Jerry Jones, Terrell Owens, Stephen Jones and Drew Rosenhaus held a press conference at Texas Stadium to talk about the extension T.O. signed. It was pretty much your normal press conference except for the giant vat of popcorn in front of the dais, allowing Jerry Jones to joke that the popcorn was T.O.’s signing bonus, he was tapped out of cash.
T.O. said that the contract extension was kind of unexpected describing it as coming out of left-field. He instructed Drew to not call him unless something was serious to illustrate how unconcerned he was about the process. He said the Cowboys didn’t have to do this but it showed their commitment to winning. He noted that after getting the fans up on their feet (meaning high expectations) and then having the heart-breaking finish last year, this year they want to finish right. He also repeated this phrase more than a few time – I’m a Cowboy for life.
Jerry wanted to emphasize that this team is knocking on the door and that keeping a veteran, Pro Bowl, TD machine like T.O. was very important to him. He mentioned Romo and the makeup of the team and that he thinks they are ready to challenge for the Lombardi. The contract also helps the Cowboys out this year and next on the cap. T.O. is a leader on this team.
Jerry and Stephen piped in on the timing of this contract and the recent signings of Terence Newman and MB3, noting that some changes in the labor agreement next year and in 2010 meant that getting these deals done now was very important. They didn’t get into specifics but they obviously felt like doing these deals now was going to give them an advantage later.
The question of age came up in context of T.O.’s contract and Jerry replied that T.O. is a unique guy physically. He keeps himself in great shape, he can overcome injuries or play through them, he has the work ethic, the passion and that it’s impressive how well T.O. has taken care of his body.
T.O. joked that he was getting a million for every year – 34 years old and a $34 million contract. Jerry upped the joke ante by saying he needs someone to give him a a million a year for all of his years, then they both could take a trip somewhere.
Drew Rosenhaus dropped in his only comments on the subject of working with the the Cowboys. He simply stated that he wishes he had more players with the Cowboys because they are committed to winning and signing their players to reach that goal.
We did get a couple of Pacman questions. On what advice he’d give to Pacman, T.O. said Pac has enough people telling him what to do right now but that if he’ll just listen to Deion Sanders it will all work out. Romo told T.O. that Pacman looked good at practice today, Owens missed today’s OTA, and Jerry commented that Pacman took one to the house over 80-yards.
