Owens latest of problem players
Terrell Owens is only the latest and loudest in the history of NFL problem players.
Before him, there was Charles Haley, a pass-rushing defensive end. He was good enough to win five Super Bowl rings with the 49ers and Cowboys, but troublesome enough to get himself dealt at the peak of his career after alienating coaches and teammates.
And before Haley, there were others, most of whom ended up with the Raiders, where Al Davis told them in essence that he didn’t care what they did off the field as long as they went out on Sunday and did their best to beat up on opponents.
“There used to be fistfights in the parking lot,” recalls Gene Upshaw, the executive director of the NFL Players Association and a Hall of Fame guard with the Raiders from 1967-81. “Then everyone would come back the next day and practice and play as a team.”
There have been other recent squabbles, although nothing like the frenzy caused by T.O. in Philadelphia.
Remember there is now a verb that will be applied to Owens when his suspension ends: “Keyshawned,’ for what Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden did with Keyshawn Johnson, making him inactive for the 2003 season’s last six games because of his quarrels with the coaching staff. Keyshawn, now in Dallas, posted a sign on his locker this week: “NOT MY PROBLEM,” to avoid questions about Owens in a week the Cowboys go to Philadelphia.
That’s the thing about talented but troubled players: One team’s nightmare is another team’s ticket to the Super Bowl. That’s why Owens will find a home next season, assuming the Eagles eventually release him. He has talent that will tempt some coach who thinks he’s one super wide receiver away from getting over the top.
The closest example to Owens may be Haley, who outlasted his welcome after two Super Bowl victories in San Francisco with a number of acts that coach George Seifert found intolerable, the last of which was defacing a teammate’s new car.
Dallas was glad to have him – like Owens, he never took a play off.
“When we were making the deal for Charles, I did a lot of homework on it,” says Jimmy Johnson, then Dallas’ coach. “He was competitive, intelligent and I felt I could work with him. And I did. When there was trouble, I’d sit down with him and talk it out and we never really had any trouble.”
That trade was in the summer of 1992. Haley helped Johnson and the Dallas Cowboys win Super Bowls that season and the next and, for the most part, behaved well. But Johnson was unique; when Barry Switzer succeeded Johnson in 1994, Haley became a problem again, even after wins.
In 1995, after a victory over Green Bay, Haley got upset because he had been held out of the game’s first defensive series.
“I have no love lost for none of them – trust me,” Haley said of the coaching staff. “The defensive coaches don’t have any faith in me. If they want me to be a second-team player, I’m going to play it this year, but I’m not going to do it any more.”
The Cowboys won the title again that year and Haley played another season until injuries forced him to retire. He resurfaced briefly as an assistant coach with Detroit, hired by his former San Francisco teammate, Matt Millen, the Lions’ president.
T.O. is unlikely to become a coach at any time. But he will play again.
The Eagles, after all, knew the baggage he brought from San Francisco. For one year, they got what they bargained for. For 14 games last season, he was one of the NFL’s most valuable players and, coming off serious leg injuries, he had a super Super Bowl with nine catches for 122 yards as the Eagles lost 24-21 to New England.
Then came the inevitable crash.
Johnson, for one, thinks it might have been because of that game in Jacksonville. He played well, Donovan McNabb did not and that brought out whatever is inside Owens that makes him look for someone to blame, usually the QB. And so it began.