Thu Dec 11, 2008 6:57 pm EST
Report: Terrell Owens is unhappy with yet another quarterback
By Chris Chase
In an article that surprises absolutely no one (except maybe Jerry Jones), ESPN's Ed Werder reports that Terrell Owens is unhappy with Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. For his next column, Werder will detail the sun's plans to rise in the east tomorrow morning.
The gist of the piece is the standard "T.O. is unhappy with his quarterback" tale that we've read during Owens' days with Jeff Garcia and Donovan McNabb. The laundry list of grievances are the same: Romo is ignoring him, Romo is throwing more to the guys with whom he's more friendly, etc.
On the other side, the complaints that teammates have about Owens are identical to ones that were aired during his stints on other teams. Those antics include criticizing Romo in press conferences, demanding the ball and whining to coaches that he's overlooked.
While it's mostly boilerplate T.O., there are some fascinating nuggets in Werder's piece that touch on the tremendous insecurities of Owens. One of T.O.'s worries sounds like it's lifted from the diary of a 15-year-old girl:
Owens feels that Romo and Witten -- close friends and road roommates who came to Dallas in the same offseason -- hold private meetings in which they create plays the two will use in upcoming games without including Owens in the conversations, according to a source who speaks regularly with Owens' teammates. Owens believes these discussions have worked to his detriment as Romo seeks to deliver the ball to Witten regardless of whether Owens is open.
That doesn't even make any sense. Romo and Witten are drawing up plays on cocktail napkins and then using them in games, unbeknownst to offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and all the other guys on the team who have to run routes and block on said plays? This isn't the 1985 NBA All-Star Game. Does Owens really, honestly think Romo is freezing him out?
Say what you will about Romo (I do), but nobody has ever doubted his desire to win; unlike, say, Terrell Owens'. What's T.O.'s next complaint going to be, that Romo writes too much on Miles Austin's Facebook wall?
There's another part of the article in which a source claims that T.O. is trying to convince "guys who just got here" (Roy Williams and Sam Hurd) that they should turn against Romo. It plays into the "T.O. as locker room cancer" theory, but ignores the fact that Sam Hurd has been on the Cowboys for three years.
Either way, this is exactly what the Cowboys should have expected when they signed Owens three years ago. T.O. is an All-Pro talent with a bush-league attitude. The patience of the Cowboys is waning, which means that next year, the Terrell Owens circus might be playing elsewhere.
Report: Terrell Owens is unhappy with yet another quarterback - Shutdown Co... - NFL - Yahoo! Sports