Today is Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - a day every football fan living in the 'city of brotherly love' (aka Philadelphia) has been anxiously awaiting for several months. Today is the day the Eagles
finally have cancer surgery and remove Terrell Owens from their roster permanently.
So why does a guy who grew up in Alaska and now resides in Florida care one iota about a football team in Pennsylvania and a player with a bad attitude? Simply put: because T.O. represents everything wrong with America today. Yep, I said it. The man is a walking demonstration of all which ails the USA in this day and age.
For those of you whom have been reading along as I pour myself out into the pages of American Aegis, you will readily recognize the fact that I have an issue with the current administration in power. It isn't even really a 'Democrat vs. Republican' issue. There are in fact several Republicans whom I truly believe in.
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina comes to mind almost immediately. As does
Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is another. And then there's
Senator John McCain of Arizona - a man whom, had he won the Republican nomination in 2000 I would have gladly voted for and supported over Al Gore, but whom has since changed my opinion of him 180 degrees. (I promise more on this in a future post!)
Rudy Giuliani is another fine American, Republican or not, and he may well end up being on the GOP ticket in 2008. All of these men are worthy of notice, respect, admiration, and at least a 2nd look when it comes time to helping determine our next administration.
George W Bush and Dick 'I-shot-the-sheriff' Cheney however are nowhere
nearly as deserving of such respect in my opinion - for a variety of reasons which I have already begun spelling out on these pages and upon which I shall undoubtedly vent more about in the days/weeks/months ahead. And the focus of this posting today bears a lot of resemblance to the Bush Administration.
Now stay with me here a moment dear reader. Terrell Owens was once the up and coming star of the San Francisco 49ers. So good, he was even allowed to play alongside arguably the greatest receiver in NFL history - Jerry Rice. But this wasn't enough for Owens. He had to be
the man. And so he helped orchestrate the push to drive Rice out of San Francisco. The Niners gave up on Rice and allowed him to ultimately sign with the Oakland Raiders, believing that Owens would easily fill Rice's shoes. (
Insert joke here!) As if!Rice proves the niners wrong and makes them pay by having several subsequent great years with the Raiders. People begin to question whether or not the 49ers did the right thing in letting Rice go and sticking with Owens. The team itself rallies around T.O. But the pressure of being
the man starts getting to Owens - and going to his head. We finally saw T.O.'s true face less than 2 seasons later as he began his now notorious feud with then Quarterback Jeff Garcia. It culminates in Owens telling Sports Illustrated that Garcia is a homosexual - a fact which upon further investigation not only proves untrue but downright slanderous.
This finally resulted in Owens forcing his way out of Frisco, and ultimately to Philly in true Prima Donna fashion. The Eagles had one good season in which they made a strong Super bowl run and then subsequently fell from the heights of the NFL's elite and ended up residing amongst the bottom dwellers last season. All last season was an entire melodrama. Fans everywhere wondered
'what will this moron do next?'. Thankfully, the Eagles management had enough and suspended Owens effectively for the entire second half of the season.
This, dear reader, is where the parallel hits home for me. You see, if you think about the rise and fall of T.O., you can easily apply this same timeline to the Bush presidency. In the year 2000, America is at it's height. The 90's have brought unprecedented prosperity to the nation on several fronts. W comes in and inherits a
$236 Billion budget surplus - the first since 1969. The unthinkable occurs, and terrorists attack the US on September 11th, 2001. He is at the top of his game and truly looks 'Presidential' standing amidst the rubble of the World Trade Center. The country rallies around the president. (Sound familiar?) The country gives him carte blanche - much as the 49ers gave Owens the same when they jettisoned Rice.
But it never gets any better for Owens in Frisco - and he ultimately ends up forcing that trade to the Eagles. Bush, meanwhile, leads the US into Iraq after declaring that the Iraqi's aided and abetted in the attacks of 9/11 - a piece of mis-information now totally discredited. (Much like Owens calling Garcia a homosexual.) America's image throughout the world comes tumbling down to the point that we now reside - in the minds of many nations whom we once called allies and friends - down with the bottom-dwellers.
Much like the Eagles of last year. To top it all off, 2006 brings us a
projected Budget Deficit of $400 Billion. And the 'conservatives' call this a
good thing?!?! What happened to fiscal responsibility? What happened to being 'against big government spending'?!?! Catch phrases my friends -nothing more. Much like T.O. catches footballs (but is still an idiot), Bush and his cronies caught the vast majority of the Republican party with these catch phrases.
It truly amazes me that men making millions of dollars to
play a game can be Prima Donna's to the level of Owens. We saw the same thing with Lattrell Sprewell several years ago in the NBA. And yet we American's give these idiots a free pass and let them get away with doing things we 'normal citizens' would lose our jobs - and possibly our lives - over. The most amazing piece of this entire parallel to me however is in the fact that were America the Philadelphia Eagles, we could simply,
finally, cut ties with the idiot and send him home to try and find another team.
Unfortunately, we have another 1000 days of W and his ilk in Washington. Really makes you wish America could be an NFL team, now doesn't it? '
Let's cut the idiot and save ourselves the dollars and the headaches and bring our fans back'.I'll be back tomorrow with another look at day to day life in America, dear reader.
Until then, don't drop any jelly on your shoes!