Projo Pats Blog

It makes me smile to think that Terrell Owens could be shuffling off the NFL stage in a backwater like Buffalo.

What a blow to his outsized ego to be picked up by the Bills after being cast off by the Cowboys.

He wasn't wanted any more in Big D, where he had become a distraction and a disruption, both with a big, capital D.

He also was, it should be pointed out, productive, catching 69 passes for 1,051 yards and 10 touchdowns last season. Putting that in perspective, while Buffalo's leading receiver, Lee Evans, had 63 catches for 1,017 yards and 3 TDs, the Bills' four other wideouts -- Josh Reed, Roscoe Parrish, James Hardy, and Steve Johnson -- combined for just 1,018 yards.

Still, it seems T.O.never gets the ball thrown to him often enough, as he often points out. It's always all about T.O. Considering that he complained about talented quarterbacks Donovan McNabb in Philadelphia and Tony Romo in Dallas, how long will it be before he becomes frustrated with the likes of Trent Edwards and J.P. Losman in Buffalo?

I like to compare T.O.'s performance in Super Bowl XXXIX against the Patriots with Curt Schilling's in the 2004 World Series, a few months earler.

Schilling, too, has a considerable ego. He knew his place in baseball history would be secure if, pitching with blood oozing from his ankle, he could hurl the Red Sox to their first World Championship in 86 years. But, as I covered Schilling and the Sox throughout the ALCS, and then followed them to St. Louis for the final triumph, I always had the sense that Schilling was risking his career primarily in hopes that his team would win -- knowing that, if they did, he would get the recognition he craved. And deserved.

With T.O., it was different. Listening to him in Jacksonville in the days leading up to the Super Bowl, I had the sense that he was determined to play because he couldn't bear to sit out the most important game in any football player's career. He wanted the spotlight on himself on the game's biggest stage. To come back as quickly as he did from injury, and play as well as he did against the Pats, was a tribute to his talent and his toughness. But I always had the feeling that, while Schilling was playing, first and foremost, to help his team win, Owens wanted primarily to play, and if the Eagles happened to win, well, that was a bonus.

Joy is not exactly flowing in the streets of Buffalo over T.O.'s arrival. As Jerry Sullivan, the Rogers High of Newport grad who's a columnist for the Buffalo News, wrote last week of Owens' signing: "This is a desperate move, a sure sign that (coach Dick) Jauron, the embattled head coach, needs to win this year and will do anything necessary to get there."

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