Was Terrell Owens right?

Was Terrell Owens right?

A few days ago there was a story about a recent interview held by Bills receiver Terrell Owens, and in the clip the questions asked to him seemed to be more…loaded, than neutral.

Terrell Owens dismissed the question, refusing to answer, as the person edged him on, trying to get him to answer, to which “TO” did not.

Owens refused to answer because he felt that no matter how he answered it, the media would take it and run with the most controversial side they could.

This makes for an interesting debate, in whether Terrell Owens was right in what he said and did, and then the question of the credibility of said Owens, and the supposed sincerity of the media.

This is interesting because had it been almost any other player in the NFL (outside of the diva receivers), this would have been a one-sided issue. But because we are dealing with one of the most out-spoken players in the league, there are twists to this story. It leads us to ask, was TO right in how he addressed this issue…but then immediately begs a second question… how credible was his actions?

When I was in college, I took journalism classes and Radio and Television was my major. I worked as a Sports Director for our campus radio station and was the Sports Editor for our campus newspaper. And being a very avid football fan, I watched a lot of sports…especially football.

But in college I learned by our professors that the media should always operate on the side of neutrality, but with respect to the person. Now we know that isn’t true for many journalists because the sad fact is that sensationalism sells more than normalcy. As the old saying goes, “nobody cares if there is a story of a dog biting a man, but everybody will be interested in a story of a man biting a dog”.

In this information age, where so many are looking for that edge, many people who call themselves journalists are not really looking for a story, they are often looking on CREATING a story, which undermines the very existence of the media. When that happens, you get a lot of people who feel that it is their job to “ask the right questions” to get the answer they want, which unfortunately traps a person to say something they maybe should not have said.

These are called “loaded questions”. If I asked you, “have you stopped smoking weed yet, answer yes or no” how would you answer. Either way, you are incriminated, even if you never did any illegal drugs in your life.

A few weeks ago a reporter asked a male tennis player where the best women tennis players would rank if they were put in with the men. To his credit, the male tennis player did not want to answer that, but was edged on by the reporter. He tried to dismiss the question because he felt it was not a really fair question, but they continued to ask for his opinion. When he responded that the best female tennis players might rank somewhere in the top 700 of the men tennis players, it made news and made the guy look like a chauvinist pig.

This was unfair to the athlete because the reporter dug an unfair question out of him, even when he did not want to answer. And this is common now, because it seems that many forms of media believe that the controversial stories are the ones that sell… and sadly they are right because we as a public seem to crave controversy, rather than good old fashioned reporting.

So the questions asked of Terrell Owens were indeed loaded. How many of you remember the incident a year ago when a reporter asked Connecticut basketball coach Jim Calhoun if he was willing to take a cut in his salary? It was a loaded question, and unfair to ask him in front of the public. But it served the purpose, creating controversy and five cheap minutes of fame for the idiot that asked it.

The same can be said for the reporter that asked TO those questions. There is no honor in asking one-sided questions in the sake of creating a story. So to be sure, the line of questions was clearly wrong, and for that reason, I believe Terrell Owens was absolutely right in what he did.

BUT there is the other side of this…how credible is Terrell Owens?

This is a man that has been the proverbial “cancer” everywhere he has gone. Once with the San Francisco 49ers, he has whined and cried like a baby. When he went to the Philadelphia Eagles he was a self-centered joke. Nothing different when he went to Dallas Cowboys. And now with the Buffalo Bills, it is only a matter of time before he does what he ALWAYS does.

Terrell Owens has created himself to be one of the most selfish players in the history of the NFL, and maybe is the originator of the diva receiver. Sure there were other receivers before him, but Michael Irving wasn’t as much a diva as TO. It just seemed that this guy ushered in the era of “me me me”. Keshawn Johnson, Randy Moss, Chad Ochocinco, even this nut Michael Crabtree who hasn’t even played one down yet, all these guys have that “me first” mentality.

Lots of people think that what Terrell Owens does is fine, because he is “speaking his mind” and does have the right of free speech. So if he criticizes Jeff Garcia, Donavan McNabb, Tony Romo or whomever, it’s cool because he has that right, and he is just speaking his mind, right?

Uh… not exactly folks.

Let me remind you that there are CONDITIONS to free speech. You will notice that the Miranda rights, the Constitution and even the Bible all agree that you can say what you want, BUT you can and will be held accountable for what you say. The Bible says that life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those that love it will eat thereof. The Miranda rights say that what you say can and well be held against you in a court of law.

Folks, you can SAY what you want…but you better be ready to handle the consequences of what you say. When Terrell Owens opens his mouth, he needs to be ready for any backlash that his mouth creates.

I tend to call him, “Mouth Almighty, Tongue Everlasting”, based on a old hip hop song…( I betcha can’t remember which song).

So yeah, Terrell Owens has a right to say what he wants, but he also must assume the responsibility of what he says…that is NOT an option. When you call out your quarterback, as he ALWAYS does, don’t be surprised when the locker room splits and you’re on the outside looking in. Don’t be surprised when fans start to boo you, even when you are with the home team on the home field.

And the idea of “speaking from the heart” is way overrated. The problem with that is that most times when a person “speaks from the heart” there is no wisdom. When you talk from how you feel, it often does not account for sincerity, wisdom or discretion. As one person said, the values of speaking come first from wisdom, then intelligence, and in a far distant third, emotion.

But all this is negated when fame is the result of your speaking. Terrell Owens is clearly one of the most outspoken athletes in the NFL, probably in sports. Not because he speaks wisdom or intelligence, but because he shoots off his mouth. This is his mode of operations…he ALWAYS does that. Why? Because he knows that as long as he is doing that, the media will always be looking at him.

This is what he does for a living, outside of being a very good receiver. But this is also what the media expects from him. You come to see the dancing bear, then the dancing bear must dance. You don’t pay to see the dancing bear in slumber, you come to see him dance.

So DANCE Yogi!

This creates the confusion of what Terrell Owens did, because although his answers were righteous, his actions before, and even after that incident, lead many to question it. Just recently TO criticized Rodney Harrison and make a comment about Harrison taking steroids… low blow there TO.

At that moment, he had a chance to turn his comments and way of communicating with the media to a more sincere approach, but opted to go for the shock value, which is why so many stick a microphone up his nose. Just as he was making a positive move in how to answer reporters, he jumps back 10 steps with something stupid like that.

So, was Terrell credible in how he refused to answer those reporters when they asked him those loaded questions… yeah, I mean even the worst of us can have a ray of sunshine hit us, and mind you, there may have been some humility involved here since TO also didn’t catch a ball in that game, the first time since he was with the 49ers.

It’s quite interesting, of the all time receivers of the NFL, Terrell Owens has the second most touchdowns, trailing one other person…Jerry Rice. Such a contrast in personality, yet the media values Terrell Owens far more because of the comments he makes. It’s almost as if being insincere is a greater value than being respectful.

So Terrell Owens will keep doing it, because the media keeps eating it up, and then slinging it in our faces over ESPN, Fox, NBC and every media outlet, force-feeding us of Mouth Almighty, Tongue Everlasting. It’s sad too, because TO came from UTC, a Southern Conference school, like me. I should be cheering for the guy…and I used to…

But that was then, when NFL athletes respected each other and didn’t throw others under the bus like a certain receiver in Buffalo. Just a matter of time before he does it again.