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Owens practice report

By Dave Halprin

Update [2006-8-16 23:23:20 by Grizz]: MSNBC has an AP article with some more info on Terrell?s return to practice.

?Not where I want to be, but definitely some improvement,? Owens said after the nearly 2?-hour practice. ?I just felt like with the things I was doing rehabwise, I could do some limited stuff. We?re not going to go overboard. They?re going to work me in until I get my endurance.?
Pretty inocuous stuff, but see if you can spot the phrase in this next paragraph that will have the press going gaga in the next few days.
?I just prayed about it, right before I got out here. That?s the God?s honest truth,? Owens said. ?I feel like a lot of people have been speculating with me sitting on the bike every day. ... I?m not going to let anybody, as far as mediawise, coachingwise, speculate as far as my health is concern. I feel like I?ve got nothing to prove to anybody.? Still, Owens acknowledged that he didn?t want to be a problem.

?I don?t want to have any friction with anybody,? he said. ?But I feel like at some time, when someone starts to question my heart or my injury, it does get under your skin a little bit.?

If you spotted this line: ?I?m not going to let anybody, as far as mediawise, coachingwise, speculate as far as my health is concern.? ? then you win the prize. This will be the smoking gun for the press that it's Owens vs. Parcells.

So what happened when he returned to the practice field?

After his warmup on the bicycle and a few stretches, Owens went straight to the huddle to join the first-team offense for some half-speed plays. When he got the line, he slapped hands with defensive back Terence Newman. ?We?re still sort of like in a rehab phase,? Owens said. ?Obviously, I think Drew and I, we need to get in synch, get on a better page.?
At least the AP cleaned up the line about him being concerned with Drew?s balls. (see below).

The DFW S-T has a similar story up.

Well, it's sort of a practice report. Man, do I wish I was still out in Oxnard so I could give you guys a proper report on Terrell's return. But here's what I've seen so far, and it comes from Matt Mosley's blog:

Terrell Owens didn't appear to be hampered by his sore hamstring Wednesday, but it could take awhile for him to feel comfortable in a new offense.

Owens dropped a well-thrown deep ball from Tony Romo during team drills. His timing seemed off, but he said catching more balls in practice should solve that.

Owens had missed 14 consecutive practices before returning today.

Asked about the dropped passes, Owen said, "I definitely expect to catch more. This is a different offense than I'm used to, and I expect that...I want more balls in practice.

That's obviously going to make me better in sync with Drew [Bledsoe] as far as his balls are concerned."

When Owens bobbled one ball, safety Keith Davis snagged an interception.

I'll update this post with more reports as I find them.

On a related note, I hope everybody will calm down now. I mean really, what was so unusual about the Owens' injury? Player hurts hamstring, player rests hamstring, player re-habs hamstring, player returns to practice. Just like a hundred different players in a hundred different camps in the NFL over the years. I had to laugh at all the conspiracy theories, the power struggle theories, the Parcells has gone soft theories, etc. It was just an injury, it's early in the preseason, it's a hamstring which can be notoriously fickle, especially for skill players. You guys know I'm not a Terrell apologist, but this was getting out of hand.

I do have one problem with Terrell, he should never use the phrase: "That's obviously going to make me better in sync with Drew as far as his balls are concerned." Nope, that's not good. You can say: with Drew as far as his passes are concerned. It's also perfectly alright to say: Drew throws a nice ball, or: I need to catch more balls from Drew. But please, not: with Drew as far as his balls are concerned. That's just bad form.

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