My ode to T.O.

Well, the Bills decided to make it official with the announcement that they were NOT going to resign Terrell Owens for the 2010 season. Um, Hello?? Captain Obvious over here. I could have told you that about two hours after Owens signed with the Bills almost a year ago. It’s kind of ironic that in the same week the Bills made it official, Owens was walking down the catwalk at a NYC fashion show. From being mobbed at the airport to introducing his own cereal, all of T.O.’s accomplishments with the Buffalo Bills came off the field.

Look, I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t excited about the team signing Owens. Not only did the Bills sign a star player, but it seemed as if he was going to add a jolt to the Bills being relevant again…and that was just from the public relations stand point.

Hell, I wrote a dam article comparing Owens and Lee Evans to Andre Reed and James Lofton. I thought Trent Edwards was going to become the franchise quarterback that Bills fans were hoping for. I thought Lee Evans would finally avoid the constant double teams that he’s endured over his career, and be recognized as a top tier wide receiver. I thought Owens would give the locker room a nice swift kick in the butt for their monotone demeanor when it came to losing. Most of all, I was hoping that T.O. would turn around an offense that had been clueless and unwatchable for the last five years. I just wanted something different. Instead, I just got another remixed edition of mediocrity at its finest.

Now, if anyone says that they weren’t excited about the acquisition of Owens and were the sole voice of reason against him coming to Buffalo, they are just full of s$#t. Go look up Jerry Sullivan’s comments on his blog about T.O. coming to Buffalo. He was drooling at the notion of getting all those money quotes that we had seen on ESPN for the last 10 years. Even if you hated Owens, your silver-lining was that he was going to score 10 touchdowns and catch 80 balls. Don’t be in denial, you would have sold your soul to the devil for Owens to guide the team to the playoffs.

Without question, the reason why the Bills signed T.O. was so they could sell the team to the fans. They needed a….you know what? We have gone over why the Bills signed Terrell Owens thousands of times. Let me tell you the reason why T.O. wanted to come to here.

Besides the obvious (No one was going to give him 6.5 million dollars), T.O. had a couple of other reasons. Look, I don’t mind a player whose an entrepreneur. If a player wants to go out and read a couple of scripts for movie roles or come out with their own cologne, I can deal with it. However, I’m not a fan of a player who tries to maximize his star power, but at the same time not give anything in return. You know, you scratch our backs and we’ll scratch yours. The only scratching Owens did was when the Bills PR staff pried his claws away from the exit door in October.

T.O. played this city like a harp from hell. He wanted to go to a city that was going to embrace not just T.O. the player, but T.O. “The Star.” Think about all the activities T.O. did from May to September of last year. Owens was mobbed at the airport by herd of fans dressed in popcorn. He was given the key to the city (At a ceremony that probably cost tax payers money), which he didn’t deserve. He then visited our local grocery stores with his imitation Cheerios. He then got bitched at by some girl on a rip off of American Gladiators. And of course, the Coup de grace, his reality show premiered. Sorry Bills fans, but that’s not being relevant, that’s being played.

I assure you, none of the other 31 NFL cities would have embraced Owens the way Buffalo did. Owens needed that opening montage for his life after football. He needed a crowd that was going to adore him like no other. He took a fan base that was desperate to get their 15 minutes of fame and willing to make him into the self-promoter that he thrives to be. You know how many people in NYC instant messaged me about how foolish Buffalo looked in worshiping Owens? I didn’t know what to say.

I’ll never forget being at work and watching footage of some moron at the airport dressed in popcorn and describing the atmosphere as being euphoric. Hell, I didn’t think Bills fans knew what that word meant. Then, I see Mayor Brown giving Owens the key to the city. Fantastic. Not only do I have to fight off stupid Jets and Giants fans who brag about the Bills losing four straight Super Bowls, but now I have to hear how the city worships a B-List celebrity. That’s when I made a pact with Owens. He had better catch 90 balls and turn my humiliation into salvation for the city and the team. Of course, it didn’t happen.

Now, before I get the comments that Owens numbers stunk because of bad coaching, bad offensive line play, and bad quarterback play, save it. I’m not stupid. I know it’s a big factor for the decline of his numbers. Hell, I was making the same excuse for the first 10 weeks of the season.

However, when we got to the first week of December, I changed my tune. As the weather started getting colder, so did Owens demeanor towards the team. On Wednesday of that week, Owens had to practice outside and made it known that he wasn’t exactly a fan of freezing his ass off. On Thursday, Owens didn’t practice because he claimed he was sick. Then On Friday, Owens didn’t practice again, yet…he was able to drive two hours to Toronto; sign autographs and attend a Raptors game. Seriously? You made the city of Buffalo buy your stale ass cereal and watch your body guard chow down Buffalo wings on your stupid reality show, and all we ask is for you to show a little effort in helping our team out? This wasn’t just an isolated incident, it just happened to be the last straw for me. The sugarcoating by me was as dry as his crappy cereal.

Remember all those deep passes thrown to Owens that he didn’t exactly give a great effort to catch? He just didn’t care about giving it back to fans on the field. Hell, he took his ball (or key to the city) and went home. He completely tuned out the rest of the season.

Lets flashback to the early 90’s. There would be stories of Bills players going in on Mondays after a bad loss and trying to fix their problems. The players were so moody after losses that they took it out on everyone…the media, the fans, the liquor. No one was spared, because their drive to get better made them into monsters.

Instead, we get Owens making his twitter page seem like a map for where he was going to show up on Mondays and Tuesdays. One week, he was going NYC and hanging out at a Starbucks. The next week, he was going to hang out with Roy Williams in Dallas. Don’t you think Owens should have been hitting the film room after one of the many anemic offensive performances by the team? Hell, his favorite moment of the 2009 season was the bye week.

In the end, T.O. and the Bills made out in the experiment. Unfortunately for Bills fans, they had egg on their faces. Owens was made out to look like a king to Hollywood, while the Bills organization was able to sell tickets and morale. As for the fans, they looked as if they were starving for attention and had been sitting in the mountains without TV and any sense of acknowledgment of the outside world. (Sorry if that sounded harsh, but that’s what people said to me when they saw the kissing of T.O.’s ass on TV)

Maybe there’s a silver lining in all this. Maybe the Bills have finally figured out that it’s not about getting one player. Maybe Owens will take playing for his next team more serious since he’s making it on Broadway and his reality show has been greenlit for season II. Maybe Bills fans won’t fall for the team’s marketing ploys and demand more from their team.

I know some of you will love T.O. till the day he goes to the HOF. On the surface, he has always put over Buffalo as a great city and a community that has adored him. I’ve always said that if you want Buffalo fans to embrace you, all you have to do is say nice things about their city. That’s all fine, I guess.

All I’m saying is that the next time a star-player comes to Buffalo, instead of trying to act vicariously through him as the key to the big time, just try and be proud of the city, and the type of living that you’ve accomplished without the help of Terrell Owens entering your lives. Trust me, there’s still life after football and there’s DEFINITELY life after T.O.