Filed under: Cowboys, NFC East, NFL Fans, NFL Referees
But he's sort of reformed himself since coming to Dallas in 2006, and save that bizarre "he may or may not have tried to kill himself" saga, T.O.'s remained out of the media crosshairs. In fact, he's even been viewed as something other than a selfish jerk, which is no doubt a testament to aggressive therapy.
Checkered history aside, I can't disagree with Owens, flagged last week for loosely impersonating Usain Bolt, when he talks about the absurdity of the NFL excessive touchdown celebration rule. First, the video evidence. Scandalous, indeed.
Here's what VP of Officiating Mike Pereira told the New York Times earlier this week when explaining the penalty:
"You've just got to stay on your feet," Mike Pereira, the league's supervisor of officials, said in a telephone interview ... Monday. (Pereira did make one exception: he said no player would be penalized on his watch for dropping to his knees to pray because "I do not want to get struck by lightning.")
Fine. Boring as hell, but fine. The bigger issue, though (or at least it should be because it seemingly happens every week): why wasn't Owens' just-before-the-half "man, that sure looked like a touchdown" catch-and-run reviewed?
Inside of two minutes, all reviews are handled by the replay booth. Except when they choose to hit the beer stand early to beat the halftime crowd. So no review was requested, although it seemed obvious that Owens had scored. In the end, it didn't matter -- Marion Barber ran it in a play later -- but it's the principle of the matter, people. And four days later T.O.'s still not happy about it:
"Instead of putting the emphasis on my celebration, I think the league needs to put the emphasis on the referees making the right call ... Everybody knew that it was a touchdown."
The guy makes a pretty good point.
