Partners must watch step
11:12 PM CDT on Saturday, September 2, 2006
By JEAN-JACQUES TAYLOR / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING – Their coach-player relationship is the most scrutinized in professional sports. Phil and Kobe?
They don't even come close.
You probably have to go back more than a quarter century to the New York Yankees of the late 1970s, with star outfielder Reggie Jackson and high-strung manager Billy Martin, to find a player-coach relationship that faced the daily scrutiny Bill Parcells and Terrell Owens endure.
Every quote is dissected. Every action is reviewed for its latent meaning. Everyone, it seems, is looking for insight into their relationship and waiting for the seemingly inevitable blowup between successful, strong-willed men who admit that they like confrontation.
"I think everybody is trying to make it into me vs. Bill or Bill vs. T.O.," Owens said last week. "I wouldn't say our relationship is where it needs to be, but I think this is going to be a building process for the both of us.
"We don't know each other very well. It's obviously a work in progress. At this point, there is no tension between us."
Parcells has been through this type of situation before.
"I had a quarterback thing there once in New York with Phil Simms, and it wasn't that good of news for a while," Parcells said. "But it's a much different era than it was 15 years ago, with so much more electronic media. It's a coast-to-coast thing now. It's not just local. There's nationwide commentary about a circumstance in Dallas."
During training camp, Parcells yelled at receiver Terry Glenn, who missed practice and was confined to an exercise bike. It was assumed that the coach was sending a message to Owens, who was seated nearby.
A few days later, Owens didn't practice a few hours after Parcells revealed that Owens wouldn't play in the second preseason game. It was taken as a sign that Owens was trying to wield his power by withholding his services.
"Honestly, I don't envy him at all," Cowboys tight end Jason Witten said of Owens. "In every situation, he's under the microscope, so he has to watch what he does and says more than any of us."
No crystal ball
Parcells is aware of the perception in other NFL locales, especially San Francisco and Philadelphia.
There are critics in those cities who believe that Owens, a former 49er and Eagle, is being disruptive because he has missed 21 practices since the start of his first training camp with the Cowboys with a strained left hamstring.
Owens had two MRI exams; both were negative, leading to speculation that he wasn't injured.
"These people that have this perception ... do you think they would know anything directly about what's going on here?" Parcells asked rhetorically. "How would the people in Philadelphia know what's going on here? Do they have a crystal ball?"
No one does.
But most people who follow the NFL know Owens' history. They know he was deactivated and suspended by the Eagles for the final nine games of the 2005 season. They know he had public feuds with his last two quarterbacks – San Francisco's Jeff Garcia and Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb – and they know that Owens doesn't hesitate to speak his mind.
They also know Parcells' history of being gruff and demanding. They know he has rid the Cowboys' locker room of players such as Antonio Bryant, Derek Ross and Quincy Carter, each of whom was considered to be problematic.
They know he has disdain for players he thinks are more interested in statistics than wins or loses. Parcells, though, is in his 19th NFL season – in part because he knows how to manage people.
That's one of the reasons he has had good relationships with players such as Keyshawn Johnson and Bryan Cox, considered locker room cancers on other teams. Glenn has had the most productive seasons of his career with Parcells, who years ago referred to him as "she" because he had an injury.
"I told him if he kept catching passes, I'm going to call him Miss America," Parcells said last week.
Walking a fine line
Parcells is widely considered to be a master motivator because he spends countless hours talking to players and learning aspects of their lives that he can draw from to enhance their performance. He's still learning what makes Owens respond, so he's using a deft touch.
Owens, raised in poverty in central Alabama, was ridiculed and tormented as a child. He doesn't respond well to yelling and screaming – even in professional football, where cussing is part of the sport's macho culture.
If Parcells establishes a positive relationship with Owens, the Cowboys will have one of the game's best receivers with an uncluttered mind. That's the goal.
