Originally posted by dj43:
As you note, teams have put up with questionable behavior in the past while not cutting the player. Those were star players just like TO. Teams kept those players because they felt their contribution to winning was more important than the abhorrent behavior. What the media said was of no consequence to teams that just wanted to win. That fact alone tends to discount the claim that the media was the source of the cancer, not the player.
If Owens was truly playing at a HOF level, and the "cancer" was not real, it is not logical to contend that a team would cut him just because the media was publicizing his behavior in the locker room. That argument doesn't fly.
1. The 49ers did not cut Terrell Owens. Owens chose to leave. The 49ers actually jumped through hoops for years to try to keep him. In 1999 they signed him to a then-record 7.5 million signing bonus for his new contract. In 2002, Owens actually had his agent request that he be left unprotected for the expansion draft, because he wanted out. The 49ers responded by sending Mariucci to Atlanta to meet with Owens and his agent and try to repair the relationship. In 2003, the 49ers met with Owens's agent in the off-season to try to negotiate a contract extension, because the void clause in his contract was coming up. When they determined that Owens was out of their price range - in part because Julian Peterson was being represented by the Postons and was going to command an outrageous salary - they decided they couldn't afford to keep him. However, instead of trading him while they had the chance, they kept him, because they thought the team was much better with him. At the end of the season, Owens tried to file for free agency and was planning on bolting to the Eagles, but his agent missed the new deadline.
It was
Owens who was often eager to leave the 49ers, not the other way around. This nonsense people spew now is revisionist history.
2. Andy Reid made Owens a deal that if he apologized for the interview with Graham Bensinger, he could stay on the team, and he wouldn't be suspended for a single day. It was only when Owens
refused to apologize that the Eagles acted. Mind you, this was with a team that had a nucleus that had been to 3 consecutive NFC Championship games before he even got there. Why would they be so attached to this "team cancer?"
I'll tell you why - because Reid loved him, but the ridiculous media and the distractions they were creating had become too much. The reporters were irritating and distracting the players by constantly bombarding them with questions about Owens. It wasn't Owens himself doing this. They did blame Owens for not doing a better job of handling the media, but they also weren't in his shoes, and didn't see just how dishonest the media was.
3. The Cowboys cut Owens when he was 35 and coming off his worst statistical season since 1999. On his "performance evaluation" sheet that was sent to him after his release, they checked "performance," not any "conduct" boxes. Only with Terrell Owens and this stupid narrative is "35" considered the "height of his career" for a wide receiver. Even Jerry Rice was a shell of himself at 35...that was the year he tore up his knee.
