Hilarious reactions to Terrell Owens Sharpie TD

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Talk of the town

by Don Banks, Sports Illustrated

If Terrell Owens' premeditated autograph session in the end zone Monday night was designed to get the NFL talking about him, it was, uh, a masterstroke. Here's a sampling of the reaction from folks around the league, most of whom treated the incident with all the dignity it deserved:

From Dallas running back Emmitt Smith, who is assumed to be old-school: "I thought it was funny. Give the man some style points. They want choir boys playing football. That ain't going to happen."

From Tampa Bay receiver Keyshawn Johnson, who has just two touchdowns in his past 22 regular-season games: "I know one thing though, if I put two pens in my sock, I'm not going to be able to use it around here. They will dry out."

From Denver tight end Shannon Sharpe, who gave Owens a thumbs up, like Yoda to Luke Skywalker: "It cracked me up. That might have trumped me. ... I always felt this way: If you don't like something I'm doing, it's your job to stop me, not mine."

From star-crossed Denver quarterback Brian Griese, who was injured earlier this season when he tripped over his dog: "With my luck, I think [the pen would] probably jab me in the leg or something."

From Saints head coach Jim Haslett, who isn't exactly known as the class clown-type: "I thought it was innovative. It's a heck of an idea. I was laughing when I saw it. I don't know him because I've never met him, [but] I would love to have him on our team. I thought it was very creative."

From Bucs head coach Jon Gruden, who said he didn't know how he'd react if one of his players pulled out a Sharpie in the end zone: "I've never heard of that. Only T.O. can get away with that. I don't know what I would say. I would probably be at a loss for words, like I am now. ... I would say, 'Nice catch ... and what are you doing with that Sharpie?' "

From Dolphins cornerback Sam Madison, who we can assume, was speaking on behalf of burned defensive backs everywhere: "Actually, I thought it was pretty funny. Some people just don't have the nerve to do that. He does and he's scoring touchdowns. Their football team is winning. To each his own. Would I do it? No. Would I suggest to him to do some other things? Yeah, I'd give him some suggestions. It's just fun and games. Guys are just out there having fun. They've taken a lot of things away from us. Some things we can't do and some things we can do. It's all in fun and games. He was having fun."

Speaking of Sharpies, Jets head coach Herman Edwards went into his team's wide receivers meeting this week and handed one out to each player. Pretty optimistic of Edwards, huh?

Perhaps the most interesting series of comments came from Seahawks cornerback Shawn Springs, who was beaten on the play and shares that financial consultant with Owens. The stunt irritated many Seahawks, including head coach Mike Holmgren, but Springs said he would have done it, too, if he were a wide receiver: "I respect him for that."

Springs also said that 49ers quarterback Jeff Garcia and Owens are "so in tune with each other, they deserved that play. The way they're playing, you've got to live with it."

Seattle's Chad Eaton and Robbie Tobeck called Owens a "punk." Not Springs, who said: "I don't feel it's a slap in the face."

Asked his reaction to what some are calling Owens' "signature" move, Garcia said: "I don't have a feeling about it. T.O. is a unique individual. He's definitely creative and I'm not going to say whether that was a knock against the team or not ... I don't think I would have looked at it as a slap in the face. I would have just probably shaken my head a little bit and gone, 'What is he doing?' It's just one of those things where, you've never seen it before, so how do you react to it?"

Once again, Garcia's ability to evade pressure came in handy.

Garcia did manage to sum up the out-of-proportion attention that Owens' ball-signing has received this week, saying: "I didn't realize that it has become a national debate."

Later, Garcia declined comment on whether the time is right to move on Iraq.

Many have speculated that Seattle will get even with Owens when the Seahawks and 49ers face off Dec. 1 in San Francisco. 49ers center Jeremy Newberry fired a pre-emptive warning shot in that direction this week.

"They sure better not while I'm on the field," he said. "We're not out there to let them take cheap shots either. People aren't going to run around and beat up on our offensive people and the rest of us stand by and watch. If they try and do that, there's going to be cheap shots all over the place and the league's not going to let that happen."

Newberry also said he believes the media loves to blow everything that Owens does out of proportion. Like that's a novel charge.

"There's a lot of that stuff going on, but anytime T.O. does something, the media wants to make a bigger deal out of T.O.'s actions then anybody else," Newberry said. "I think if Tai Streets had done it, nobody would have thought anything of it. I think since T.O. did it, it's a major issue."

A game-winning touchdown catch out of Tai Streets? C'mon. We would have stopped the presses. In his four NFL seasons, Streets has exactly one career touchdown.