Get Ya Popcorn Ready!

Nick Creegan

Terrell Owens said in an interview on Wednesday that he plans on playing football, and Owens said he could be ready in a month or less.

Owens, almost 38, is coming off surgery for a torn ACL, and as talented as he is, he’s often been a sideshow who serves as a distraction for most of the teams he’s played for.

But he has always produced at a high level.

When Owens was asked what a team can expect if it signed him, he said, “They gonna get the T.O. that they expect. Don’t expect anything less. I’m not gonna waste your time, so I wouldn’t expect you to waste my time. When I step on the field, you know what you gonna get.”

T.O. is definitely onto something here. An NFL team that has playoff aspirations should take a gamble and sign this guy. What do they have to lose?

Nothing.

If he’s 100-percent healthy, he can still be productive — not a difference-maker, per se, but still productive. With the Cincinnati Bengals last season, he had 983 receiving yards and scored nine touchdowns.

So if a team signs him, a coach could be looking at 550-600 yards and seven touchdowns with what remains of the 2011 season, assuming T.O. learns the offense quickly.

If everything had gone as planned and he’d been healthy to start the season, you'd easily be looking at 50-to-60 catches, 1,000 yards and eight-10 TDs. Owens has done that everywhere he’s gone.

Hate him or love him, the man can produce anywhere — well almost anywhere.

He can only be an asset on the right team, a team that can handle his mercurial personality.

If I were the GM on a team that needed a few offensive additions to launch it into the playoffs and had an experienced QB, I’d sign him, no doubt. Even though a team like the Vikings could use whatever help it can get, Owens and Donovan McNabb don’t work, as we all saw in Philly.

A team like the Texans with Matt Schaub behind center might, however, be a wonderful fit. Not just because Andre Johnson is hurt, but also because Owens would be a great No. 2 or No. 3 WR, along with Kevin Walter, to help take the attention off Johnson when he returns.

The Chargers also could benefit from signing T.O. in case Vincent Jackson gets hurt mid-season.

And if T.O. could somehow shut his mouth, the St. Louis Rams might also be a fit for this talent and a place where he’d be able to get the most accomplished. As anyone who follows the Rams can attest, Sam Bradford needs a dependable wide receiver — badly. Owens could give Bradford a No. 1 target.

Shoot, Jerry Rice or Cris Carter could help the receiver-challenged Rams at this point.

A talented player like T.O. can help any number of teams that need a wide receiver, and his return to the field might allow him to end his NFL career on a high note.

But at 37, he’ll have to leave all the drama behind him. If he can’t prove he has, he makes himself unmarketable to teams that might have even a slight interest in his talent.

NABJ: Stephen A. Smith

Stephen A. Smith shares some of his personal background information and provides advice to aspiring journalists on how to break into the world of sports journalism. This interview took place at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention in Philadelphia, PA. NABJ is an excellent organization and I recommend every young journalist of color to join. (Please excuse the sound quality, we were using a hand held camera)

Dream...What?

Nick Creegan

Philadelphia's so-called “Dream Team” is starting to look like a nightmare. 

Once viewed as the Super Bowl favorite in many people's eyes, the high-profiled Eagles now sit in last place in the NFC East. They have been on a free-fall for three straight weeks, and their fall does not seem to be slowing. 

Going into yesterday's game, the Birds had lost two straight, including their home opener.

The worst part about these first two losses was that the Eagles held leads going into the fourth quarter, and Sunday proved to be the same.

It was yet-another embarrassing meltdown for the Eagles as they gave up a 20-point lead in the second half at home to the San Francisco 49ers — which was the franchise's biggest blown lead since the Eagles blew a 21-point lead in 1999 against the Arizona Cardinals. 

The only Eagle who's living up to expectations is Michael Vick — injured hand and all. He threw for a career-high 416 yards and two touchdowns; he also rushed for 76 yards. Vick's stellar performance was wasted by these floundering pigeons. Vick would set up rookie kicker Alex Henery with big plays, including the 61-yard bomb to DeSean Jackson, and Henery failed to come through, missing a field goal from 39 yards out. LeSean McCoy, who was the leading NFL rusher in yards going into Week 3, rushed for only 18 yards on nine carries. 

In the last three weeks, Vick and the Eagles have been owned in the fourth quarter. They have been outscored 36-0  and have turned the ball over three times. Their “shutdown” secondary has not been able to force one turnover in any of those fourth quarters. 

The Eagles defense is proving to be a weak link of “star” athletes who are not playing good football. They're playing downright awful. The interior defense is continuing to get exposed. It has given up the most yards in the league on runs of the middle and 6.2 yards per rush, and the defense is allowing the third-most rushing yards per game in the league (139.5 yards). 

Are the Eagles defensive backs going to learn how to tackle? 

Will the linebackers get faster and more alert? 

The Eagles have 12 games left to do so, or they can kiss the division title, and maybe even they playoffs, goodbye.

They have come back from early-season deficits before and still ended up with a winning record, such as when they were 0-2 in 2003 and finished 12-4. The problem with this year's team is it hasn't proved itself in situations like this yet. There are many new faces that have never played together, and they are under more pressure than some Eagles teams have faced in the past. There has to be a point where these talented players get sick of losing games they were expected to win and actually feel embarrassed enough to take action.

Coach Andy Reid and his coaching staff are not free from blame here either, but they aren't the ones out on the field missing tackles, missing field goals and fumbling. There is enough talent on both sides of the ball to turn the season around, but Philly better find that sense of urgency -- and fast. 

Unfortunately, signing big-name free agents does not guarantee a championship for a team.

Just ask Dwayne Wade.