"I know what you're waiting for, and it isn't going to happen," Parcells has said on more than one occasion, referring to a blowup.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones doesn't expect any public rifts between Parcells and Owens, either.
"It's not going to happen," he said during training camp. "They each understand what's at stake, and they're going to be careful with their relationship. They're not going to take it for granted."
Still, the relationship probably will take constant monitoring.
Stephen Jones, the team's vice president, serves as the buffer between his father and Parcells. The Cowboys probably will need to find someone to fill a similar role between Parcells and Owens.
Maybe it will be the owner. Or another member of the front office. Or an assistant coach.
Maybe one of the players will serve as a buffer. Thus far, however, most of them haven't focused too much on Parcells and Owens.
Interested observers
That's not to say players weren't interested in Parcells' reaction the day Owens hopped on the exercise bike decked out in a blue Discovery Team cycling jersey and a silver bike helmet. Or that they didn't check out the receiver's body language and reaction the day nose tackle Jason Ferguson heckled him in practice for being a decoy.
But they don't care that Parcells often refers to Owens as "The Player" at news conferences or that Owens was usually the last player to take the field in camp, something that allowed him to bring the throngs of fans to a crescendo and reward them with glimpses of him jogging out to join his teammates.
"I've had a couple of friends call and ask me what I think about being in the middle of this circus," Drew Bledsoe said. "I told them that as players we don't really see what everyone is talking about.
"Having T.O. here hasn't been a big deal for us. We all know Bill is in charge of the team and he's going to do things a certain way."
Owens insists he's just trying to fit in and be a good teammate.
That's why he drove up from Los Angeles to meet his teammates when they arrived for training camp, and why he threw a barbecue on the team's first off-day at camp. It's also the reason he quickly admitted to oversleeping last Friday and missing a team meeting, a rehabilitation session and a portion of an offensive meeting. He didn't want to make excuses.
"I know who I am," Owens said. "I know the attention I get from the media. I know I'm under the microscope."
The question now is whether Owens and Parcells can handle it.
By JEAN-JACQUES TAYLOR / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING – Their coach-player relationship is the most scrutinized in professional sports. Phil and Kobe?
They don't even come close.
You probably have to go back more than a quarter century to the New York Yankees of the late 1970s, with star outfielder Reggie Jackson and high-strung manager Billy Martin, to find a player-coach relationship that faced the daily scrutiny Bill Parcells and Terrell Owens endure.
Every quote is dissected. Every action is reviewed for its latent meaning. Everyone, it seems, is looking for insight into their relationship and waiting for the seemingly inevitable blowup between successful, strong-willed men who admit that they like confrontation.
"I think everybody is trying to make it into me vs. Bill or Bill vs. T.O.," Owens said last week. "I wouldn't say our relationship is where it needs to be, but I think this is going to be a building process for the both of us.
"We don't know each other very well. It's obviously a work in progress. At this point, there is no tension between us."
Parcells has been through this type of situation before.
"I had a quarterback thing there once in New York with Phil Simms, and it wasn't that good of news for a while," Parcells said. "But it's a much different era than it was 15 years ago, with so much more electronic media. It's a coast-to-coast thing now. It's not just local. There's nationwide commentary about a circumstance in Dallas."
During training camp, Parcells yelled at receiver Terry Glenn, who missed practice and was confined to an exercise bike. It was assumed that the coach was sending a message to Owens, who was seated nearby.
A few days later, Owens didn't practice a few hours after Parcells revealed that Owens wouldn't play in the second preseason game. It was taken as a sign that Owens was trying to wield his power by withholding his services.
"Honestly, I don't envy him at all," Cowboys tight end Jason Witten said of Owens. "In every situation, he's under the microscope, so he has to watch what he does and says more than any of us."
No crystal ball
Parcells is aware of the perception in other NFL locales, especially San Francisco and Philadelphia.
