darbyDarnit!

When the hero becomes the goat, he has to learn to eat crow

Philadelphia Eagles’ wide receiver Terrell Owens waited a little too long to make an apology to his teammates and fans for fighting and making nasty comments that were detrimental to the team. And the later the apology, the more humbling, contrite, and remorseful it needs to be. Unfortunately for T.O., he did not go far enough in his apology. Here’s one snippet from his comments:

“I would like to reiterate my respect for Donovan McNabb, as a quarterback, and as a teammate. I apologize to him for any comments that may have been negative.”

May have been negative? Everyone believes they were negative and his lackluster apology shows that he still clings to the belief that this is a debate. This is not about being right. It is about getting what you want, which in this case is his job back. He’s still got a lot of work to do. Instead of making informal apologies from outside his house with his lawyer at his side, he needs to do several things:

1. Meet personally with Donovan McNabb, the coach, owner, and other primary players and leaders directly impacted by his actions.
2. Ask for another team meeting where he apologizes again to those people specifically and the entire team.
3. Accept whatever punishment the team deems fit and forego any pursuit of sentence reduction by the Players Union.
4. Go through some sort of anger management program.
5. Apologize to his fans.
6. Keep his mouth shut and let his playing and support of other players speak for him and let time build a new history for him.