A Ridicule Retorted: Alleviation Of Absurdity

The following is a comment posted by my roommate Lenny in regards to my post "Good Riddance" :

Benji,

While you obviously intended to make me look like a putz, you also failed to make important points, which in turn makes you the putz. You failed to mention that TO was simply concurring with loquacious Michael Irvin's comment that Brett Farve would have done better for the Eagles than McNabb. This is relatively acceptable statment, considering how unhealthy Mcnabb is this season.

Another point to consider is that the 49ers were not simplay getting rid of a "clubhouse menace". TO was a huge contractural obligation that the downsizing 49ers could not afford. So they traded him with the hopes of getting somethign for TO rather than him walking away. That trade was as much business as it was team chemistry.

~Your roommate/sex slave

Lenny,

During our many heated exchanges over this matter you keep going back to the Terrell Owens/Graham Bensinger ESPN interview and citing it as an example of a situation where T.O.'s comments were taken out of context and thus mis-interpreted; so, I thought revisiting the aforementioned comments in their entirety would be a good place to start:

GB: Your friend Michael Irvin recently said that if Brett Favre was the starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, they'd be undefeated right now. What do you think of that comment?

TO: I mean, that's a good assessment, I would agree with that.

GB: How so?

TO: I just feel like just what he brings to the table ... I mean he's the guy. Obviously, a number of commentators will say he's a warrior. He has played with injuries. I just feel like (with) him being knowledgeable about the quarterback position, I just feel like we'd be in a better situation.

Yes, he's being asked a question by Graham Besinger that refers back to comments made by commentator Michael Irvin; however he responds with thoughts that are all his own, apart from anything that Irvin said. He agrees with Irvin that were Favre at the helm of the Eagles offense, they would be undefeated. Fine, I see how that could be viewed as the interviewer trapping Owens into saying something that he didn't mean. But, when looking at an excerpt from earlier in the interview though, his feelings become more apparent:

GB: Donovan has obviously had trouble throwing, especially deep. He didn't complete any of his first 12 passes vs. Denver. How has that affected the team?

TO: Well, obviously I think our wins and losses are really predicated on how he plays...

Here Owens is explicitly indicating that he feels McNabb is responsible for their subpar record. After reading this, now look at what he has to say afterwards when Besinger asks him to elaborate on why he feels they would be in a better situation with Favre. He speaks Favre's praises to the point where it is almost sickening. In doing so, he is clearly taking veiled shots at McNabb indirectly. He calls Favre "the guy," "a warrior," someone who "has played with injuries," clearly implying that his current quarterback, McNabb is not in the same class, and does not know how to play hurt. (For the record, I seem to recall McNabb playing nearly an entire game and pulling out the win with a broken leg, but obviously at the time, Owens was too busy defiling the Cowboys' star to notice.) T.O. caps things off with "I just feel like (with) [Favre] being knowledgeable about the quarterback position, I just feel like we'd be in a better situation," clearly indicating that in comparison, McNabb is not "knowledgeable about the quarterback position." I'm not really sure how you can say that Owens is being taken out of context here; his "concealed" jabs within his comments about Favre seem to be quite apparent. It seems quite obvious that Owens does not respect McNabb and at the same time wants Brett Favre to have his children. (One would think that having played for several successful years with a quarterback (Steve Young) who was at least Favre's equal, Owens would not be so enamored with him.)
Now that I've elucidated Owens' comments for you, let's discuss briefly the comparison between Favre and McNabb since you love to bring the argument up that McNabb is "simply not a winner." Yes, you are correct in pointing out that Favre has the one thing in his possession that McNabb does not: a Super Bowl ring. There is also no disputing that Favre is a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer with a rifle of an arm, balls of steel and more passing records than classes you've slept through this semester. But you need to give McNabb a little more credit. All he's done over the last 4 years in the playoffs is bring the Eagles to the NFC Championship Game 4 consecutive times, a feat that even the great Brett Favre never accomplished. Furthermore, last season he broke through and made it to the Super Bowl, easily dispatching of Favre and the Packers with a 464 passing yard effort and 5 first half touchdowns along the way, all without his best receiver, Terrell Owens. As long as we're on the subject of receivers, let's go back to McNabb versus Favre. Besides the last season and a half with T.O., McNabb has played his entire career with sub-par, un-athletic receivers( James Thrash, Freddie Mitchell and Todd Pinkston are prime examples) and been able to succeed(as previously mentioned) in spite of their shortcomings. Favre, on the other hand has always had talented, athletic receivers at his disposal during his success with the Packers( Antonio Freeman, Javon Walker, Donald Driver were and are far superior to any receiver other than T.O. that the Eagles have thrown out on the field during McNabb's career). Furthermore, Favre has always has a consistent running game(in Dorsey Levens and later Ahman Green) to complement his passing game while the Eagles of the McNabb era have been perennially marred by inconsistency in the running game. I'm not saying that I believe that McNabb is a better quarterback than Favre, but give the man some credit; he has won a lot of games without much to work with(until recently). I don't see how you can say that he's not a "winner." You seem to be blinded by some irrational dislike for the man...

Let's finish things up by switching gears briefly to the other retort made in your response to my post, the way in which things ended for Owens with the 49ers. To do this, I will first contextualize it more lucidly with the assistance of my token 49er fan friend Brian:

Well,
we have to remember that back in the day, TO was actually about to opt out of his contract with the 9ers, but his agent forgot to file the proper paper work. Infact, the 9ers were expecting nothing in return from him because he should have been able to test himself in the open market. Instead, the 9ers traded him to the Ravens, but the NFLPA sued and won, which forced a trade between the 9ers and the eagles. The 9ers got some shmuck who never played well, he was like a DE or something, and the Ravens were given a compensation pick at the end of the first round by the leage (basically it was the first pick in the second round). Anyway, TO can claim that he never got to test the waters because he was suing for his right not to go to the Ravens. Had he been able to test the market, he may have been contented with his contract and could have turned into a model football player. THen again, he's such a douche that that would never happen.
~Brian The Great

I looked it up and the DE that Brian speaks of was named Brian Whiting and the 49ers also got mediocre wide-out James Thrash and a fifth-round draft pick out of the deal. Essentially they got nothing, as the draft pick was of no significance and neither player is still with team or to my knowledge playing in the NFL. You can try to argue that Owens being traded by the 49ers was purely a business decision but I don't buy it. They traded him for next to nothing and were happy to be rid of him. This despite the fact that he had played his ass off and been their best player on the field for several years prior and helped the team win both in the regular season and the playoffs. As you can see from the comments of our friend Brian (a 9er fan) T.O. wore out his welcome in San Fransisco. Obviously the 49ers were getting sick of his off-field antics and realized that the headaches that he brought along with his great play were not worth $8 million a year and it was time to move in a new direction. So, I would agree that the 49ers decided to move on and tore apart what was left of their earlier success, but I believe that Owens' pompous antics (which ended up alienating his coaches, teammates and the organization) were a huge reason why they decided to overhaul the team.

Basically, I think (and evidence shows) that Terrell Owens is a pretentious prick, a talented jackass who has always thought that he can get away with anything because of his amazing athletic abilities. Well, judging from the Eagles' decision to not allow him to play again this season, this haughty, childish mind-set has (thankfully) finally been disproved...