Terrell Owens said the news media tried to goal him into a controversy after his catch-less performance on Sunday. The Bills receiver’s streak of 185 consecutive games with a catch ended, and after the game he repeatedly refused to criticize his coaches or teammates and Owens maintained that he was “just going with the plays that are called.” Over the years I’ve always kind of spoken openly about whatever is being asked with my answers, so the last four or five years I’ve kind of noticed that and tried taking some steps to prevent some of those things from happening. “But (Sunday) as you saw, it was obviously … (reporters) took some more than initiative to try to get me to kind of go down the wrong path. I know the last two teams that I’ve been on, I felt like I left those teams prematurely due to media interviews that I’ve done and things kind of taken out of context and they created sort of a media whirlwind in the locker room and things kind of went downhill from there. I’m just trying to do the best job I can do as far as answering the questions and trying to be a better teammate and not try to throw people under the bus.”
Eighty-four million bucks just doesn’t go very far these days, that’s how much guaranteed money the Raiders invested in their last three top draft picks. Sunday that investment reaped these dividends: Three points and several thousand heartfelt boos rained down mostly on quarterback JaMarcus Russell. Near the end of Sunday’s 23-3 loss to the Broncos in the Coliseum, a.k.a. the Blacked-Out Hole, Russell trotted onto the field and the boos were louder than they had been all afternoon, even though most of the fans had fled the premises.
Former Raiders quarterback-turned-broadcaster Rich Gannon has spoken out regarding the Raiders attempting to ban him from the facility for CBS’ production meeting last week. “Let me just say this,” Gannon said Tuesday on his SIRIUS NFL Radio Show, “I tried to take the high road on that situation. It was unfortunate and it is what it is. I will say this: I really feel like the organization should care less about who is broadcasting the games and more about the product on the field and putting people in the stands. I think that’s the bottom line. I wish, certainly, the Raiders well. But it is frustrating to watch the team right now.” The Contra Costa Times reported earlier that the Raiders’ attempted barring of their 2002 league MVP was a moot point since Gannon did not arrive in the Bay Area in time to make the meetings anyway. “This was a win-win situation for us,” Raiders executive John Herrera told the Times.
Jets coach Rex Ryan benched David Clowney against the Tennessee Titans after he tweeted about a lack of playing time. After the Jets beat New England 16-9 last Sunday, Clowney wrote on Twitter: “1 play in the 1st Half, 4 plays in the 2nd half … A bit disappointed about my playing time but very happy and satisfied about the win.” Ryan got wind of Clowney’s gripe and benched him against Tennessee. “If I feel a guy is not putting the team first,” Ryan said Monday, “I’ll make that decision to put the guy down.”
Just hours after leading the Pittsburgh Steelers against the San Diego Chargers, Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback of the defending NFL Super Bowl Champions, will guest host Monday Night Raw at Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., this Monday.
They say it takes three, four, maybe even five years to fairly evaluate an NFL draft class but running back Rashard Mendenhall and wide receiver Limas Sweed are doing their worst to disprove that and it’s almost as if they are trying to prove that the Steelers‘ 2008 draft class is a bust. It’s bad enough that Sweed — a second-round pick in ‘08 — dropped a touchdown pass in the 23-20 loss Sunday to the Cincinnati Bengals because we’ve come to expect that from him, he has been awful. But it’s much worse that Mendenhall — the first-round choice — did such a poor job preparing for the game that he was benched by irritated coach Mike Tomlin.
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