There are critics in those cities who believe that Owens, a former 49er and Eagle, is being disruptive because he has missed 21 practices since the start of his first training camp with the Cowboys with a strained left hamstring.
Owens had two MRI exams; both were negative, leading to speculation that he wasn't injured.
"These people that have this perception ... do you think they would know anything directly about what's going on here?" Parcells asked rhetorically. "How would the people in Philadelphia know what's going on here? Do they have a crystal ball?"
No one does.
But most people who follow the NFL know Owens' history. They know he was deactivated and suspended by the Eagles for the final nine games of the 2005 season. They know he had public feuds with his last two quarterbacks – San Francisco's Jeff Garcia and Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb – and they know that Owens doesn't hesitate to speak his mind.
They also know Parcells' history of being gruff and demanding. They know he has rid the Cowboys' locker room of players such as Antonio Bryant, Derek Ross and Quincy Carter, each of whom was considered to be problematic.
They know he has disdain for players he thinks are more interested in statistics than wins or loses. Parcells, though, is in his 19th NFL season – in part because he knows how to manage people.
That's one of the reasons he has had good relationships with players such as Keyshawn Johnson and Bryan Cox, considered locker room cancers on other teams. Glenn has had the most productive seasons of his career with Parcells, who years ago referred to him as "she" because he had an injury.
"I told him if he kept catching passes, I'm going to call him Miss America," Parcells said last week.
Walking a fine line
Parcells is widely considered to be a master motivator because he spends countless hours talking to players and learning aspects of their lives that he can draw from to enhance their performance. He's still learning what makes Owens respond, so he's using a deft touch.
Owens, raised in poverty in central Alabama, was ridiculed and tormented as a child. He doesn't respond well to yelling and screaming – even in professional football, where cussing is part of the sport's macho culture.
If Parcells establishes a positive relationship with Owens, the Cowboys will have one of the game's best receivers with an uncluttered mind. That's the goal.
"I know what you're waiting for, and it isn't going to happen," Parcells has said on more than one occasion, referring to a blowup.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones doesn't expect any public rifts between Parcells and Owens, either.
"It's not going to happen," he said during training camp. "They each understand what's at stake, and they're going to be careful with their relationship. They're not going to take it for granted."
Still, the relationship probably will take constant monitoring.
Stephen Jones, the team's vice president, serves as the buffer between his father and Parcells. The Cowboys probably will need to find someone to fill a similar role between Parcells and Owens.
Maybe it will be the owner. Or another member of the front office. Or an assistant coach.
Maybe one of the players will serve as a buffer. Thus far, however, most of them haven't focused too much on Parcells and Owens.
Interested observers
That's not to say players weren't interested in Parcells' reaction the day Owens hopped on the exercise bike decked out in a blue Discovery Team cycling jersey and a silver bike helmet. Or that they didn't check out the receiver's body language and reaction the day nose tackle Jason Ferguson heckled him in practice for being a decoy.
But they don't care that Parcells often refers to Owens as "The Player" at news conferences or that Owens was usually the last player to take the field in camp, something that allowed him to bring the throngs of fans to a crescendo and reward them with glimpses of him jogging out to join his teammates.
"I've had a couple of friends call and ask me what I think about being in the middle of this circus," Drew Bledsoe said. "I told them that as players we don't really see what everyone is talking about.
"Having T.O. here hasn't been a big deal for us. We all know Bill is in charge of the team and he's going to do things a certain way."
Owens insists he's just trying to fit in and be a good teammate.
That's why he drove up from Los Angeles to meet his teammates when they arrived for training camp, and why he threw a barbecue on the team's first off-day at camp. It's also the reason he quickly admitted to oversleeping last Friday and missing a team meeting, a rehabilitation session and a portion of an offensive meeting. He didn't want to make excuses.
"I know who I am," Owens said. "I know the attention I get from the media. I know I'm under the microscope."
The question now is whether Owens and Parcells can handle it.
posted by The Gryphon at 11:50 AM
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