Who is Terrell Owens? Many people have asked that very same question a thousand times, trying to figure out why he does the things he does. Embarking on his 15th year in the league, Owens has alienated his teammates on more than one occasion, bashed his quarterbacks in the media, yes quarterbacks plural, three out of the five QB’s he’s played with. The jury is still out for his current quarterback, Carson Palmer. If history is any indication, expect the same outcome as previous years. The exception would be his lone season in Buffalo…we’ll chalk that one up as volunteer work. It would be fair to say Owens is an “attention needer.” He needs attention like a newborn needs a nice warm nipple. It’s fair comparison because at times T. O. acts like a needy unattended newborn.
Fussing, throwing diva style tantrums until he gets his way. Who can we blame for having to watch an athlete complain whenever Jeff Garcia decided to throw the ball to an open J. J. Stokes or to some guy named Rice. How dare he! Most men learn from their mistakes and will try hard to avoid them from happening again and again and again. Well Terrell is not that man or player or father. If you dig deep into the psyche of any player that shows the same pattern of behavior on every team, you’ll find the underlying problem that causes a player like T. O. to continue on the way he does.
Many times the general public, fans etc... etc… only see the athlete as the football player or basketball superstar. But the main ingredient that always gets lost in translation is that they are only human. We have seen this before in athletes mostly resulting in off the field problems.
We have to give T. O. credit because he has stayed clean off the field. It was only on the field Owens became infamous. From the sharpie to the popcorn celebrations, Owens definitely set a new bar for arrogance in a league where players are fueled by big egos and even bigger pay checks to keep refueling their pet ego. Terrell Eldorado Owens real problems originated from his childhood, before the endorsements or the fast cars and fast women that came with them. After earning millions of dollars and becoming one of the most recognizable athletes in the world with the help of his reality television series.
Still, none of those things can fill the void. The void of growing up knowing your father lives directly across the street and doesn’t want to have anything to do with you. That revelation came to light on an episode of Terrell’s reality series, “The T.O. Show.” Whether it was done for ratings or not, the pain can’t be denied and it cannot be hidden behind big sunglasses or by a number.
Too often we have made our minds up about a person if they display character flaws not knowing their background, where they came from, what they been through as a child. We are all guilty of putting labels on people like someone with “daddy issues.” That’s a term commonly used in reference to women and we all know what comes along with that label. Owens is no exception in regards to having these “daddy issues.”
In retrospect, it explains everything we as fans have witnessed over the last 15 years watching Terrell Owens transform himself into T.O. the super male diva. It’s really troubling when I see a lost man with so many yes men in their corner telling them what they want to hear. In the case of Terrell, he has two very sad and unhappy women by his side masquerading as his publicists. These are the same publicists who allowed this man to get run out of town by the 49ers, the Eagles, and the Cowboys. Before his show, I wouldn’t have know he had any publicists on his payroll, the way he was conducting interviews from his driveway after the Eagles had enough. For some recurring reason Owens just doesn’t understand that the only person he’s fighting against is himself. He can blame it on his quarterbacks, who can easily resemble a father figure in his eyes: because in the huddle the QB tells everyone where to be, when and where they messed up. So when he got yelled at in the huddle, which could have easily triggered something that caused Owens to resent his QB’s. From San Francisco to Philadelphia to Dallas to New York and now on to Ohio. Chasing a championship hoping it will tell him three power words that a man from his past never told him. Three words of “I love you.” From a man who he sees whenever he looks into a mirror. It never matters the age of a man or woman, we all look to have unconditional Luv from the people closest to us and when that fails, our trust fades. We turn on our teammates, disobey the coaches and act out in the media for more attention. While his kids are looking for the same attention he did when he was a child. Owens just recently introduced his daughters to each other on one of his shows for the very first time. Maybe Kim and Kita will tell him instead of chasing a title or a woman, he should be chasing the Luv of his kids, and then he’ll always be a champion.
