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Owens-Parcells marriage already rocky |
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Adam Schefter's "Around the League" reports and commentaries can be
seen regularly on NFL Total Access.
(Aug. 27, 2006) -- Football's most defiant player and football's most
stubborn coach are engaged in a stare-down more entertaining than any
preseason game.
Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens wants
his hamstring to heal at its own pace, on its own schedule, without any
head coach -- even a future Hall of Fame coach -- barking orders at him
about how soon he needs to return to practice.
Cowboys coach Bill Parcells wants his "player" back on the field,
practicing with the rest of the team, no questions asked, without
anybody standing up to him or sitting on a bike in a Team Discovery
outfit to insult him.
And thus, we have riveting preseason theater that now looks like it's
going to extend into the regular season. Or at least until Parcells
decides that he, like Andy Reid, like Steve Mariucci, has had enough.
T.O. hasn't even stepped on to the field yet this summer, not even for a
single play, and already he has created more headlines than any player
in football.
His hamstring hurts. Parcells wants his "player" on the field. The
"player" comes back, only to re-injure it. The "player" skips team
meetings and rehab sessions and
incurs a $9,500 fine. On and on, like a stationary bicycle ride
in Oxnard, Calif.
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Terrell Owens' time on the bike has tested Bill Parcells' patience.
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These were the types of headlines that everyone expected to come. But
nobody expected them this soon.
Conventional wisdom was that T.O. would be on his best behavior this
season, thankful for the contract the Cowboys awarded him.
Instead, T.O. has behaved as if he learned nothing from his experience
in Philadelphia. As if he is more important than his team. Maybe this
shouldn't be such a surprise. Dr. Harry Edwards, who worked with T.O. in
San Francisco and knows an athlete's mind better than anyone in sports,
predicted that the veteran wide receiver wouldn't be any different
whenever he found his next employer. Smart man, Dr. Edwards.
Then when the Broncos visited with T.O. last February, two members of
Denver's organization said they didn't get any sense that T.O. had been
humbled, that he would be more appreciative if he got another chance.
T.O.'s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, insisted his client would. Dallas believed
it. The two stepped to the altar in a pairing every bit as intriguing as
Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. So far, the Cowboys tandem is
providing more drama than The Breakup.
As much as everyone outside Dallas might be reveling in this, nobody can
be enjoying it anymore than Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb. Nobody can be less surprised than Eagles coach
Andy Reid. While the Cowboys summer has turned into a maddening football
circus, the Eagles summer has been punctuated with a peaceful easy
feeling.
Now, nobody outside Jerry Jones and Rosenhaus believes this can end
quietly. Nobody can think we've heard anything close to the last of this
story. This is a drama that is going to linger like the discomfort in
T.O.'s hamstring.
Eventually, it might get better. But rest assured, in time, it's going
to get worse.
[uredio Coito]