The Philadelphia Eagles took a ‘risk’ last season by bringing in Terrell Owens.
It’s important to note that the Eagles are an organization that does not like — or look for — controversy.
From a communications perspective, Andy Reid adopts what is often referred to as a “vanilla” approach. He is generally accessible, polite, responsive— but says absolutely nothing that could lead to a media frenzy.
Every week he starts his Monday post-game press conferences by saying he “looks forward to the challenge” of playing whatever team the Eagles are scheduled to play next.
When asked how a certain player is doing, he will say, “He’s doing a nice job”. He uses the word ‘nice’ frequently.
That said, he is an outstanding football coach, who made a decision just over a year ago that trading for Owens, an All-Pro wide receiver, could help his team get over the hump. Three years in a row the Eagles went to the NFC championship game, and three times they came away without a championship.
In 2004, with Owens in the line up, the Eagles offense soared. Owens and Donavan McNabb seemed to share a kinship of sorts, which was interesting as Owens had spent an inordinate amount of time publicly trashing his previous quarterback, Jeff Garcia.
The comments ignored the fact that Garcia was a tough, durable quarterback who had played quite well with the 49’ers.
Just not, apparently, up to Owens’ standards.
So Owens, in his early days with the Eagles, had the world by the tail. By all accounts he was engaging with the media, the fans and teammates.
The honeymoon was on.
When he went down with a serious injury late last season, many predicted the Eagles would falter.
Yet they charged through the playoffs without Owens, capturing the NFC title along the way, before Owens made an unexpected comeback to star in the Super Bowl loss to the Patriots.
Fast forward to this past spring, and Owens wanted to renegotiate his contract, after completing only 1 year of a 7-year deal.
Meantime, he had made comments in the off-season that were highly derogatory about his ‘pal’, McNabb. He remarked that he wasn’t “the player who got tired” at the end of the Super Bowl.
Another example of, “I’m great, someone else is the problem…”.
The Eagles don’t renegotiate contracts, so he reported to camp unhappy — only to be tossed out by Reid after a series of interpersonal issues arose.
Can Owens return to the team a happy man? A “team” player?
No.
That possibility left long ago. He has made it clear by trashing McNabb on several occasions, just as he trashed Garcia before him. The pattern is there.
Reports suggest he has ignored most of his teammates this summer at training camp. He has evidently snapped at coaches. He has played up to the media — when he wanted to— to get his message out and made it clear he will not be happy unless he gets a new deal, or a new team.
The point?
The biggest issue in professional sports today is attitude. The attitude of too many athletes is slowly eroding fan interest.
Oh, there will always be a love of sports. But more and more, many fans are tuning out, as the apathy over the NHL lockout demonstrated.
Steroids may be the biggest health issue in sports — an issue that smacks of hypocrisy on so many levels it requires a separate commentary. But too many athletes are grossly overpaid, and until we — fans, athletes, owners, agents, media — step back and start re-thinking some basic values, we will have more and more individuals like Owens who are wonderfully talented individuals, but are the last guys most people would want as a teammate.
It’s funny how things seemed to go swimmingly last season with Owens and the Eagles. But that is often the way when an often-disgruntled athlete starts “fresh” with a new team. Everyone wants to give the impression that all is well.
Unfortunately, old behavior patterns — like old habits — die hard.
It’s easy to be a “good teammate” when you have the world by the tail. The truly classy individuals— the ones who at least try to fight the instinct to simply be about themselves — are those that work hard every day, sign a contract and live by it, make those around you better, and try to act with at least a degree of humility.
It doesn’t mean you can’t be your own person. It doesn’t mean you lack integrity. It just means that, in part, you at least acknowledge you are not bigger than the game you play, and not more important than the people around you.
Simon and Garfunkel asked where Joe DiMaggio had gone. Some of us are still looking for the modern-day equivalent of Jean Beliveau: an elegant, talented athlete who respected fans, teammates, the media, and the game.
