2010-01-22T17:26:30-05:00 ESPN's 'interview' with T.O. misses the real story 2008-12-16T23:06:29-05:00 201 2008-12-16T23:06:29-05:00 1 21 10 2008-12-19T15:26:22-05:00 3 MD MODI Silver Spring 92306 205 Markazi is right that the REAL story was missed. But that story is ESPN. Imagine at your workplace that you kept seeing all of your colleagues move way ahead of you despite knowing that you are superior ??? simply because they went after gossip story du jour (in ESPN???s case it is almost always a black villain). Firstly, Markazi may not know that Werder???s original story (since changed to be more balanced) was based almost entirely off of one single source (since upgraded to multiple sources). I mean, even if the story were true, it was just too flimsy to print. It is also possible Werder was honestly using innacurate information. But even in that most benign scenario, it was dishonest because what was reported as a TEAM rift on offensive schemes was consciously reduced to another isolated T.O. as villain story. Werder???s narrative was completely deliberate, and anyone who disagrees may want to review some of the 5000+ ESPN hateful commenters who ate up the selfish T.O. theme, as they always do. ESPN gave the story prime front-page web placement and prime audio and TV coverage with Werder propped up right in the middle. This is so much bigger than Werder. I???ve been watching ESPN???s other Dallas writer Matt Mosley very closely and it is happening to him too. Werder and mosley were making a living off of one Adam Jones non-story after another. Mosley was a fine local Dallas reporter, but now that he is at ESPN it is not lost on him (consciously or subconsciously) that every time he blogs about Adam Jones he gets more attention. Mosley ??? also involved in the T.O. story ??? is changing before our very eyes. It is sad to see. This is what ESPN does to good reporters. Ed Werder got extremely reckless for an organization that promotes and rewards extreme recklessness. And now he is paying the price. It is also why I prefer SI's website by leaps and bounds. This is bigger than T.O. and Ed Werder http://sportsonmymind.com/2008/12/17/espn-its-bigger-than-terrell-owens-ed-werder/ 3716071 2008-12-19T09:35:05-05:00 19 TX Texas Heat San Antonio 36027 204 For all the idiots who where defending T.O.: http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/columnists/randy_galloway//story/1100656.html 3710469 2008-12-17T16:24:18-05:00 23 MD xxcarte Accokeek 636554 He should not have reported hearsay? Why not? He had multiple TEAM sources verifying each other. Quit being a homer and realize that TO has one agenda in mind, HIS! TO is an insecure, self-absorbed, team annihilator who has all the talent and the head of a 5 year old. Werder almost certainly has more reliable sources than TO who continues to prove that he can't be trusted. Just wait until Romo throws another game loosing pick and you'll see him take another torch to the coaching staff and teammates. 171 Your last sentence tells me what I'm dealing with. Let me get this straight, it's ok for Romo to throw Game losing picks on a REGULAR, but its not OK for T.O. to be upset about it. Because...T.O. is the bad guy and Romo is the Good guy so Romo can do whatever he wants as long as he smiles and cracks jokes for the media.....woow. 3690618 2008-12-18T11:32:11-05:00 19 TX Texas Heat San Antonio 36027 Your last sentence tells me what I'm dealing with. Let me get this straight, it's ok for Romo to throw Game losing picks on a REGULAR, but its not OK for T.O. to be upset about it.Because...T.O. is the bad guy and Romo is the Good guy so Romo can do whatever he wants as long as he smiles and cracks jokes for the media.....woow. 203 I haven't heard Calvin Johnson **** about his three quarterbacks throwing picks this season. I haven't heard Fitzgerald and Bolding **** about the picks Warner has thrown this season. Your argument holds no water at all. You're just too much of an idiot, blinded by your man lust for T.O., to recognize this. 3699618 2008-12-17T16:10:57-05:00 23 MD xxcarte Accokeek 636554 How did he earn this "right" you're talking about?By making references that his quarterback is gay (Garcia)? By backstabbing McNabb?Or, was it by crying in front of the media about how Romo was his "quarterback" and then crying that he's not getting the ball enough the season after?What the hell has this character done to deserve anything?Was it his ab crunches in his driveway while answering questions to the media what persuaded you to believe that he has some kind of "right"?Or, was it him hiding behind his agent so he wouldn't further make an **** of himself that brought you this particular enlightenment?He hasn't don't jack to derserve anything.And, my Cowboys would do better, much better without him. 168 -He earned the right when he got up a 5am to do wind sprints while you were SLEEP - He earned the right when he played with a BROKEN ankle just to have your boy the Media Darling, McNabb, stinK up the field in the biggest game of his life. -He earned the righ ,When he played last year with a severe high ankle sprain just to watch Romo GIVE the game away to the giants trying to FORCE the ball. - He continues to earn the right when he works out like a fool to stay in shape year in and year out to be able to do what he does on the field so people like YOU can have something to talk about. THATS HOW HE EARNED THE RIGHT! WHAT THE HECK HAVE YOU EARNED? 