CNNSI: Same old T.O.

[bubba9497]

Same old T.O.

Mercurial Owens back to his old tricks in Philadelphia

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/don_banks/05/03/banks.shots/index.html

•Somewhere Jeff Garcia must be smiling.

Now that Terrell Owens publicly has called out his team's quarterback for the second time in about two years, it's clear the problem is Owens rather than the quarterbacks. Just as he did to Garcia in San Francisco in 2003-04, Owens has needlessly turned divisive in taking shots at Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb.

Stupid move, T.O. It's one thing to take on Garcia in San Francisco, when the 49ers organization was a rudderless ship, it's another to fire off verbal salvos at McNabb, an icon in the City of Brotherly Love.

Note to Owens: You won't win this one. Philly is McNabb's town, and the Eagles are his team. You might have won fans last season for helping the Eagles finally reach the Super Bowl, but you aren't powerful enough to get away with mixing it up with McNabb on the topic of whether the quarterback got "tired'' late in the loss to New England. Especially since head coach Andy Reid and team president Joe Banner are staunch McNabb backers.

With his demands for a contract renegotiation one year into his Philly tenure, his no-show at the Eagles' minicamp and his ill-advised baiting of McNabb, Owens quickly has dissipated much of the goodwill he created by playing so productively in 2004.

So we can dispense of the notion that the "new T.O.'' is an improved version of the one who tended to self-destruct in San Francisco. It doesn't seem to matter which coast he plays on, he's going to create most of his problems.

•Go figure the state of NFL quarterbacking. We had a draft in which a QB who hardly played in college (Southern Cal backup Matt Cassel) was selected and a quarterback who turned into a receiver/tight end went in the first round (Arkansas' Matt Jones), while one who not long ago was judged the finest college player (2003 Heisman winner Jason White out of Oklahoma) didn't get picked and couldn't make it through a team's first minicamp.

Then there's Hawaii's Timmy Chang, the NCAA's all-time passing yardage leader and No. 2 touchdown thrower, who has to compete with the likes of Kurt Warner, Josh McCown and John Navarre to have a shot to crack the Cardinals' depth chart. Funny league.

•Other than making news with his injuries or the occasional incident, have you noticed that Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey hasn't done much since his monstrous rookie season of 2002? And this offseason he has drawn heat from both Giants quarterback Eli Manning and head coach Tom Coughlin for blowing off almost all of the team's offseason workouts in favor of doing his conditioning near his home in Miami.

Manning wants Shockey in New Jersey to improve the timing between the pair in the passing game. Coughlin wants what any head coach wants, all of his players showing up for work whenever the doors to the team complex swing open. Everybody raves about how competitive Shockey is and about his great desire to win, but actions generally speak louder than words, and right now Shockey's act isn't playing too well.

•I'm not one for Brett Favre-worship to the nth degree, but I have to applaud the Packers quarterback for calling out Green Bay receiver Javon Walker on his threats to sit out this season unless he's given a new contract. Favre told the Green Bay Press-Gazette he hopes the Packers front office doesn't "give in'' to Walker's demands, and that Green Bay "can win without him.''

Walker's story has become typical. The team's first-round pick in 2002, Walker has two seasons remaining on his five-year deal. He got the benefit of the contract when he wasn't doing much in his first two seasons in Green Bay -- he combined for just 64 catches for 1,035 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2002-03 -- but once he had his breakout season of 2004 (89 receptions, 1,382 yards, 12 touchdowns and a Pro Bowl trip), now he says he's woefully underpaid. Walker is due to make $515,000 in 2005 and $650,000 in 2006.

"Maybe I'm old-school, but I always thought you honor a contract,'' Favre told the Press-Gazette. "Sure, sometimes guys pass you up in salary, and maybe it's a lesser player, but it's all based on what a team has as value in that person.....Nowadays you're seeing more and more guys pulling that stunt. If guys continue to do that and are successful getting away with it, then I'll be gone, but I think the game will be ruined. My reaction to Javon's situation was 'Here we go again.' ''

With Minnesota, Detroit and Chicago looking like they've improved, and Green Bay headed in the other direction, it's hard to see the Packers making it four consecutive NFC North titles in 2005.

•Interesting couple of weeks for the Patriots quarterback depth chart. New England drafted Cassel in the seventh round, despite him never having started a game in college, and then signed 42-year-old Doug Flutie last Friday afternoon.

