“It takes a village to raise a child.”

“A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

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In all seriousness, I’ve tried to think of former champions and the types of players who were team leaders — and their isn’t a single player who reminds me of TO with respect to ON FIELD unreliability. Here, I’m speaking specifically about this penchant for dropping passes. His classic game vs. the Packers as a 49er was punctuated by a game-winning catch in the endzone after countless drops during the course of the game. The 49ers showed his love and kept the faith.

The guys that I came up with off the dome were vocal leaders and they led by example with tough, consistent play: Michael Strahan, Ray Lewis, Shannon Sharpe (Baltimore AND Denver), Ronnie Lott, Bill Romanowski, Derrick Brooks, John Lynch, Willie McGinest, Tom Brady, Hines Ward, Jerome Bettis, Joey Porter, Reggie White, Charles Haley.

That’s a short list. Each of these players on this list was/is a classic big game performer. T.O. was spectacular in the Super Bowl and he’s a monster – usually – but then he lays eggs too often. Last year, he led the league in dropped passes. This would be like Ray Lewis leading the league in missed tackles. It’s simply incomprehensible. Can you imagine Ronnie Lott being ranked last among safeties in metrics for getting beat deep? How about Strahan being unable to get sacks against a key division rival? Picture Hines Ward routinely missing blocks – instead of being the dude that knocked Ty Law AND Rodney Harrison out in consecutive seasons.

That dude in Dallas is a caricature. He’s not what he thinks he is – but he could be.

AG balances me out though because I can get like Brawley’s Rev when warranted so that’s whassup.

Mike Wise don’t think so though huh AG?

Hilarious ish, though

Owens is probably thinking Jones has his back too.

Case in point, At the height of the Owens/McNabb debacle there was the fight between Owens and the recently cut Hugh Douglas. Now Douglas and Owens had been on a collision course since training camp because Hugh thought Owens was faking small injuries to miss the 2 a days.

It all comes to a boil when Owens in the training room in the tub Douglas walks by making an “injury faking” comment. From here it gets sketchy but apparently Owens gets out of the tub ass-naked goes to his locker puts on some shower shoes and calls Douglas out. After he handles Douglas he calls out everyone else in the locker room, looking in McNabb’s direction.

No one budged.

The following Sunday on Fox Howie Long reported on it and basically gave the blow by blow account:

“From what I was told Hugh Douglas swung a few, missed a few, but he definitely caught a few.”

Our lesson for today: When a grown man comes to a fight ass naked and in flip flops, keep it movin’.

I didn’t think McNabb wanted to run the sneak either. I couldn’t see his eyes, but I thought I saw him look over the Bears defense to see if it was there — and every time it looked like he might think about, Urlacher and Briggs moved right in front of him. Say what you will, but I don’t think a sneak would have worked. I really just think the Bears were equal to the task.

CDM:

Thanks for the those on the Browns. I doubt that they’ll ever beat my Steelers again in your lifetime. Sorry about that. For my two cents, though, I think your squad would be better served if they could be balanced on offense. They have an elite WR and an elite TE. They don’t have an elite RB. Lewis is excellent, but his best years are behind him. The Browns need to make a move. Either it’s Anderson and they shut the door or it’s Quinn. This is the last year to have this looming over the franchise. They spent a great deal of money on the offensive line and have some studs, but they’ve been injured. It doesn’t get much better than Bentley, Steinbach and Thomas. At full health, they’re the envy of the league…no one has a better group on the left side of the ball.

As for the defense…I can’t help you there. When coaches reach out to sign old players, it makes me think it’s because they don’t have the juice to DRAFT the players they want. Wimbley is excellent. Bodden — I don’t know what that was about. Maybe it’s the ownership. I thought Phil Savage and Romeo were better than this.

All:

I agree with Harvey on this one. The problem with T.O. is his deep personal insecurity. It’s evident to anyone willing to look. I don’t know the pain he feels, but his unreconciled strivings are obvious. He needs a healing — and sometimes the wood shed is an ideal place. With that said, you need to be a fairly serious dude to think you’re going to take him ANYWHERE and whoop anything. He’s bigger than most cats on the team…he’s stronger…and faster. I don’t know if he can box, but the world is CHOCK FULL of football players who cannot take a punch. So, assuming for a moment, that this cat can actually fight even a little, the candidates to whoop his ass are few and far between. Never mind the very real prospect of injury and missing game checks for some shit that should and could be handled by management.

With that said, the 1970′s Raiders and today’s Ravens would have handled that straight up and in a hurry. TBR is correct. Not every team has a Ray Lewis…in fact, last time I checked, one team had a Ray Lewis — and Owens was smart enough to know that prima donna shit was not going to work there.

The game is simply bigger than the position of WR. I don’t believe teams can win when a single player uses the media as a means to change the gameplan. These teams are hierarchical for a reason. Owens simply is not reliable enough ON THE FIELD to be the true leader of the Cowboys – for that matter, neither is Romo. That’s a big reason why this team cannot win big games. Marion is that dude, but he not choose to lead with words…great teams need both. If Owens is not the leader, he needs to be checked so that he doesn’t undermine the larger collective. He simply doesn’t get that. They might have won a Super Bowl or 2 in Baltimore with him because all the Alpha Dog Territory has been thoroughly pissed on by Ray Ray.

T.O. would have become a fire hydrant in Baltimore. The worst part is that he knew it. When Philly played Baltimore, he did his best impersonation of James “Alligator Arms” Thrash and short-armed and ducked and dodged — until his TD late in the game. It’s precisely that level of arrogance masking cowardice that would have put him on the firing line in Baltimore.

Harvey, it won’t matter if there’s nobody but veterans on the Cowboys. Steve Mariucci couldn’t control him, Andy Reid couldn’t handle him, and Bill Parcells let T.O. run him out of town. Wade Phillips hasn’t had a problem with T.O. because he stays out of his way. It’s just like a child. You don’t let him or her do what they want, then pull a Joe Clark when they get to be a teenager. Dallas made their bed-now they gotta sleep in it, for better or worse.