Silent Owens seems to be a content Owens

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Sep. 19, 2005

By Ray Ratto

Special to CBS SportsLine.com

http://www.sportsline.com/print/columns/story/8866010

Editor's note: This is Ray Ratto's debut column for this website -- again. Ray wrote for SportsLine USA from 1995-97, and we welcome him back to CBS SportsLine.com. You can read Ray's columns here three times a week.

In the latest chapter of Terrell Owens: A Spectacularly Over-Examined Life, our hero has a new best friend in Donovan McNabb, a whole new set of helpless foils in the San Francisco 49er defense, and the peace that comes from silence.

Yes, this is the Owens that Philadelphia wants -- catching passes, playing nice with the man who controls his fate, and not saying anything that would make regular citizens weep and pray for the sweet release of deafness.

And frankly, we suspect that this is actually the way he wants it, too. A quarterback who will throw the ball to him, a defense that will do next to nothing to prevent it, and a noisy rabble kept at arm's length while he allows them to admire his presence. Frankly, it's a hell of a gig if you can master it. You saw the game, or at least the highlights. You saw the box score. You saw him chatting up McNabb as though the quarterback had donated a kidney to keep him alive. You even saw him giving McNabb the football from one of his touchdowns. Heartwarming stuff -- Kanye West meets Little House on the Prairie.

This is Owens at his best, the Owens that the Eagles think is worth $49 million and not a penny more. This is the Owens people saw in the Super Bowl (with points off for dramatic surroundings and degree of difficulty), the Owens that people care to watch. The other stuff is what he does when he's unhappy, or bitter, or feels disabused by the system.

In short, when he speaks for the record, he has either a complaint or an ulterior motive. When he is publicly silent, life is a cabaret. It is a nearly fail-safe litmus test, a simple yet fool-proof mood ring.

Thus, these are the best of times for Owens, and therefore the Eagles. For the moment, anyway.

Granted, Owens has captured the media's pathological imagination in a way that even the public finds excessive. The scene in front of his house during his training camp suspension was something we can all be proud of -- if we work in the manufacturing sector. In the media, we were retching in the rosebushes with shame.

But that's where he has us. He will do anything to get attention when he feels he needs it.

On the other hand, he is easily mollified by his quarterback's attention, which is a blessing for all involved.

Sunday, he got what he needed. The ball, early and often. That this worked well with the Eagles' plan, which was to eviscerate the underclubbed 49ers in the home opener and avenge a mediocre opener against Atlanta, was particularly fortuitous.

For one, we don't have to see Andy Reid furrowing his brow so hard that it ends below his eyes. For two, we don't have to watch Joe Banner explaining for the 311th time about contract sanctity. For three, we get to see Jeff Lurie being all but ignored by Owens after the game and still smiling.

Now who, having spent way too much time inside and outside Owens' head this summer, can complain about that? Especially when one could be watching Randy Moss instead?

Moss is getting passes thrown his way in Oakland. Occasionally, he is not called for pass interference. And the Raiders are 0-2, going into Philadelphia to watch Owens enjoy himself some more.

Somehow, we get the feeling that Moss is not having nearly as much fun.

He has had no noticeable feuds with his quarterback. He has been occasionally available for interviews, and been affable each time. He has not raged outwardly at the possibility that he could miss the playoffs in two different time zones in two years. If he is a ticking time bomb, he seems to have plenty of fuse left.

The contrast Sunday will be, if not fascinating, enough to keep our minds off what looks like another desultory weekend in your NFL. The season has not begun auspiciously, with a series of uninteresting games and 18 teams at 1-1, and 10 of the 12 playoff teams from last year at 1-1 or worse.

Plus, we do have this fascination for wide receivers these days, made all the more noticeable by the increased number of talking heads from the pass-catching corps. It's all T.O. and Randy and JoeHorn (never "Joe" or "Horn," but "JoeHorn").

Hey, it keeps people busy until the season starts to take some form. This ultra-parity loses its charm after, well, about now.

As for Owens, his mood might swing back to foul if the Raiders can show the kind of defensive resistance they did Sunday night against Kansas City. Or he might party like it's 2010 -- the walk year of his contract.

Unless, of course, he decides to make 2005 the walk year of his contract. With Owens, he's not day-to-day, but his obligations sometimes are.

Ray Ratto is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle