With the Super Bowl this weekend, let’s pause to look at one of the more bizarre stories to come out of the ever-growing and ever-popular NFL.
In a league of so many great characters and personalities, it is rare to find a team overwhelmed with negativity. These outlaws of the NFL belong on no other team than the one – most appropriately – named the Dallas Cowboys.
Many wonder where the problems surrounding the team have come from, and, more importantly, who is to blame. Is it the players, the coach, the ownership? A simple answer is, as singer Ben Harper put it, “just look up and you will see what’s coming down.”
When Cowboys fans look up their company tree, I can’t blame them for running from what they see. High atop this tree, one of the tallest in the NFL, sits Jerry Jones.
Anyone who knows about football knows that Jones is from the same stock as George Steinbrenner of the Yankees. They are both loaded with old money and aren’t afraid to spend it.
Even more frightening for Cowboys fans are his striking similarities to Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis. With ideas like “as long as we’re making headlines we’re making money,” how can anyone be surprised that the Cowboys signed two of the most controversial athletes in the sport, Terrell Owens and Adam “Pacman” Jones.
The perennial antics of Owens, while somewhat a distraction to his team, cannot hold a match to Jones’ fire. After several run-ins with the law, the Cowboys decided that the risk off the field wasn’t paying off on the field, and the Cowboys released Jones earlier this month.
Don’t despair; Jones can still be seen on Fox. However, this time he is running from the police on Cops rather then chasing down receivers. Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, famously a pop-singer addict, can be found on Entertainment Tonight during the off-season.
Terrell Owens, however, is trying to make a full-on transition into reality television. Move over Jesse “The Bachelor” Palmer, here comes Terrell “I Have a Feminine Side” Owens.
A new reality series, set to be filmed this summer and air on VH1 sometime after, will star Owens and his two best friends/publicists, Monique Jackson and Kita Williams. The two will play matchmaker for him and help him re-examine his life.
VH1 must have taken notice of Owens after he was prominently featured in the HBO series Hard Knocks, which documented the Cowboys training camp last summer.
After seeing the way the previous three seasons ended for the Cowboys, I don’t think this is the best time for more distractions, Mr. Jones. If you are really interested in winning more games and not just selling more T.O. jerseys, I think you need to get some different people in the front office before your fans tear that new stadium down.