we have inherited here in Dallas. Instead of providing excerpts from the article I just recommend you go read it, and then come back and tell us what you think.
As for me, I've always felt that his upbrining played a major role in his troubles, although in no way do I offer that up as an excuse. But it would be advised for those in charge at Valley Ranch to try an understand as much as they can about Owens, the success or failure of their football team is at stake.
JJT also has another, much shorter, article about the famous star incident in 2000. I suspect this information came from the research he did on the longer article mentioned above, but found that it could stand on its own and makes an interesting point, one that I had never heard before.
"The chaplain began talking about Roger Staubach and how the Cowboys were God's Team and America's Team," Mr. Stewart said. "Then he asked Terrell if he knew why there was a hole in the roof. He didn't, so the chaplain told him that it was so God could look down on the Cowboys.
"He said, 'If you score, go to the star and let God see you. Look up to the sky and praise God.'
"If you'll look at a replay, you'll see that he runs to the star, looks right up, praises God and then leaves the field."
Mr. Stokes said the chaplain's story had him considering running to the star, too, had he scored.
Terrell Owens looks to the sky as he celebrates a touchdown against the Cowboys while standing on the star at midfield.
"We were thinking about how cool it would be if the hole were over the end zone after the chaplain talked about how God would be looking in the stadium," Mr. Stokes said.
I don't know if all this is a bit of revisionist history, but since JJ Stokes and San Fran receivers coach George Stewart confirm the story, it sounds very plausible.
So what does this say about the star incident? I guess it depends on your point of view. As a Cowboys fan I was appalled at what he did and couldn't have been happier when George Teague said "no way" on the second try and attempted to knock Owens' block off. But does it say that Owens is more naïve than spiteful? Does it say it wasn't really about disrespecting the Cowboys and more about his own spirituality? I don't know; that seems like an easy out for a man who should've known that doing something like that was bound to ruffle the feathers of the home team. The fact that he did it twice, and then did it again a couple of years ago - albeit in a much smaller way by stepping on the much smaller star in the endzone - says that even if the first time was about spirituality, the following times were about insult.
But in Owens' mind, the reasons are always clear, and the reasons are always right. But in the rest of the world's view, the behavior is reminiscent of a child in a man's body.
Over at a Milwaukee paper, they have more on the man of the day, Terrell Owens. They take a look at the play when the rest of the world became aware of Terrell Owens. Interestingly enough, before Owens caught the game-winning TD over the Packers in that playoff game, he was the goat, having dropped several passes and fumbled the ball away.