The potential clash of egos between wide receivers Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco could spell disaster for the Cincinnati Bengals and their head coach Marvin Lewis.
By Sean Nolan
The summer moves that created the three ‘my egos’ at the Miami Heat – LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in case you haven’t been paying attention – has made them the team everybody wants to watch.
Most will want them to lose, but every game will be viewed with intense interest by every sports fan in America. However in James’ home state of Ohio another franchise, in another sport, is incredibly in a position to generate even more headlines.
The Cincinnati Bengals have never made much of a splash in their 40 years of existence. Two Superbowl defeats (1981 and 1988), both to the San Francisco 49ers, are as good as it got. Only three play-off appearances since then have kept them as a minor player in the NFL.
But all of that is going to change. For a few seasons now, head coach Marvin Lewis has been steadily assembling a roster that has more convictions than conversions. From Matt Jones and Cedric Benson’s drink and drug offences to Tank Johnson’s firearms charges, the Bengals are stacked with potentially volatile characters.
It worked last season as they won the AFC North, with a 10-6 record, before losing to the inspired New York Jets in the wild-card game. Shortly after the season ended, Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones was signed. The cornerback had flirted with Canadian Football and professional wrestling following a string of incidents with the police but was offered a lifeline by Lewis.
Then the head coach went off for his holidays, wondered what else he could add to the mix and came up with Terrell Owens.
Yep, that Terrell Owens. Now T.O is a brilliant wide receiver. His record over 14 years in the NFL is fantastic. In 205 games he has 144 touchdowns. He is one of a handful of players to have over 1,000 receptions. Even with the rubbish Buffalo Bills last year he was effective.
But.
Owens has been a disruptive force at every club he has been with. He had to leave his first team, the 49ers, after intimating that he believed his quarterback Jeff Garcia was gay. He wasn’t, but Owens never let the truth get in the way of what he wanted.
He didn’t like Garcia and he wanted to get traded. It worked and he got his move to the Philadelphia Eagles in 2004. The Eagles went to the Superbowl that year, lost to the New England Patriots, and guess what happened? Yep, Owens started to pick on his QB.
After the game, Owens said that if Brett Favre had been the QB, the Eagles would have won. “Favre is a warrior†were Owens’ words, hinting that Eagles’ QB Donovan McNabb was not.
Among the other things Owens did while at Philadelphia was wear a Dallas Cowboys shirt on the plane home following a heavy defeat by the Cowboys and he criticised the management for not recognising his 100th career TD, calling them “classlessâ€.
It all meant he was done after two years and wound up getting a move to Dallas. Owens had three very good years with Dallas, but near the end he started to criticise Dallas QB Tony Romo for not throwing to him enough, an allegation he had made about McNabb while at the Eagles.
Next to take a chance were the Buffalo Bills. Again he started well, but as the Bills looked to save some money, Owens was released in February this year.
Aged 36 it looked like it was all over for Owens. But then Lewis threw him a pass he couldn’t drop, a slot on a competitive team.
His arrival has the makings of a disaster. The big name wide receiver with the Bengals is Chad Ochocinco. This is a man who changed his surname to the Spanish for his number (eight and five) just for the attention.
He appeared on this year’s edition of Dancing with the Stars in the US. He finished fourth. He has his own reality dating show on VH1 called Ochocinco: The Ultimate Catch.
Owens’ VHI reality show is called The T.O. Show. It lags behind Ochocinco in the ratings, but one of these characters will end up behind the other in receptions this season.
It leaves Bengals’ QB Carson Palmer with a dilemma. Which of his limelight-hogging wide receivers will he throw to? No matter which one he favours, or is even perceived to favour, he is bound to draw the ire of the other.
Off all the things Owens is guilty of, he has no criminal convictions, making him a rarity on the Bengals’ roster. But the chances of Owens and Ochocinco going through a full season without something blowing up is slimmer than most of their new teammates’ charge sheets.
Undoubtedly the Bengals have a solid group of players. But the mix of personalities, egos and drama in that team is explosive.
Winning may inure Marvin Lewis for a while but if they get a bad start, it could all go very bad very quickly.