3690477 2008-12-18T11:29:56-05:00 19 TX Texas Heat San Antonio 36027 -He earned the right when he got up a 5am to do wind sprints while you were SLEEP- He earned the right when he played with a BROKEN ankle just to have your boy the Media Darling, McNabb, stinK up the field in the biggest game of his life.-He earned the righ ,When he played last year with a severe high ankle sprain just to watch Romo GIVE the game away to the giants trying to FORCE the ball.- He continues to earn the right when he works out like a fool to stay in shape year in and year out to be able to do what he does on the field so people like YOU can have something to talk about.THATS HOW HE EARNED THE RIGHT! WHAT THE HECK HAVE YOU EARNED? 202 I'm not a football player. So, comparing him to me in terms of athletic ability and what he does to stay in shape is the stupidist of all arguements. He has done nothing to deserve any kind of &quot;right&quot;. Nothing that you listed gives him the right to throw his quaterbacks and teammates under the bus. Once again, you are not a Cowboy fan. You're a T.O. fan. 3699651 2008-12-17T16:00:46-05:00 23 MD xxcarte Accokeek 636554 Ummm . . . he's the guy who killed the chemistry of two teams.But, you probably already knew that didn't you?He is poison.If you can't see it, you can't be helped. 166 What chemistry?,McNabb was playing like a **** before they fell out. He's still erratic By the way he isn't the first or last reciever to get into it with his quarterback. and like I said poison is you and ESPN's word. the actual poison is people like you who still like to talk about issues from four and five years ago. Real athletes and ball players call him a PLAY MAKER or GAME BREAKER, or.... check this out Superbowl MVP hahahaha. chew on that hater 3690349 2008-12-18T11:26:59-05:00 19 TX Texas Heat San Antonio 36027 What chemistry?,McNabb was playing like a **** before they fell out. He's still erratic By the way he isn't the first or last reciever to get into it with his quarterback. and like I said poison is you and ESPN's word. the actual poison is people like you who still like to talk about issues from four and five years ago. Real athletes and ball players call him a PLAY MAKER or GAME BREAKER, or.... check this out Superbowl MVP hahahaha. chew on that hater 201 Super Bowl MVP? Really? Come back when you finish slobbering over him and your nose is firmly out of his butt cheeks. 3699570 2008-12-18T11:11:17-05:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/396/7/thumb/markazi_arash.jpg 118 CA Arash Markazi Los Angeles 3987 200 I don't agree with you Eric, but I love your analogy. 3699207 2008-12-17T21:58:19-05:00 2 IL Cool Brees Springfield 636809 199 As a retired Social Worker I had a 1000 T.O.'s in my career. I have watched a lot of these stories with TO and others and mostly I blame the media. First off, not their fault but they have a 24/7 news cycle now so they have to fill in lots of time by rehashing and milking everything. As for TO, he had a very dysfunctional family--much more so than most and yet he has worked hard and made something admirable of himself. But his comfort level is probably that negative attention is still attention and he keeps recreating those conflict situations. Certain people in the media should be ashamed because they see how they can get to him or make him react so they do all these things, then say there is a problem. There might be a problem but try not to be so judgemental and realize that everyone did not grow up with support and unconditional love. He uses the only defense mechanisms he has. He is a good person at heart. And he cares about winning and his team always. 3693900 2008-12-17T21:55:00-05:00 25 NC MrFlopes Mebane 87276 198 Werder was thrown under the bus. Once TO wears out his welcome (AGAIN!!!), the truth will come out. TO is trash. 3693903 2008-12-17T21:44:20-05:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/498/786/thumb/Tyree_s_Catch.jpg 2 NJ Manic Trenton 499226 197 wait, lemme get this straight. you people are saying that you are more likely to believe that a respected journalist for a national news source made up a story that would effectively end his career and destroy his reputation if anyone found out than you are that Terrell Owens is causing strife in a locker room? Dallas fans are even more stupid than I thought. 