I’ll be honest, I was a little bit surprised by the newest incident involving Terrell Owens.  I suppose I wanted to believe that TO had turned the corner and was maturing as a teammate.  I was wrong.  My proverbial hand has been torched by the flame of Terrell Owens ego one too many times.  Terrell Owens is a horrible, horrible, horrible teammate.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone in any sport so quick to point fingers when things start going wrong.

In case you’re wondering what I’m talking about, I’m referring to TO’s latest outburst about Tony Romo and Jason Witten allegedly having “secret meetings” where they drew up “secret plays” to get Witten the ball instead of Terrell Owens.  Super mature.  What is this, the elementary school playground?  “Teacher, he won’t give me the ballllllll.”  God, I swear, the immaturity of some athletes never ceases to amaze me.

So what do the Cowboys do with this guy?  Terrell Owens is one of the best wide receivers in the league; a playmaker and a guy who has to be accounted for everytime he lines up wide.  The Cowboys can’t cut him for a number of reasons but what are they to do if TO goes TO on everyone and demands a trade.  Who’s going to want this guy?  No matter how desperate a team is for wide receivers (cough cough Tennessee) I can’t imagine anyone is willing to take a gamble with this guy.  It’s pointless for me to tell TO to shut up because I said that when he was with the 9ers and I said that when he was with the Ravens Eagles.  Stop being an attention whore, TO.

I’ve long been aware of the fact that professional athletes get to play by a different set of rules than the rest of us. Whether it’s their high powered attorneys, ridiculous sponsorship deals or simply their deep pockets, athletes can usually get away with shit that we wouldn’t dare dream of. This latest rant concerns Pac Man Jones (who else) and the gutless wonder that is Roger Goodell.

We’ve written a number of things about Goodell running the NFL with an iron fest, whether it’s barring alchohol from the locker rooms or simply making any form of contact a 15 yard penalty. He’s quick and willing to fine anybody that plays the game hard, but doesn’t have the guts to really take a stand with the bad eggs of the NFL. 

Of course, I’m talking about Pac-Man Jones, who, after being suspended for the entire 2007 season, was reinstated a few months back…only to get suspended again…and reinstated again. I’ve heard of the three strike rule, but Pac Man is pushing the Silver Sombrero for all the bullshit he’s been involved with at West Virginia and since getting drafted in the NFL.

Stop giving these idiots 3rd, 4th and 5th chances. Does anybody have any faith in Pac Man Jones to suddenly pull his head out of his ass? Would the average joe still be showing up to work after picking up three DUI’s like Jared Allen? Or how about if killing people with their car like Leonard Little did (albeit under the Tagliabue era)? Stop being a wrist slapper, Goodell. Start punishing the habitual line-steppers of the NFL.

As each day passes, I feel like we’re closer and closer to seeing Terrell Owens again laying on his front yard, doing crunches saying no comment.  It’s a day I certainly am looking forward to, and if the Cowboys continue to struggle (and with Brad Johnson or Brooks Bollinger at the helm, they most certainly will) then this T.O. meltdown could happen sooner than expected.

The signs of this implosion have been long in coming.  Even though the Cowboys started the year off hot, Owens wasn’t getting as many passes as he would like (all of them) and judging from his past, it would seem we’re nearing the end of his tenure with the Cowboys.

Then there was the Tony Romo injury, and things went from bad to worse.  With an incompetent, should be retired has been throwing him the ball, the outlook was bleak.  And when the Cowboys got Roy Williams from the Detroit Lions, the question wasn’t necessarily was it a fair trade, the question was how is T.O. going to react.  That isn’t normally a good thing.  And we know Williams is going to take catches away from Owens, that’s what happens when you have two good receivers on the field at the same time.

Now Owens is telling the coaches how to do their job, that is, to look back at 2007 and see how they got him the ball, and replicate that in 2008.  Owens appears to be re-realizing that the world does in fact revolve around him.  I would suggest getting your office pools going about when this train wreck happens.  In the meantime, I’ll be getting my popcorn ready.

All is wrong in Big D. So…how bout them Rams!  In all factions of the game, the Rams abused and destroyed the Dallas Cowboys.  Roy Williams had no catches and the Dallas defense looks as bad as we thought it might be with two rookie cornerbacks starting.  And then there’s giving up over 150 yards on the ground to Steven Jackson.  The Cowboys have some issues to sort out.

I’m liking my playoff pick of the Bills more and more. Trent Edwards threw only five incompletions yesterday and Marshawn Lynch had a productive day running the football.  On that positive note, I’d like to tell Buffalo to sort their shit out and not have transformers blow up, causing me to miss almost the entire first half on tv.  Between this and the TBS debocle showing the Steve Harvey show instead of the Tampa Bay Boston game, I’ve had about enough with television malfunctions.

