BY BOB GLAUBER
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
July 4, 2004
PHILADELPHIA - It is a few minutes after practice, and Terrell Owens is sitting on a black leather couch, telling a visitor why he thinks it's too late to change his image as one of the NFL's most controversial players.
Speaking barely above a whisper, he seems nothing like the trash-talker he was labeled as during his days with the San Francisco 49ers. Now with the Philadelphia Eagles, he leans back on the couch in an office at their training complex and shakes his head.
"No matter what I do, it's not going to change," the 30-year- old receiver said. "I've got a negative image with the public and people think, 'This guy's a bad guy.'"
Great receiver. Bad guy. Owens cannot separate the two, even though he desperately wants to be known as the former, not the latter.
"That's what I'm stuck with," Owens said. "I'm a monster on the field, but people think I'm a monster off the field, too. I don't think people really know me until they're around me. When they hang out with me, they'll pull me aside and say: 'I don't get it. I don't see why people say you're this way. You're a cool dude.' People expect something different."
Eagles receiver Todd Pinkston certainly expected something different. He expected to see a chronic complainer, a guy who bullies his teammates and snarls at his coaches.
"No, it's nothing like that," Pinkston said. "He had this reputation as an 'I-want-the-ball' type of guy, but he hasn't been like that at all. If you see his work ethic, you'll know. It's not like the reputation he had in San Francisco."
Owens is a star receiver who makes terrific catches and scores highlight-reel touchdowns, but his flamboyant celebrations and sideline tantrums have given him a me-first reputation that he believes has unfairly tainted his legacy.
To Owens and those who know him best, he is a complex man whose combative behavior on game day belies a gentle and charitable personality off the field. They know he is a gifted athlete whose continual search for attention and admiration goes back to a time when he was ready to quit the sport as a teenager because he almost never got a chance to play on his high school team.
He defies easy description.
Already on notice
Even so, a new team, a new contract and a new outlook on his NFL future probably won't change things for Owens, who forced the trade that sent him from the 49ers to the Eagles in March. He understands that the first time he complains about not getting enough passes from quarterback Donovan McNabb, or the first time he disagrees publicly with coach Andy Reid, or the first time he follows up a touchdown with one of his attention-getting celebrations, he will re-ignite the criticism that has followed him since he blossomed into an All-Pro receiver in 2000.
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