Cassel, by the way, was 2 years old when Flutie launched his famous Hail Mary touchdown pass to Gerard Phelan in Boston College's upset of Miami in 1984.

If he makes the New England roster or practice squad, playing behind Flutie shouldn't be that difficult for Cassel. He knows a bit about being stuck behind Heisman Trophy winners. With the Trojans, Cassel played caddy for both Carson Palmer (the 2002 Heisman winner) and Matt Leinart (2004). Flutie, if you've forgotten, won the hardware in 1984.

"[i was behind] two Heisman Trophy winners, so who knows?'' Cassel said of his NFL potential. "I could [have been] the third-best quarterback in the nation, but I never got the opportunity.''

•Smart move the Patriots made in adding Flutie. Tom Brady has started 71 consecutive games for New England, and the odds say he's due to get dinged up. No matter what you think of Flutie's quixotic career, would you rather him coming off the bench in a key, cold-weather, late-season game, or the largely untested Rohan Davey?

The Patriots' depth chart at quarterback includes Brady, Flutie, Davey, Cassel and former Ravens starter Chris Redman, who signed with New England this spring in an attempt to restart his career after sitting out 2004. Redman's quest just got tougher. Brady, Flutie and Davey are likely to go 1-2-3, with Cassel probably headed for the practice squad.

•After sitting through the entire five-hour-plus Congressional hearing on steroids policy that NFL poobahs took part in last week, and here are my quick-hit thoughts:

-- I knew we were in for a long day when Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), the vice-chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, thanked officials from "Major League Football'' for agreeing to testify before them.

-- What a love-fest for the NFL and it's 15-year-old steroid policy. Calling the treatment that NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and NFL Players Association executive director Gene Upshaw received "deferential'' doesn't quite convey the boot-licking that I witnessed by members of Congress. Then again, anything coming after baseball's contentious steroids hearing in March was bound to look and sound like a tiptoe through the tulips.

-- For me, it was a fresh reminder that just because officials are elected doesn't mean they're smarter than the rest of us. Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Fla.) at one point asked a member of the panel if students were being shown anti-steroid "film strips'' in schools these days. Film strips?

-- Nobody does condescension like Tagliabue. Asked his thoughts on the hearing minutes after it ended, the Commish replied with a smile that could have passed for a smirk: "It was a warm, rich human experience.''

•It was only minicamp, and the dress code called only for helmets, jerseys and shorts, but folks in the Bills organization are buzzing about the team's top draft pick, University of Miami receiver Roscoe Parrish. Over the weekend he put on quite the show of speed, athleticism and catching ability.

Parrish used his 5-foot-9, 168-pound frame to outjump cornerbacks, consistently sped into open spaces in the secondary and turned in several highlight-reel receptions. Parrish, a second-round pick who went 55th overall, looks like a solid bet to be the Bills' third receiver, lining up in the slot alongside Eric Moulds and Lee Evans. Buffalo also plans on using Parrish on punt returns.

With Parrish added to an offense that already includes playmakers such as Evans and running back Willis McGahee, the Bills could be more explosive than expected if they can get a decent performance from new starting quarterback J.P. Losman.

•It is just me, or is the Kellen Winslow era in Cleveland getting off to dubious start? The Chosen One might want to choose to lay off the motorcycle riding until he has at least one healthy season in the NFL under his belt.

[project myu]

Good quotes by Favre. And dang, Parrish is small.

[Cool Hand Loki]

This is pretty good.

http://www.thebrushback.com/pollsshow_full.htm

[dfitzo53]

Originally posted by bubba9497

•Other than making news with his injuries or the occasional incident, have you noticed that Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey hasn't done much since his monstrous rookie season of 2002?

So true. He's not even useful as a blocker.

[freakofthesouth]

For some reason, I feel the need to post this here:

"I'm just getting a little T-O'ed because she won't send me a full-body shot."

-"Kip," Napoleon Dynamite

:laugh:

[SkinsNut73]

•After sitting through the entire five-hour-plus Congressional hearing on steroids policy that NFL poobahs took part in last week, and here are my quick-hit thoughts:

-- I knew we were in for a long day when Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), the vice-chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, thanked officials from "Major League Football'' for agreeing to testify before them.

I got a kick out of this one...

...Major League Football...:laugh: