Post by EagleGene on Jun 3, 2005 6:52:34 GMT -5
Bob Ford | Receiver can't play hardball with Birds
By Bob Ford, Inquirer Columnist
There's no fighting in the war room, there's no running at passing camp, and there's still no Terrell Owens anywhere in sight this week as the Eagles try some new patterns on the field and stick to all their old ones away from it.
Monday is the two-month anniversary of the brief meeting between team president Joe Banner and agent Drew Rosenhaus during which Rosenhaus suggested that his client wanted more money. Banner said that was interesting but it wasn't going to happen.
All of which accounts for the fact that Rosenhaus was back on the street within five minutes, stopping at the gate to speak to reporters and begin sticking his well-shod feet into his mouth.
A funny thing has happened in the two months since then. The Eagles have been aggressive in their stance that Owens won't get a penny more than he bargained for last year. Rather than give the receiver some wiggle room, the front office has shoved him so deeply into a corner that Owens will have to lose face if he emerges with his helmet in hands.
Now why would they do that?
"I'm baffled in that there doesn't seem to be a good plan," Banner was quoted as saying in one interview, firing a shot at both Owens and Rosenhaus at the same time.
"It's a non-issue," owner Jeffrey Lurie said, dismissively backhanding the wishes of a player for whom respect is everything.
I could well be wrong, but it seems the team is acting as if it doesn't want Owens back this season, as if it is trying to goad the man into ending his career as an Eagle.
A long, perhaps season-long, holdout by Owens is a briar patch into which the Eagles seem more than willing to jump.
Now why would that be?
Some conspiracy theorists in the media believe the Eagles orchestrated this entire story from the beginning, right down to making sure the reporters were waiting for Rosenhaus when he exited.
This is nonsense, of course. Rosenhaus pried Owens away from former agent David Joseph and all but hired a skywriter to announce his showdown with Banner.
What the Eagles have done, however, is assess the situation and try to turn it to their advantage. Part of that process has involved their own hard-line media campaign and a subtle use of the public perception that Owens has morphed from slightly-wacky-great-guy into greedy-egomaniacal-serial-team-killer.
There is an old truism about poker that if you look around the table and can't spot the sucker, then it is probably you. Perhaps he is too confident - or too busy with his 90 other clients - but Rosenhaus had better take a hard look at the guys he is trying to fleece. With every passing week, the agent is looking more and more like the sucker at the table.
Rosenhaus might be a great agent, but he isn't going to outsmart these guys, and he isn't going to convince them that any of their golden rules should be broken just because Terrell Owens is the one doing the asking.
"He had to take a substandard deal because he had no leverage," Rosenhaus said on ESPN radio before wisely ceasing to comment about Owens and his contract.
Where Rosenhaus is badly mistaken is in believing that Owens has any leverage now. He did have a great season before getting hurt, catching 77 passes for 1,200 yards and 14 touchdowns. And, yes, he did come back from ankle surgery to gain another 122 yards in the Super Bowl.
For that, Owens pocketed a total of $10.26 million last season, including a $9.6 million up-front signing bonus. This year, the compensation drops to $3.25 million before bouncing back to more than $8 million in 2006.
Owens and Rosenhaus are worried, and rightfully so, that the Eagles viewed this as a two-year contract when it was signed. In that scenario, the team was willing to spend the $13.51 million for a couple of seasons, but it has little intention of coming up with the scratch after that for a player who will turn 33 in 2006.
This is the way the Eagles do business, and there is a long list of reference points for those who doubt it. Any player is welcome to stay until his salary - for his age, his position and his talent - reaches the magic number. Incredibly enough, "any player" also includes Terrell Owens.
There was going to be the small, untidy matter of cutting Owens loose after this season if he were still popular. Now, unless Rosenhaus and Owens cave in - hard to picture that - the Eagles will get what they want without the muss and fuss.
The catch is that Owens won't be around to... catch. But the Eagles like draft pick Reggie Brown, they like up-and-coming Greg Lewis and Billy McMullen, and they know what to expect from Todd Pinkston. Plus, there are other receivers out there.
They have convinced themselves that this team is talented enough even without Owens, and might be a good deal happier, too. Don't look for Donovan McNabb to mourn his absence.
The Eagles believe in their way of doing business and are willing to put their money where their mouth is. They just aren't willing to put it where Owens' mouth is.
Contact columnist Bob Ford at 215-854-5842 or bford@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at go.philly.com/bobford.