3693775 2008-12-17T21:38:31-05:00 42 TX Gee-man Wylie 576911 196 I've heard from unimpeachable sources (but I can't say who they are) that Ed Werder pees in the shower and is quite proud of it! I'll go to jail before I'll tell you who told me!!! 3693745 201 <div class="photo_container image_right"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://img.fannation.com/upload/si_blog_post_images/owens1.jpg" alt="Owens1" width="298" height="375" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">Terrell Owens is avoiding his real issues with the Cowboys.<br />AP</div> </div> <p>I thought it couldn't get any worse than <strong>Terrell Owens</strong> calling out a reporter on national television and labeling him a liar about a dozen times during a televised post-game news conference.</p> <p>Unfortunately, I was wrong.</p> <p>A day after ESPN said that it stood by <strong>Ed Werder</strong> and his reports last week of growing dissension within the Dallas Cowboys, especially between <strong>Tony Romo</strong>, <strong>Jason Witten</strong> and Owens the network&nbsp;aired an "exclusive" interview between <strong>Stephen A. Smith</strong> and Owens.</p> <p>In the interview Owens, sitting in front of a Christmas tree, once again called out Werder several times. After Owens' clearly rehearsed opening answer to Smith's initial hard-hitting question ("what happened?"), Smith followed up by asking Owens, "So you're saying that what Ed Werder reported was completely false?" This lead to another scripted response from Owens in an interview that played out more like power-point press release by Owen's agent <strong>Drew Rosenhaus</strong> than an engaging discussion.&nbsp;</p> <p>Never before have I seen a network throw one of its own under the bus as badly as ESPN did Werder during the laughable interview.</p> <p>It would have been one thing if Werder had done the interview, which by the way would have been one of the most interesting sit-downs since Frost/Nixon, but to have Smith -- whose knowledge of the controversy is about as extensive as most following the story on television --&nbsp;do the interview gave it the appearance of being nothing more than an orchestrated statement from Owens and Rosenhaus. I can almost understand the NFL Network bending over backwards for Owens during those nauseating T.O.-Deion Sanders love fests, but there's no need for ESPN to do the same when the reputation of one if its reporters is being sullied in the process.</p> <p>Owens made his feelings about Werder known after the game on NBC and during the post-game news conference, which was shown on ESPN and ESPNEWS. His comments were subsequently replayed and discussed by the network's talking heads on their many other platforms. Was there really a need for an "exclusive" interview to continue a story on Tuesday that most of us thought had died on Sunday?</p> <p>There's no way Werder can properly defend himself against Owen's allegations, and for ESPN to continue to put him in that position is unfair. Werder simply reported a story that he heard from "multiple team sources." What is he supposed to do? Name his sources? When Werder asked Owens if he would comment on what he heard and answer just a couple of questions last week,&nbsp;Owens said, "Nope." So if he turned down an opportunity to defend himself to the reporter actually covering the story, why should he be able to do so with someone he and his agent may be more comfortable with?</p> <p>The story shouldn't be about Owens' problem with Werder, who has been covering the Cowboys since 1989 and has no reason to start making up stories, but that several players within the Cowboys locker room are growing tired of Owens' antics and are accusing him of doing things that he obviously believes are untrue. That's a story that Owens can not deny, and he would be better off trying to settle his problem with those players instead of a reporter trying to do his job.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/396/7/thumb/markazi_arash.jpg 118 CA Arash Markazi Los Angeles 3987 33121 <div class="photo_container image_right"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://img.fannation.com/upload/si_blog_post_images/owens1.jpg" alt="Owens1" width="298" height="375" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">Terrell Owens is avoiding his real issues with the Cowboys.<br />AP</div> </div> <p>I thought it couldn't get any worse than <strong>Terrell Owens</strong> calling out a reporter on national television and labeling him a liar about a dozen times during a televised post-game news conference.</p> <p>Unfortunately, I was wrong.</p> <p>A day after ESPN said that it stood by <strong>Ed Werder</strong> and his reports last week of growing dissension within the&nbsp;Dallas Cowboys,&nbsp;especially between <strong>Tony Romo</strong>, <strong>Jason Witten</strong> and Owens the network&nbsp;aired an "exclusive" interview between <strong>Stephen A. Smith</strong> and Owens.</p>