T.O. now might stand for Team Oriented
By Jennifer Floyd Engel
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
"Who is wearing No. 81? And what did he do with the real T.O.?" seem to be the questions nowadays.
The theory is this T.O. -- the one who has been a diligent attendee of practices, a butt-kicker during them and a model citizen all training camp long -- is somehow an impostor.
I do not buy this line of thinking at all.
Mostly because I do not pretend to have a flying Fig Newton of a clue what the "real T.O." consists of or how he'd act. About the only thing I know for sure is a year ago all of the football world, myself included, was aflutter with talk of T.O.'s hammy and T.O.'s bicycling and Coach Parcells' unwillingness to use the receiver's initials.
Neither the drama nor the eager participant in said drama has been present this camp.
So it is only fair, a year later, to spend at least a fraction of the time we devoted to his foibles on his turnaround. He really has been quite good. He looks to be in the best shape of his career, flying by everybody in practice. What is even more impressive is, for the first time in a long time, he is not distracting us from his play with his antics.
The best example has to be how he has dealt with Big Bill questions. It is pretty obvious they were not good friends, yet T.O. has steered clear of a verbal throwdown.
It is like something finally convinced him that sooner or later how you behave is perceived to be who you are, fair or not. Or in other words, somebody did.
Cowboys receivers coach Ray Sherman demurred Thursday when asked if he might be that somebody. He is being modest. He played almost as big of a role as T.O. in this 180.
And Sherman did so by dealing with T.O. like a man.
"We talked about [his image]. We talked about everything," he said. "We talked about how you need to be and how important it is to do things right because you are a role model whether you like it or not. Kids look up to you. Teammates look up to you."
It was at this point Sherman stopped himself and added a point he thinks all of us are missing after dealing with a year of trials, real and imagined
"He's a very talented young man and he really is a good person," Sherman said. "He really is."
This is not to say T.O. will never screw up again, especially considering his history in Philly and San Fran. He will be late, or be mad about catches, or something.
He was late the other day, caught in traffic, a big deal simply because it was his initials that arrived 20 minutes into practice. What seems to have changed is how he deals with problems, immediately apologizing to coach Wade Phillips.
Wade noted T.O.'s teammates deserved the apology, not him, so T.O. responded by delivering said apology. Publicly.
Give credit to T.O. Just do not forget to include Sherman.
Sherman became visibly angry once during training camp, in reaction to being referred to as "a baby sitter" for T.O. in a story. Understandably so, too, because baby sitter implies he is a male version of former publicist Lil' Kim.
Sherman is a coach and a very good one. It is an insult to assume he is here as a professional friend. Nor is it wise to mistake his calm demeanor for lack of control.
His way is to treat players like men, so when he has to deliver a message they respond like men. So far, T.O. has.
And if this means there has been a receiver swap at No. 81, is anybody really complaining?
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
"Who is wearing No. 81? And what did he do with the real T.O.?" seem to be the questions nowadays.
The theory is this T.O. -- the one who has been a diligent attendee of practices, a butt-kicker during them and a model citizen all training camp long -- is somehow an impostor.
I do not buy this line of thinking at all.
Mostly because I do not pretend to have a flying Fig Newton of a clue what the "real T.O." consists of or how he'd act. About the only thing I know for sure is a year ago all of the football world, myself included, was aflutter with talk of T.O.'s hammy and T.O.'s bicycling and Coach Parcells' unwillingness to use the receiver's initials.
Neither the drama nor the eager participant in said drama has been present this camp.
So it is only fair, a year later, to spend at least a fraction of the time we devoted to his foibles on his turnaround. He really has been quite good. He looks to be in the best shape of his career, flying by everybody in practice. What is even more impressive is, for the first time in a long time, he is not distracting us from his play with his antics.
The best example has to be how he has dealt with Big Bill questions. It is pretty obvious they were not good friends, yet T.O. has steered clear of a verbal throwdown.
It is like something finally convinced him that sooner or later how you behave is perceived to be who you are, fair or not. Or in other words, somebody did.
Cowboys receivers coach Ray Sherman demurred Thursday when asked if he might be that somebody. He is being modest. He played almost as big of a role as T.O. in this 180.
And Sherman did so by dealing with T.O. like a man.
"We talked about [his image]. We talked about everything," he said. "We talked about how you need to be and how important it is to do things right because you are a role model whether you like it or not. Kids look up to you. Teammates look up to you."
It was at this point Sherman stopped himself and added a point he thinks all of us are missing after dealing with a year of trials, real and imagined
"He's a very talented young man and he really is a good person," Sherman said. "He really is."
This is not to say T.O. will never screw up again, especially considering his history in Philly and San Fran. He will be late, or be mad about catches, or something.
He was late the other day, caught in traffic, a big deal simply because it was his initials that arrived 20 minutes into practice. What seems to have changed is how he deals with problems, immediately apologizing to coach Wade Phillips.
Wade noted T.O.'s teammates deserved the apology, not him, so T.O. responded by delivering said apology. Publicly.
Give credit to T.O. Just do not forget to include Sherman.
Sherman became visibly angry once during training camp, in reaction to being referred to as "a baby sitter" for T.O. in a story. Understandably so, too, because baby sitter implies he is a male version of former publicist Lil' Kim.
Sherman is a coach and a very good one. It is an insult to assume he is here as a professional friend. Nor is it wise to mistake his calm demeanor for lack of control.
His way is to treat players like men, so when he has to deliver a message they respond like men. So far, T.O. has.
And if this means there has been a receiver swap at No. 81, is anybody really complaining?
posted by The Gryphon at 10:12 AM
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