Leon Award -- Pulitizer Prize Edition
Mood:  irritated
Topic: sports
Following in the grand tradition of Lawrence Taylor, Dexter Manley and that guy who wrote that book about the seedy, underside of the NFL, Terrell Owens has come out with a book: Catch This. It's a look at Terrell Owens and, as the write-up on Amazon.com states, the outrageous gridiron personality "T.O." that Owens has created.

(By the way, that pic is from terrellowens.com. I think this is a trend that the Jerks need to latch onto.)

According to the blurb on Amazon, the book allows the reader to learn how great T.O. is:

He takes us behind his apprenticeship to -- and eventual eclipsing of -- the legendary 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice.

And how, like Rosa Parks, he was wronged during this past off-season:

And, finally, he lets loose on the free agent scandal that shook the NFL in 2004 -- and reveals the truth behind the NFL's attempt to deny him free agency, his fraudulent trade to the Baltimore Ravens, and his ultimate happy landing with the Philadelphia Eagles.

But probably the most interesting, and least surprising, thing "revealed" in the book is his condemnation of the liberal white media who find it easy to come down hard on black athletes. Specifically, he mentions Dan Patrick, who conducted a rather rough interview with T.O. a couple years ago on Patrick's radio show.

Was Dan Patrick rough on T.O.? Probably. But was it because he's black, or because Owens is a loud-mouth jerk?

If T.O. thinks it's okay to arbitrarily assign motive to public figures, is it fair to say that T.O. wanted out of San Fran, not because he didn't think Jeff Garcia was a good enough quarterback, but because he is white, and (at least according to T.O.) gay? Is it out of line to suggest that he only wanted to go to Philly, and not Baltimore, because Kyle Boller is white and Donovan McNabb is black?

What if Jeff Garcia were to write a book stating that T.O. didn't want to play with him because he's white. Would Garcia be lauded as being "never politically correct and always controversial and colorful on and off the field." And would his publisher hype Garcia's book as a "...wickedly insightful book, he's (Owens) full of sharp-eyed observations on the contentious, demanding, insane phenomenon that is pro football."

Tony