TO on TO

Coach John Thompson scored a biggie when he landed a 30 minute interview with Terrell Owens on his Sports Talk 980 radio show. Big John & crew treated Owens with respect, that is to say, with kid gloves, but that gave TO a chance to give his side of the story.

According to Owens, the whole thing was Sal Paolantonio's fault by misrepresenting the the facts of his conflict with the Eagles. Owens says his new agent Drew Rosenhaus merely pointed out (to him) that his market value was much higher than he was being paid and that Rosenhaus simply asked the Eagles to "consider" adjusting his pay structure at some point in the future. He did call his ESPN interview, when he famously agreed that the Eagles would be better off with Brett Favre than with Donovan McNabb, a mistake.

By and large, Coach Thompson accepted Owens' responses at face value without recalling that: Owens refused the 49ers trade to the Ravens that would have paid him more money; that Owens CHOSE to join the Eagles for less money to play with Donovan McNabb because McNabb was less gay than Jeff Garcia, who is now with the Eagles; that Owens' public insinuations of McNabb commenced from the end of Super Bowl XXXIX; that Owens non-cooperation with Eagles was his deliberate ploy to trigger a trade or renegotiation of the contract he egerly accepted a year earlier and against the advice of the NFLPA. Owens omits in the interview that his unhappiness with his contract began when Marvin Harrison and Randy Moss signed richer deals a year later. He says he's learned from his mistakes; but, the interview showed that he is still mystified that people react to his lack of tack and inflammatory statements. The poor little man-child!

That shifty Paolantonio is at it again writing in a July 13, 2006 ESPN column that Andy Reid was open to reinstating Owens but that "somebody" killed it; that somebody likely being McNabb.

Download the interview from Sports Talk 980. Look for the tab "T.O. on 980!," then click the download button for the thirty minute interview. You will need a media player.

Terrell Owens