ESPN writer = "Hey Eagles ...don't let T.O. Play"

[Guest BlackJesus]

[color="green"][b]good article on T.O. from ESPN [/b][/color]


[u]Hey Eagles ....Don't let T.O. Play

By Jason Whitlock
Special to Page 2[/u]

There's no way Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeff Lurie should allow Terrell Owens to attempt his next publicity stunt -- playing in Super Bowl XXXIX on a bum ankle.


No way. The Eagles can't get swept up in the T.O. hype machine. He wants to be Willis Reed and Jack Youngblood rolled into one. I don't blame Owens. He's a competitor. I imagine there's a small part of T.O. that really wants to play in the Super Bowl because he believes he can help the Eagles win. There's a very small part of T.O. that wants to make the same sacrifice as Youngblood, who played in a Super Bowl with a broken bone in his leg.

Hey, T.O. ... start waving a towel and stay on the sideline.

But that small part of T.O. isn't what's driving all the will-he-or-won't-he discussion surrounding his availability. T.O.'s need for attention is driving all the SportsCenter updates and Sal Paolantonio reports. T.O. wants a piece of sports' biggest stage and he'll stop at nothing to get it -- even jeopardizing the rest of his career.


Lurie has to be wiser than T.O. You don't jog on a treadmill one week and stroll across the middle or down the sideline of Rodney Harrison's neighborhood the next week. It's foolish. Harrison shows no mercy. He'd take great pleasure in going medieval on T.O.'s foot.


The Eagles gave Owens a $10 million signing bonus last offseason. This one game isn't worth $10 million, especially when you consider that T.O. at 75 percent won't decide the outcome. He would do little more than provide the Eagles additional inspiration. He can do that in street clothes while standing on the sideline.


I am not bashing T.O. It's cool that in the same playoffs that saw New York Jets defensive end John Abraham not suit up in order to protect his free-agent leverage, Owens is seemingly willing to risk everything. But do you really think he'd risk everything if he was in the last year of his contract and headed for free agency?


Nope. Owens, 31, inked his lifetime achievement contract over the offseason, and he's spent much of this season turning himself into a bigger-than-the-game, endorsement star. Limping on the field and scoring a touchdown in Jacksonville is T.O.'s final self-promotional trick. It would be more talked about than Janet Jackson's lovely exposed breast and Nicollette Sheridan's towel- (and jaw-) dropping "Monday Night Football" performance.


Besides being risky and self-serving, here's what I don't like about T.O.'s stunt.