Terrell Owens has been at the top of the media headlines for the larger part of the last ten years. He is one of the most talked about sports figures in the last thirty years. It’s not uncommon for an athlete to be so victorious in his arena of sport yet receive a lot of negative coverage.    But it is not everyday that the media will cover, scrutinize, and spotlight an athlete so much that he becomes the driving force of ratings. 

Terrell is no stranger to victory on the football field.  He is currently second all time to Jerry Rice in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns, and he is sixth all time in receptions. For fifteen NFL seasons he has played in six Pro Bowls, 5 All Pro Selections and averaged 71 receptions and close to 1,100 yards a season. Owens has always been known to put in work. His body is a work of ebony majesty.  People have rarely criticized his work ethic, but that’s where any praise, respect or acknowledgment ceases, and onward to the ambiguity of perception, opinion and criticism we go. I have wanted to discuss this topic for a while now because we can learn a lot from Terrell’s career. So I suppose I’ll start by illustrating what makes me any different from all the other sports journalist and media pundits.

I myself played at the collegiate and professional level. Having played cornerback and earning All League honors, I completed my college career with 17 interceptions. Upon leaving college, I played for the Calgary Stampeders in the CFL with other players such as Doug Flutie, Jeff Garcia and an outstanding but unknown wide receiver here in the States named Allen Pitts.  I should also add, my collegiate quarterback was Anthony Cavillo, the all time quarterback passing leader in any league. After an injury cut my pro career short, I changed my objectives and moved into the corporate world.  I spent the last 10+ years working as an Engineer for Intel Corporation. Although I attained what this world calls success in my field I felt compelled to write a book and how-to program called,  Don’t Stop the Swagger, which talks about preparing the mind, body and soul for peak performance. After completing the book I felt as though I had a little left in the tank and at 35 years old I began racing motocross. I was so passionate about the sport that I said would put the Don’t Stop the Swagger Program to the test and see how far I could go.  Well, four years later I raced my first professional race in Washougal, Washington at the Motocross Outdoor Championship.  I followed that up with select Supercross races in 2010 & 2011. So I believe I have the basis and the background to write this article.

So back to Mr. Owens. This guy is one of the most accoplished NFL athletes ever. For most receivers, a couple seasons at Terrell Owens’ yearly average would gain them respect for their entire careers. But looking at Terrell’s career, many acknowledge his football greatness but get distracted by the fans’ scrutiny of things many other athletes get away with. Terrell has never been convicted of a crime such as a DUI, domestic incident or other pesky issues that so many others seem to commit regularly. Ray Lewis was charged with murder, spent significant time in jail throughout the trial and eventually got off, even though it was proven that he had a very close relationship with the trigger man.   Yet and still, the media continues to praise Ray Lewis, talk about his character as a good example and show regard for him regardless of the criminal situation he played some part in.

Then you can go further into athletes like Michael Vick, convicted, as we all know, of killing dogs. And the NFL and ESPN media which drives sports headlines has consistently spun his story for the positive during Vick’s comeback. It appears even deeper for Vick because his actions seemed to be a conscious institutionalized type of behavior. And yet people like Tony Dungy are more harsh toward T.O. than Vick.  To even compare the two is ridiculous. Tony almost became the enforcer for NBC, convicting Terrell on national television. To make matters worse is the fact that so-called knowledgeable people have tried to put an exclamation point on the ESPN built T.O. bias.

As a New York Daily News Staff writer stated, “Long ago, the media constructed a double standard for Dungy.  An NBC NFL analyst, whether it’s a player such as Terrell Owens or a coach such as Rex Ryan, Dungy is free to make comments even on things he did not personally hear. They are media made easy targets – a fat loudmouth coach who hasn’t won a thing and an egotistical player make excellent, easy targets, right?”

The thing about this is all the while Tony became a mentor and advocate for Vick, pleading for Goodell to reinstate Vick while he was still very critical of Terrell Owens.

After a game in which Terrell Owens complained about a loss to the New Orleans Saints, Tony Dungy disliked the way Owens behaved in his post game news conference after failing to catch a single pass in a home loss to the New Orleans Saints.  Who really knows what Terrell said, but can it be any worse than the thousands of post game interviews we’ve heard from players?   

 ”You really don’t want that,” Dungy said of Owens’ prideful demeanor. “But I think you know that’s what you get with Terrell Owens. When things aren’t going well, you’re going to get stuff like that. That’s hard to coach.”

