An Open Letter to Terrell Owens

Dear T.O.

Hey T.O. Just wanted to let you know that I have been a huge fan of yours in times past. I was ecstatic the day I learned you would be wearing the silver and blue because I thought that you would surely help my team achieve their goal of winning another championship. T.O., I don’t know if you’re aware or not, but a lot of other lifelong Cowboys fans said that you were nothing but trouble and they didn’t want you on our team. I defended you though. I said surely you had learned your lesson and you even said yourself that you’d be on your best behavior. You also said to get our popcorn ready ‘cause you were gonna put on a show once the season started. Then camp started and you had the issue with your hamstring. You missed nearly the entire preseason and again people said we shouldn’t have bothered with you. Again I defended you saying that once you got healthy it would be all worth it. Well, you know the story. What followed was your injury to your hand followed by your “alleged” suicide attempt. I gotta be honest with you T.O., I almost lost my voice that week defending you to nearly every person who had ever seen a football game. But still I stood by you because I knew what they had forgotten.
See, I know you’re not supposed to look ahead but, I’ll admit I was looking to October 8th, you know, your “homecoming”. That was another tough week having to listen to all those Eagles fans. T.O. in case you aren’t aware they really don’t like you! Then came the big game. I saw you on the sidelines. You were upset. I just knew the media would try to spin it and say that you had broken, that you were back to your old ways of throwing your quarterback under the bus and blaming everyone else for your lack of production. But, hey I was frustrated too, heck, who wouldn’t be after dropping a close game to a heated rival? At least that’s what I told everyone who said you were a punk. Oh, one more thing T.O. I hate to bring this up, but you know what else I saw in that game against the Eagles, the game you were supposed to show the world that you were worth the $25 million not to mention the drama? I saw you drop at least two passes that you should have caught. I know nobody’s perfect, T.O. You’re human, it’s just that afterward you said that they didn’t get you the ball enough and all I could think about was those drops.
In a way that brings us to where we are now. This week you asked “Why did ya’ll bring me here?” Then I heard about how you were late to Wednesday’s practice this week. Hey, you don’t have to explain to me T.O. So you had a case of the B.G.’s. As the saying goes, when you gotta go, you gotta go. But what I don’t understand is why you blew up on coach Haley. You say he disrespected you, but T.O. he is your coach after all. I’ve never played on the professional level but I have had plenty coaches chew me out. I just chalked it up to them being the coach and me being the player. You know that whole subordination thing. You realize you’re making it harder and harder to come up with reasons for your behavior that people actually will buy? T.O. I gotta be honest with you. I am getting a little worried. This week during a press conference someone attempted to ask coach Parcells a question about you and coach said he wouldn’t answer anymore questions about you because he was tired of talking about you! I think people are getting tired of you T.O. What do I tell them? Just this morning ESPN showed a graphic that said you’re a league leader. Unfortunately, you are second in the league in "on target" drops, meaning balls that were catchable but dropped. Who do we blame that on? Please write back soon, T.O. I got my popcorn ready but unfortunately it’s getting stale quickly. Don’t worry though T.O. I know it’s not your fault.
Your pal,
Andrew

T.O.'s tardiness leads to argument with coach (DallasNews.com)
T.O., WR coach argue, but receiver to play (ESPN.com)