So are you ready for some TO? In the be careful for what you ask for department, Carson Palmer has apparently sent back glowing reports on his new workout partner. If you haven’t heard, Palmer has been playing pitch and catch with TO out on the left coast.
But hang on, now we hear that the Rams are ‘seriously interested’ in signing Donovan McNabb’s BFF. And, that’s the ménage a tois that Drew Rosenhaus was looking for. Two teams, one client. Let the bidding war begin.
The Rams, according to various reports, will meet Monday to decide whether or not to offer a contract to Owens. The Bengals?
If you’re a Bengals fan who believes that running a football team is just like you running your fantasy football team, please go butter some toast. The adults would like to talk for awhile. It was on some chat board Saturday where a ‘get a lifer’ posted, “Just sign TO right now”. Sure, and deactivate some other wide receiver, make sure you have a quarterback and a defense that isn’t on a bye week and post your line-up. You’ll be all set.
Terrell Owens has been a very talented plague on some very good football teams and a rash on some very good quarterbacks. Carson Palmer has sent glowing reports back to the Bengals on TO. Somewhere, Tony Romo just did a laugh spit. Here’s what TO has done in his career: he’s sicked wide receiver against wide receiver, quarterback against wide receiver and pouted when he didn’t get the football. That’s not opinion, that’s fact. You don’t know about this? You obviously haven’t been paying attention. Google him and see what you find.
But Terrell Owens is tremendously talented, even at the ripe age of 37. He’s a big man, who can still run, still get open, still catch the ball. He didn’t do a lot of catching last year when he was banished to Buffalo, consoling himself with six millions dollars. In fact, the great TO only had a couple of touchdown catches in his final five games, only 15 receptions over that time too. But of course, Trent Edwards is no Carson Palmer. TO was also on his best behavior, knowing that he was on a one year deal and would have to pedal his services all over again this spring. Except, nobody was buying, not even teams that really need wide receivers.
Seattle? No thanks. Chicago? Not interested. Tampa, Pittsburgh, Kansas City? Thanks for thinking of us, sorry. If a wide receiver is as talented as TO, if teams what have a real need at wide receiver have all taken a pass, do you think there might be a reason why he’s unemployed?
We’re all judged by what we do in life. Most of us make mistakes, some of us get second chances. TO is on his fourth chance by my count. Maybe the real TO was the TO in Buffalo last year. Maybe he finally understood that when divas get older, so does their act.
Your Cincinnati Bengals have done very well with reclamation projects. Tank Johnson, Cedric Benson, the late Chris Henry. The latest class includes Pacman Jones and Matt Jones and maybe TO
It may be that the Bengals are interested in TO, not so much because Palmer is filing glowing reports. It may be there is something wrong, really wrong, with Antonio Bryant’s aching knee (and just for the record since there hasn’t been an ounce of physical contact since Bryant sign his deal for potentially 28-million dollars, if his knee continues to be an issue, didn’t any doctor pick up on that BEFORE he was signed?) It may be the Bengals are thinking about TO just in case there’s something that keeps Bryant off the field for a significant amount of time, or just in case some of the younger receivers on the roster simply can’t yet cut it.
Being a great wide receiver, being an asset to a team, is more than just running downfield, getting open, making the touchdown catch. A winning team is made up of more than just great athletes. Teams that stand with the Lombardi Trophy every February all seem to have one thing in common: discipline and a no nonsense approach to the game. The Saints, the Colts, the Patriots, pick a team from the last decade.
If To can really help the Bengals, if he’s grown up, if he now understands how wrong he was in the way he dealt with McNabb, Romo and Jeff Garcia, then Mike Brown, go get him. You and your staff, your head coach and his staff have put together a team that appears to have the talent to win and win deep into January this year. I’ve said this for awhile: I like this 2010 Bengals team. But if TO is just a player at the end of the line looking for a payday, keep moving. There’s nothing to see here….nothing that all of us haven’t seen before.
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