When Tony makes an evaluation about a player he is untouchable; what he says is like the gold standard.   That’s what made his comments about Terrell so bad.

Then Rodney Harrison chimed in on Terrell Owens:  “He’s just a clown, a straight up clown.  He’s more concerned with individual stats as opposed to the team’s success.  Just a clown.”

Owens responded by ridiculing Harrison’s four-game suspension in 2007 for violating the performance-enhancing substances policy. I should add that Rodney Harrison was thought of as one of the dirtiest and most often penalized players for violent and unnecessary hits.

You take the lessor of the two:   an institutionalized sociopath who killed animals , or a black man with poor etiquette. From all the reports, it seems like Tony would take the dog killer.  Now, I’m not trying to tear down Vick, because I believe in redemption as well as allowing people to move on from their history. But you cannot look past the ridiculous sports media and “King Tony” in this situation.

I also don’t like the fact that I’m criticizing Tony Dungy because I do like him and honor his beliefs. But it makes me wonder about the terms “media” and “credibility”, and should those concepts ever go in the same sentence? Rodney Harrison is hypocritical also, based on his NFL past.   Maybe during all those Bible readings Dungy forgot to look up the prophet Jeremiah, who was so impolite with his words that he compared people to a Donkey’s behind.  Sounds kinda like Terrell talking about Tony Romo after a Cowboys game.

You might think Terrell might have resentment. But the interesting thing is in all this criticism Terrell advocated for Michael Vick, requesting the league not to suspend him further after the he finished his prison sentence.  “I think he’s done the time for what he’s done. I don’t think it’s really fair for him to be suspended four more games,” Owens said, referring to reports that the NFL is considering to further punishing Vick. “It’s almost like kicking a dead horse in the ground. …The guy’s already suffered so much. And to add a four-game suspension on a two-year prison sentence, that’s ridiculous.”

You have to reconsider who this guy Terrell Owens is. Outspoken, yeah probably, but I’d say he is probably more intelligent than many of his fellow athletes . When you listen to post game interviews, Terrell is quite articulate about what the defense is doing and very aware of the media. In contrast, listening to a Tony Romo interview sometimes sounds like 8 year after a Pop Warner game.  Of course, one could argue that it is more about control and Terrell being a guy that demands respect. I can understand Terrell having a athletic past where the possible collegiate drop out football player was referred to as a “good kid” and the intellectual well-rounded athletes were always considered “difficult.” The football industry enjoys control, and really loves the dumb athlete.

As Terrell Owens graduates to the last few years of his football career and beyond it will not be intellect or physical ability that defines his success but the attributes deep inside him that he has drawn from subconsciously all his life. Those that I described in my eBook, Don’t Stop the Swagger. One of these characteristics will be his ability to ignore the criticism and learn from his past. Another will be to find ways to consistently challenge himself.  Most often experience is the best teacher and I assume Terrell has much to draw from.  

For all that is said about Terrell Eldorado Owens, he is always prepared to play, and after 16 years is statistically the second best receiver ever, with Randy Moss right along with him.

When you look at the previous sins of other players, they seem huge compared to Terrell Owens’ deeds.  So it makes you wonder what happened. Is it as simple as “Big Black Voice equates to Big Stick knocking you over the head”? Or is it a simple sports media drilling the trending topic into the ground.  Or as Terrell said, “beating that horse that’s been dead a long time.”

You can talk about Terrell’s sideline altercations, which are many, but hey, Kevin Green put physical hands on his coach, Kevin Steele, and gets little or no criticism for doing so. Why do you think this is? That’s something for you to ponder. We all see how the media might handle this if Terrell committed the same offense.

Most recently, Terrell Owens signed a $500,000 player/ownership deal with the Allen Wranglers of the Indoor Football League. Some might consider this as a demotion.   But as Owens said, “I don’t see this as beneath me. I come from humble beginnings and I know what it takes. I don’t think about what the critics think and what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.” 

Just the right attitude; seizing opportunity when the door opens.

Moving forward, Terrell will need to learn from history while continuing to maintain those characteristics that have launched him to success. Don’t stop the swagger, T.O., and keep pursuing life with that same passion, strong male vitality and work ethic that put you up there with the greatest. Sometimes the loudest voice gets the harshestcriticism but still has the final word.