OK folks, I mentioned a rant, and here it is. And like any true rant, it isn’t necessarily well thought out, and it might end up not having much of a point, but after writing it, I feel better, and that’s what ranting is all about, right?
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I have always considered myself a true sports fan. Well, to be more accurate, a true football fan. And although I’ve dabbled with a few other sports, I’ve always gravitated to football. I root for schools where I live, or where I grew up. My own alma mater, of course. I even root for Texas A&M because my wife graduated from there. I also tend to root for colleges from my home state (Texas) when they play schools from other states. But I have developed no hard and fast allegiances to any of them except for one, and that team is the Dallas Cowboys. But more about them later.
One other thing that I can observe about myself is that I my emotions are closely tied to my team’s fate. I soar when they win, but I hate it when they lose, and it effects my mood much more than it should. After every loss, I immediately regret having wasted three hours of my life. But I enjoy on-field displays of emotion, pride, determination, and I have always enjoyed end-zone celebrations. I have often wondered why the NFL penalizes such displays. It makes no sense to me. Which brings me to T.O.
I really did not know a lot about Terrell Owens before he joined the Cowboys in 2006. I did know he had celebrated on the Star in the middle of Texas Stadium, and I had seen his infamous celebration where he signed a football in the end zone. And since I enjoy celebrations and creativity, I was excited to have him on my team. But from the very first day Jerry Jones brought him on board he was heavily criticized by the local sports media. I guess it comes with being hung with the ‘America’s Team’ moniker but the media here are always critical of the team and its ownership, even in the middle of winning streaks. Nothing less than a Super Bowl every year is sufficient to calm them down. And T.O. was fresh meat.
Flash forward to the end of last season. It ended badly, the promise of 2007 collided with the ugly reality of 2008. Jerry Jones made some changes. He encouraged Wade Phillips to fire the defensive coordinator and take on that duty himself. In player changes they brought in Keith Brookings and cut people with high salary caps and injuries later in their careers. But you would never know it because the only player the press talked about was the release of Terrell Owens. He was still under contract and his salary still counted against the Cowboy’s cap. To the press, this meant he was untradeable and they once again trotted out their favorite argument against him: locker-room poison.
So they finally got what they wanted, and the future looked rosy. But I searched in vain for any quote from any Cowboys player who would go on record agreeing with this assessment of T.O. and to this day, a year later, I have yet to find one. Instead player after player talked of how much T.O. meant to them, how hard he worked, how much he helped them. So whence this idea that T.O. poisoned locker rooms? Evidently the only place that this idea lives is in the minds of sports writers and talk-show hosts. And for some reason, the sports press in Dallas really likes their players to be well-mannered. In the hey-day of the triple-threat days of the early 90’s, when Troy, Emmitt and Michael were dominating the NFL they never hesitated to tear into the other players whose off-the-field exploits regularly landed them in the news, and in trouble with the law. The sporting media would just as soon have run them all out of town, and would gladly have traded the three Super Bowl wins for them. Around Dallas, they like their players full of talent and simultaneously full of meekness, humility and manners.
Terrell Owens never got busted with a van full of pot, was never caught in a room full of coke and hookers, never had to be interviewed regarding a teammate’s death, never drove drunk and wrecked his car. There was one incident where he possibly attempted suicide, but that’s a far cry from injuring or endangering others. And yet he set the press on edge like no other Cowboy ever did. They picked at every misstep on the field, they used his willingness to speak to the press as an opportunity to bait him into saying something they could use to stir up controversy. After two full seasons, they got their wish. A series of rumors were floated that there was disharmony between T.O., the tight end Jason Witten and quarterback Tony Romo. And at the end of the season T.O. was cut. The press had a field day, denigrated him and publicly stated that Dallas didn’t trade him because they got no offers. No one could possibly want T.O.
And it was at this point that T.O. opened my eyes to the true nature of the press, at least around here. He didn’t fit their idea of the right type of player, so they hated him. And they were wrong, and I saw it. For starters, I told any one who would listen that I would be surprised if T.O. went a week without a new team. As it turned out, he didn’t last the weekend. Buffalo signed him for one year and $6.5 Million. And in the middle of the season, some Cowboys players were still exchanging text messages with him, indicating that he was encouraging them.
So now I was faced with a problem. To continue to root for the Cowboys without Terrell I would have to forgive the press for their treatment of him, forgive Jerry Jones for using him as a scapegoat and forgive Tony Romo and Jason Witten for whatever role they had in it all. So I didn’t. I gave up on my team. I actually enjoyed the first half of the season because it was evidence that cutting T.O. did nothing to help this team. I was convinced that the real problem was the coaching staff, and I still can’t stand Wade Phillips’ good ol’ boy persona. And yet somehow the players managed to man up and get their act together and not only win the division, but win their first playoff game in thirteen years!
And yet I feel no pride. Their success is bittersweet for me. It’s all sunshine and rainbows for Jerry Jones, a great year for his brand-new expensive stadium. Wade Phillips is unlikely to be fired now, especially if Dallas can defeat Minnesota on the road. Tony has gained some status on the offense as a leader and T.O. is all but forgotten. But the magic just isn’t there for me any more. And I’m glad, because that strong connection between my own emotions and the fate of the Dallas Cowboys is broken, at least for now, and they can win or lose without any effect on me. And for that, I have Terrell Owens to thank.