Sorry for the levity, but in all honesty I find it amazing that T.O. is still a free agent this late in the game. I can certainly understand why that is the case though. T.O. was cocky and clashed with coaches in San Francisco. He was cocky and clashed with coaches in Philadelphia. He was cocky and clashed with coaches in Dallas. TO has a long history of blowing up in his coaches faces and the team suffering the consequences, but in all honesty was TO the downfall of these teams?
TO was in San Fran at the tail end of the 49ers dynasty. As it became unraveled it was easy to blame the flamboyant hot shot wideout. In Philadelphia, TO made comments that he should not have, but as opposed to addressing those comments and dealing with the matter in house, Andy Reid and the Eagles decided to deactivate TO for 11 games! It is interesting to note that in those seven games TO had a season remarkably like his season in Buffalo, stats wise at least. Why discard a player dominating so much for an entire season over a few comments? The Eagles went into a talespin and lost their best chance at a Super Bowl. In Dallas, Romo couldn’t get it done in December. TO had shouting matches with coaches in Dallas, but in all honesty with as much talent as Dallas has, how have they not won a championship? My guess would be that Jerry Jones’ puppet coaching crew is to blame and anyone with any knowledge of football would be able to see that the Dallas coaching staff leaves a lot to be desired. Notice, TO didn’t blow up in Bill Parcell’s face…but what do I know? I’m an amateur writer about to try and sell Terrell Owens to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The jist of what I am getting at is that while TO has never been a “good soldier” he is not necessarily the destroyer of teams that he is made out to be.
Ok so another mark against TO is that he gives up on plays when he doesn’t get his way. Valid point. TO is a world class whiner when it comes to getting him the ball. Dallas vs Pittsburgh he gave up on a route and ended up causing an INT that gave Pittsburgh the winning touchdown. That is a terrible mark against TO. He will occasionally give up when frustrated and not put the effort in. However, in that game TO had Dallas’ only touchdown, plus it was a fairly acrobatic grab with Ike Taylor all over him. TO has behaved petulantly, but in a season at Buffalo, I saw no petulance or whining despite numerous losses and a sharp decline in stats. TO went through football limbo and finally found out what it was like to be on a bad team. On a good team, TO would be grateful enough to give 100%...not to mention that father time in waiting to take TO’s skill. This year is almost now or never.
Well, TO drops a lot of passes. True. TO does drop a lot of passes. If he caught all of the passes he has dropped he may have passed Jerry Rice in receiving stats. Regardless of the drops TO is still in the top ten in most receiving categories. He may drop the ball occasionally, but he more than makes up for that in big play catches. So, it comes down to do the plays still outweigh the drops, drama, effort, and risk? Let’s take a look at what TO can do.
The problem in laying out what TO brings to the table is that what he has done after the whistle tends to shroud all of it out. I think to prove T.O.’s value to the Steelers, I have to explain TO’s skill set in terms of what the Steelers organization and fans expected out of Limas Sweed. For the uninitiated, Limas Sweed is a wide receiver from Texas that we drafted in the second round two years ago. He was supposed to be good, but in similar fashion to TO, Sweed had a problem making catches. The difference between the two is that TO can put drops behind him and make big time catches. Sweed was a tall guy as is TO. The difference is that TO is a workout warrior who is solid muscle. It is nearly impossible to prevent him from catching a ball in the endzone. Many have tried and many have failed. Sweed demonstrated a propensity for the crack block, which TO could easily duplicate and exceed. Can you imagine a team with TO and Ward run blocking? Mendenhall loves bumping runs to the outside and having TO and Ward clearing the edge would make for some nice rushing gains. Sweed had the ability to get open at will, TO most definitely possesses that ability. Even at 36 TO still got behind defenses all the time in Buffalo, but the weak armed Trent Edwards and Fitzpatrick could never give a satisfactory deep ball, just ask Lee Evans. To still has incredible speed and is in great shape for his age. He can still burn defenses and turn a five yard out into much larger gains. In a terrible Buffalo offense he averaged 15.1 yards per reception! TO can still play at a high level. To sum up, TO can do everything Sweed can do better and would make a perfect one year bandaid for the injured wide receiver.
I have made this argument before and the question always comes up, why do you want to ruin your team? Why? Well I do not see signing TO as a step towards ruining my team in all honesty. TO is viewed as a destroyer of teams, but we have seen that while TO handled things badly, ownership often handled things worse. The Steelers ownership would have no problem dealing with TO issues. They traded Holmes for a 5th and have a history of unloading troublemakers (with the notable exception of Ben). If TO acts up I have no doubt he will be shown the door. Also, the last time TO was coupled with a strong veteran wideout was in San Fran when Jerry Rice was playing. With long established Pittsburgh star Hines Ward opposite TO, I think there would be a competitive edge established among the two. Also, TO would have to share the spotlight with a wide receiver adored by his team and who has done something TO never did, won two Super Bowl rings. As I mention the rings, most of the people on this roster have Super Bowl rings, many of them have two. In the receiving corps alone Hines has two, Randle El has one, and Heath has two. On a team with champions who know what it takes to get to the big show, TO would be a good soldier and help get his teammates another ring as hard as he can.
The main reason I want TO on this football team is that this is a championship caliber football team. We brought back three Pittsburgh Super Bowl champs in Randle El, Larry Foote, and Bryant McFadden. Polamalu’s health will only become more of a question as he gets older and Casey Hampton, Aaron Smith, and James Farrior are not getting any younger. With Ben at QB we finally have an offense capable of carrying our defense, which it did against Green Bay and almost against Oakland, Tennesee, and Kansas City. The only weak points, besides oodles of sacks, for our offense last year were short yardage plays and red zone TDs. TO could easily take care of both of those problems. Any time he is on the field he takes coverage away from others so even if he isn’t making the plays, Hines Ward is a lot less covered and Wallace/Miller get chances to make plays. The loss of Holmes will be felt and I question Mike Wallace’s ability to withstand intense coverage. Defenses will slide towards Mike, but with TO in town, defenses will have to respect a lot of targets and will fail to stop Ben from moving up the field. TO will be an asset to Pittsburgh and could elevate us from a team fighting to get into the playoffs into a championship contender. That is why I want TO to be a Steeler.
PS: For Steelers management, I would buy an Owens Steeler jersey the second they were available. Doesn’t it look awesome? Please, Let me get my popcorn ready!
