Drew Pearson Believes Terrell Owens Can Still Play In The NFL

It was believed that wide receiver Terrell Owens’ career had hit an all-time low whenever he signed on to play with the Allen Wranglers of the Indoor Football League in hopes of making a return to the NFL. Well, we were all wrong. It got even worse for T.O.

You should all know by now that Owens was cut by the Wranglers for reasons that have plagued him his entire career — being a bad teammate.

Wranglers GM Drew Pearson was talking with 103.3 FM ESPN Radio in Dallas and, despite his falling out with Owens, he offered some praise and some insight on T.O.’s time with the organization.

“To me, there’s no question [Owens] could play in the NFL,” Pearson said.

“But it’s not what happens between the lines with Terrell.  It’s how he handles things outside the lines, being Terrell Owens, dealing with the fans, being a good teammate.  That’s what we were really concerned with developing with Terrell.  Going from T.O. to Terrell Owens.  But it’s so hard to get to close to Terrell.  He lets certain people in.  My opinion is he doesn’t let the right people in to tell him the right things.  I didn’t want to enable him.  I didn’t want to be another one of those guys that have been telling him things all his life that he just wants to hear.  I was trying to be that guy that tells him things that he needed to hear.”

When everything started, Owens seemed to be on the right path. He was impressing his teammates and coaches, along with giving a full effort on the field. As it has happened too often in Owens’ career, things then took a turn for the worst.

“Terrell embraced [his role] initially with tremendous enthusiasm.  He was a model citizen and did everything right, but throughout the season, that enthusiasm continually deteriorated,” Pearson said. “The things that we needed him to do or expected him to do just weren’t getting done.

“It just wasn’t a good fit in the end.  It was a great fit in the beginning.  It got the Wrangler name out there.  Terrell performed tremendously, was a great teammate and all that.  Somewhere along the line, with him being gone, playing home games and not playing away games, it causes some disruption within your team.  You can’t really build chemistry within your football team with one player doing those kind of things.  What it led to was other players thinking they can do this and they can do that because they saw Terrell do this and they saw Terrell do that.  It was a decision that just had to be made because we are fighting for our playoff lives.”

To be fair to Owens, there are some contradicting reports. A former Wranglers coach told TMZ that Owens was released  was due to money, not poor behavior.

Could this be the end of any hopes T.O. has at returning to the NFL? It’s very possible. However, the league is a chance of second, third, fourth and even fifth chances, so you never know. A key injuring in camps or at the beginning of the season could tempt a team to give Owens that phone call.

If someone does give Owens one last shot, I don’t think they’ll be disappointed. He has always stayed in fantastic shape and should be able to contribute for one or two more seasons.

With T.O., the saga is never over, so sit back and got your popcorn ready.

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