The Chiefs are worse than you thought. If it weren’t for garbage time points from Tyler Thigpen, the Chiefs would have been shut out at home for the first time ever.  Regardless of the 10 meaningless points they scored, they got molested.  Over 300 yards allowed rushing to a Titans team that makes no secret of their desire to run is unacceptable and unbelievable.

The Rays know how to make a dogpile. I’ll make no secret of it, the baseball game last night was a thousand times more entertaining/meaningful than the shitty Seahawks Buccaneers game on Sunday Night Football.  What a hell of a dogpile they made after the game though; that’s a lost art.  Suffocating guys underneath and having more and more guys going Brian Dawkins onto the pile.  Awesome.  And finally we have some new blood in the World Series.  Enough of this big market bullshit, Rays Phillies here we go.

Pacman checked into an alcohol rehab facility. I fail to see how this will matter.  No way this dude gets another shot.  If he does, Roger Goodell is a pushover.

The Lions are going to fulfill my lifelong dream. I knew I liked this team for a reason.  With Dan Orlovsky at the helm, there’s no way this team wins a game.  Calvin Johnson is the only player on this team that matters and Orlovsky didn’t give him more than two looks yesterday, one of which was a prayer hail mary.  The end result?  Megatron had 154 yards receiving on two catches!  The defense doesn’t look capable of stopping a CFL team, let alone any of the next ten teams they’ll play.  We can do this!  We can make dreams happen!  0-16, lets start the bandwagon.

Robert Flores is the biggest nerd on television. I don’t know if you’ve ever caught this asshat on Sportscenter, but his antics are quickly becoming unbearable.  Flores can’t go an entire show without mentioning something about one of his eight fantasy football teams or something about a football player in Madden 09.  “In Madden 09, you can play as Roy Williams on the Cowboys.  I did…online last night…by myself…because I have no friends.”  I jock my fantasy team in articles and podcasts because I’m a freelance goon and I just don’t care.  Flores jocks his because he’s an unprofessional piece of shit.

Looking ahead to Monday Night. The Patriots really need a win tonight.  This game may, in fact, be unwatchable because of how much Kornheiser and Jaworski will talk about the impact of Tom Brady not being in the Patriots lineup.  Also, prepare yourself for three hours of Kornheiser slobbing on Cutler’s knob.  I’ve never seen such a jerk fest for a guy who hasn’t done a damn thing in the NFL.

Okay okay, who had week six in the “pick how long it will take for Pacman to get back into trouble” office pool?  You, sir, are a winner.  Some people, no matter the situation, always seem to find trouble.  Pacman is one of those guys.  Pac got into a brawl with one of his own security guards in a hotel yesterday after the security guard said something about the girl Pac was with.  Here’s how it probably went down.

Security Guard: “Pac, that girl is a skank.  She’s gonna jack you, bro.”
Pacman: “Yo, don’t talk bad ’bout my girl befo’ I have to whoop yo ass.”
Security Guard: “You?  Whoopin’ my ass?  I’m an off-duty cop, bro, I’ll blow you up.  So shut your mouth and lets get outta here.”
Pacman: “Aight now you crossed the line dawg, Im’a beat yo ass”
Security Guard: “Pac you don’t wanna fight me, you can’t be gettin into trouble like that.  Goodell will suspend your ass.  Mr. Jones will be pissed off.  And I don’t wanna have to break your face in.”
Pacman: “F**k that lets go.”
(Security guard whoops Pacmans ass)

Expect the heavy hand of Roger Goodell to come smashing down on Pacman.  Upon reinstating Pacman, Goodell warned that any incident would be taken seriously and punished harshly.  This would be one of those incidents.

More importantly, imagine being Jerry Jones right now.  You took a flyer on a guy who had some problems but did what was necessary to make sure it wouldn’t happen again by issuing security guards for him.  Instead, he goes and fights one of the guards.  Now, with a likely suspension coming, you lose Pacman from the defense on top of finding out that Terrance Newman is going to be out for up to six weeks with a sports hernia.  That Cowboys defense took a serious hit within a matter of days.

It’s not like I’m surprised.  I wasn’t fooled by the front that Pac put up in the HBO series ‘Hard Knocks.’  He’s not a reinvented person.  He never will be.  I don’t care how good he is at football, he’s just another Lawrence Phillips.  Pac’s options in the NFL are getting smaller by the day, and if he continues doing dumb shit like this, he’ll be out of the league before the year is over.