Welcome Home Terrell Owens and "The Team of Me"

Let us examine a couple of key elements that Terrell Owens leaves out when talking about his time in Philadelphia. To drive home my point, let's look at some quotes of some of the Patriots after Tom Brady was injured.

"As a team we all just have to do our jobs. That really doesn't change," New England coach Bill Belichick said. "He played one position, he played it very well. We have somebody else playing that position now."

Now here is the statement that caused "Team of Me" Owens to become angry with McNabb:

"I feel that if he plays or not, we definitely have a chance of making it to the Super Bowl and winning it," McNabb said Wednesday, one day after owner Jeffery Lurie said the team won't redo Owens' contract. "That's nothing against T.O. and it's nothing against anybody else. I just feel confident in the guys that we have. With T.O., I think we can do a lot of great things. Without him, I still think we can do a lot of good things."

What you see here is that each team's prospective leaders saying that even with a key cog going down that they will compete and feel they can win. The difference is that Brady understands that life is about the whole and not one part and Terrell has not.

Terrell Owens also states that the power in the NFC East changed when he changed teams but I think that's a little bit of revisionist history. He leaves out that long before he got to Philadelphia the Eagles were the NFC East Champions and made it to 3 NFC Championships games. He also leaves off that the Eagles struggles were more a biproduct of McNabb not being healthy than the fact that he no longer plays for the Eagles.

I would just like to ask T.O. what would have happened if he would have gone to bat for Donovan McNabb like he did for Tony Romo. Let us look at facts here. Here is a video of T.O. defending Tony Romo after they lost in the playoffs with Tony Romo facing criticism for the vacation he took with Jessica Simpson:

(crying) "This is not about, you know Tony. You guys can point the finger at him. You can talk about the vacation. And if you guys do that, its really unfair. Thats my quarterback. Thats my quarterback. If you guys do that, its unfair. We lost as a team man."

Yet when asked about if the Eagles would be undefeated if they had Brett Favre as a quarterback, T.O. said yes. When asked about the Super Bowl loss, T.O. questioned McNabb's conditioning and said that it wasn't the first time Donovan got tired and threw up. Even if that is true, why not support your teammate and cry for him as you did Tony Romo?

But of course T.O. isn't at fault. In T.O.'s world, him saying Jeff Garcia was gay wasn't his fault. Beefing with all but his current coach is just a coincidence. Finally, throwing McNabb under the bus, I mean telling the truth was because Donovan couldn't handle the love he was getting. Of course thats what happened. Steve Mariucci was at fault when they didn't get along. It was Andy Reid's fault when they didn't get along. When he told the offensive coordinator to shut up, it was his fault. And McNabb and his relationship didn't work because McNabb was jealous. This is the same guy who after a game in which he dropped 4 or 5 passes (including a touchdown) will look right into the camera and say that the team didn't look for him enough. See any trend? It's never his fault.

Look, McNabb could have been a little jealous of Terrell Owens. It's a natural thing in most cases. Here McNabb was the solo star in Philly and Owens took some love and even got most of the credit for his success in some circles. However, that never manifest itself. You won't find any quotes of McNabb talking ill of T.O. until after the Superbowl in which T.O. questioned McNabb's conditioning. Terrell Owens disdain for McNabb began around the same time McNabb said they could win without him after that horse collar caused injury, occurred.

So be careful in listening to T.O. He has changed his stripes only so much. T.O. has never been a bad guy, just a misguided one who believes in the "Team of Me".