Updated on Friday, Jun 3, 2005 3:30 am EDT
By Bob Ford, Inquirer Columnist
There's no fighting in the war room, there's no running at passing camp, and there's still no Terrell Owens anywhere in sight this week as the Eagles try some new patterns on the field and stick to all their old ones away from it.
Monday is the two-month anniversary of the brief meeting between team president Joe Banner and agent Drew Rosenhaus during which Rosenhaus suggested that his client wanted more money. Banner said that was interesting but it wasn't going to happen.
All of which accounts for the fact that Rosenhaus was back on the street within five minutes, stopping at the gate to speak to reporters and begin sticking his well-shod feet into his mouth.
A funny thing has happened in the two months since then. The Eagles have been aggressive in their stance that Owens won't get a penny more than he bargained for last year. Rather than give the receiver some wiggle room, the front office has shoved him so deeply into a corner that Owens will have to lose face if he emerges with his helmet in hands.
Now why would they do that?
"I'm baffled in that there doesn't seem to be a good plan," Banner was quoted as saying in one interview, firing a shot at both Owens and Rosenhaus at the same time.
"It's a non-issue," owner Jeffrey Lurie said, dismissively backhanding the wishes of a player for whom respect is everything.
I could well be wrong, but it seems the team is acting as if it doesn't want Owens back this season, as if it is trying to goad the man into ending his career as an Eagle.
A long, perhaps season-long, holdout by Owens is a briar patch into which the Eagles seem more than willing to jump.
Now why would that be?
Some conspiracy theorists in the media believe the Eagles orchestrated this entire story from the beginning, right down to making sure the reporters were waiting for Rosenhaus when he exited.
This is nonsense, of course. Rosenhaus pried Owens away from former agent David Joseph and all but hired a skywriter to announce his showdown with Banner.
What the Eagles have done, however, is assess the situation and try to turn it to their advantage. Part of that process has involved their own hard-line media campaign and a subtle use of the public perception that Owens has morphed from slightly-wacky-great-guy into greedy-egomaniacal-serial-team-killer.
There is an old truism about poker that if you look around the table and can't spot the sucker, then it is probably you. Perhaps he is too confident - or too busy with his 90 other clients - but Rosenhaus had better take a hard look at the guys he is trying to fleece. With every passing week, the agent is looking more and more like the sucker at the table.
Rosenhaus might be a great agent, but he isn't going to outsmart these guys, and he isn't going to convince them that any of their golden rules should be broken just because Terrell Owens is the one doing the asking.
"He had to take a substandard deal because he had no leverage," Rosenhaus said on ESPN radio before wisely ceasing to comment about Owens and his contract.
Where Rosenhaus is badly mistaken is in believing that Owens has any leverage now. He did have a great season before getting hurt, catching 77 passes for 1,200 yards and 14 touchdowns. And, yes, he did come back from ankle surgery to gain another 122 yards in the Super Bowl.
For that, Owens pocketed a total of $10.26 million last season, including a $9.6 million up-front signing bonus. This year, the compensation drops to $3.25 million before bouncing back to more than $8 million in 2006.
Owens and Rosenhaus are worried, and rightfully so, that the Eagles viewed this as a two-year contract when it was signed. In that scenario, the team was willing to spend the $13.51 million for a couple of seasons, but it has little intention of coming up with the scratch after that for a player who will turn 33 in 2006.
This is the way the Eagles do business, and there is a long list of reference points for those who doubt it. Any player is welcome to stay until his salary - for his age, his position and his talent - reaches the magic number. Incredibly enough, "any player" also includes Terrell Owens.
There was going to be the small, untidy matter of cutting Owens loose after this season if he were still popular. Now, unless Rosenhaus and Owens cave in - hard to picture that - the Eagles will get what they want without the muss and fuss.
The catch is that Owens won't be around to... catch. But the Eagles like draft pick Reggie Brown, they like up-and-coming Greg Lewis and Billy McMullen, and they know what to expect from Todd Pinkston. Plus, there are other receivers out there.
They have convinced themselves that this team is talented enough even without Owens, and might be a good deal happier, too. Don't look for Donovan McNabb to mourn his absence.
The Eagles believe in their way of doing business and are willing to put their money where their mouth is. They just aren't willing to put it where Owens' mouth is.
Contact columnist Bob Ford at 215-854-5842 or bford@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at go.philly.com/bobford.
Updated on Friday, Jun 3, 2005 3:30 am EDT