On Sunday, the Eagles got killed by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Just absolutely demolished. But when you turn on the television, you won’t get any insights into why the Eagles were beaten in every facet of the game. Instead, what you will be treated to is replay after replay of Terrell Owens jawing at McNabb on the sideline. The media has been waiting 8 weeks for this to happen, and by golly, they are the biggest rats.In case you haven’t seen it, early in the game, the Fox cameras showed TO on the sideline hitting McNabb on the shoulder pad and jawing at him for a good 60 seconds. When I saw it, I thought, good, TO is trying to get DMac’s head out of his ass and back into the game. But then the Collingsworth idiot machine went into full TO bashing mode. While no one had audio on the exchange, the Fox crew assumed that TO was complaining about not getting balls thrown his way. Can’t you just see the producers salivating as this is unfolding?
Collingsworth is so biased against Owens (and it’s understandable as Owens called him “average” and a “nobody”,) that his disdain for TO came out even before the sideline incident. On a previous pass play, McNabb was being rushed in the pocked. The cameras show TO slowing down to come back to the QB — you know, something a smart player like Marvin Harrison would do — but then sprinting back downfield when McNabb launched a 60 yard bomb. Instantly, Collingsworth was all over Owens for not running the whole play or that would’ve been a touchdown. When Aikman remarked that perhaps he came back when he saw McNabb getting harrassed in the pocket, Collingsworth replied weakly, “there’s still no excuse for slowing down”. He was like a nine year old who has to have the last word. It would be comical if not so incredibly sad.
After the game, on ESPNews, they had “Iron” Mike Ditka on to comment on “the incident”. Ditka, with the two idiot anchormen next to him giddy as schoolgirls, said that there was no reason to be getting in the face of the QB and that TO should be disciplined for his actions. One of the reporters then asked “E.D.” Mike whether he, as a coach, took into consideration that T.O. would go to the media and blow this up if he was disciplined before deciding on any punishment.
Wait, so you automatically assume that T.O. was wrong and that he would go to the press if disciplined?! Tell me, when did it become acceptable for “reporters” to comment on things without even knowing the facts of the case?
Later, Sean Salisbury was on ESPN commenting on the sideline incident yet again. I don’t often defend Salisbury but at least he proposed that “who knew what was said on that sideline”. However, the rest of his commentary was pretty accusatory towards TO. Every single commercial break on ESPN was preceded by a clip of TO jawing at McNabb. But they always edit out the part where TO is hitting McNabb on the shoulder pads trying to fire him up. No, they just conveniently put on the part where TO is following McNabb around and still yelling.
Both Ditka and Salisbury spoke after the press conferences of McNabb and Owens, yet they didn’t bother to listen to what the two men had to say before going ahead and commenting on it. Both TO and McNabb stated that the sideline incident was just TO trying to fire McNabb up and telling him they could get back into the game. This wasn’t a Manning-Wayne incident, just one competitor trying to motivate another. If this was Ray Lewis, the media would be slobbering all over themselves trying to paint a picture of Lewis as a team leader. Give me a break.
Captain Obvious says controversy sells. And all this season, producers have been waiting for TO to blow up so they could have a juicy sound bite or video to keep the fans interested. So without getting the facts of the incident correct, they just went with it and knew the sheep watching Sportscenter would come back after this commercial break to see what the villain TO is up to again. TO – guilty until proven inno… ahhh, who cares about proving anything.
It’s maddening to see how irresponsible Fox and ESPN have become. They no longer care about the game of football, they just want more hype, more controversy, more ratings. Facts? We don’t need no stinkin’ facts!
The saddest part is that a lot of fans are just eating it up.
