T.O. is O.K. by M.E.

Thursday, November 3, 2005 | Jeff

First, I need to get something off my chest. This goes out to Mike Greenberg, Sean Salisbury, Pete Prisco and every other analyst who I've hear say this: The Eagles have been the best team in the NFC for the last five years. And because of this, the Eagles front office should be supported for their decisions have proven to be successful.

No. This has not been the best team in the conference for the last five years. Five years ago, they lost to the Giants in the divisional round of the playoffs. They then lost to the Rams in the conference championship. They then lost to the Tampa Bay Bucs and the Carolina Panthers in consecutive conference championship games IN THEIR OWN HOUSE. They scored 10 points against the Bucs and 3 against the Panthers. So if you want to say that the Philadelphia Eagles have been the most consistently good team in the conference over the last five years, okay. But in the last five years they have been the best team only once. This isn't college football. We don't need to look at anything besides the scores.

Now let's talk about the salary cap. Who have the Birds decided not to pay? Terrell Owens is the best player. Brian Westbrook is a terrific football player. David Akers has only been the best kicker in football the last three years. Corey Simon was their only run stuffer. Listen to this: as of September 1st the Eagles were 12.6 million dollars under the salary. I didn't make a mistake, they are 12.6 MILLION DOLLARS under the salary cap.

If you don't think that's too bad, the next highest number is 7.8 million dollars. Who? The Houston Texans, also known as the worst team in professional football. You might say something like, "Well, they're great at managing the cap!" No one is better at managing the cap than the New England Patriots and Scott Pioli. The Pats are 1.4 million under the cap, which is about where most of the league stands (between 1-5 million).

Of course I'm writing today because Terrell Owens has essentially ruled himself out of the next two ballgames for the Philadelphia Eagles due to a nagging ankle injury. The Eagles reporters and fans are outraged. HOW CAN HE NOT PLAY IN THESE TWO PIVOTAL DIVISION GAMES?? So let me get this straight, kids. T.O. is supposed to risk his career to play in a Super Bowl, proving himself to be the best weapon on your team. He goes unrewarded. He made a lot of money last season because he reached 6 million dollars in bonuses. His base salary is below Todd Pinkston, Corey Bradford and about thirty other receivers that don't possess half his talent.

Now, I'm not one of those people who says "They make millions of millions of blah blah blah." They deserve every nickel. They are the premiere attaction of the greatest sport on earth. Clearly, T.O. does not expect to return to the Philadelphia Eagles next year and so I ask again: why should he risk serious injury? Why should he put his team first when it's clear his team, these Philadelphia Eagles, have reached a point of unearned arrogance that should drive their both players and fans to an exodus. Owens only has less receiving yards than Steve Smith and Santana Moss. They're somewhere in the vicinty of ten years younger than him.

He's great and he's the best football player on the Philadelphia Eagles. You don't pay him, you don't keep him. The Steelers paid Hines Ward for one reason: the recognized his importance to winning. Winning. Winning. They've been consistently good too but they want a ring. I think the Eagles would rather be stubborn than champions. And if they're sitting at home in January, they flat-out deserve it.