OWENS UP FOR SHOT WITH CFL
Esks hold his rights, but other teams are better fits
We are told Terrell Owens wants to play professional football so badly, at age 44 and more than eight years after his last game, he is willing to sign with a team in the CFL.
In hopes, of course, of setting the stage for a return to the NFL.
“He wants to play in the NFL again,” said Jason Staroszik, an Edmonton-based player agent who is representing Owens in his CFL affairs. “He feels like he still has what it takes to play a couple years. But if the NFL isn’t an option for him, this is the next best option and he is ready and willing to come play here. There’s no hemming and hawing about it. He wants to play pro football still.”
What we aren’t being told is why the CFL team currently holding his negotiation list rights is the Edmonton Eskimos. Because the idea of Owens playing for them makes even less sense than a 44-year-old man wanting to risk bodily injury in a brutal contact sport.
They put him on their 45-man negotiation list almost a month ago and as of Tuesday afternoon, still hadn’t made him a contract offer. In the case of a college kid, that’s hardly unusual, as they need time to develop their skills and suss out their pro prospects.
But the clock is ticking so loudly on Owens that you almost can’t hear him speak anymore. Almost.
“The guy is 44 years old. … You put a guy like him on your neg list, it’s either because you want to sign him right now or you saw the same thing everybody else did and thought maybe another team is going to put him on their neg list, why don’t I try to be the first one to do it?” said Staroszik, referring to a video of Owens running the 40-yard dash in about 4.4 seconds on June 18. The Eskimos reportedly added Owens to their neg list a day later.
“That way I hold his rights and have trading options now. Those are two ways I look at it. I think maybe the second is the truer one of the two just because there hasn’t been a contract offer made and they’ve had him on the neg list for how many weeks now?”
The silence was so deafening for so long that Staroszik called the CFL head office last week to trigger the 10-day window in which the Eskimos are required to either offer Owens a contract or remove him from their neg list. They can also trade his rights to another CFL team.
That window closes on July 24. Staroszik still expects an offer from the Eskimos, but it’s far more likely to be the league minimum of $54,000 than anything that would attract Owens’ attention. The Eskimos would retain his neg list rights for a year and not have to negotiate further.
“I’m not expecting the offer they give me to be a serious one that they expect me to take to Terrell,” said Staroszik. “But if they do, then that will show they are serious and they want him here. It’s hard for me to see just because of the American receivers Edmonton has right now. I don’t see them being in the position of needing him. There are other teams around the league that could use an American receiver and could use a name like T.O. to put some butts in some seats, you know?”
Former CFL receiver Nik Lewis seems to think the East Division is the more likely destination for Owens.
“I know for a fact that T.O. has had interest in playing in the CFL a few times before. I believe he invoked Edmonton to get off the neg list. I believe he wants to play on the east coast,” Lewis tweeted on Monday night.
The Eskimos have three of the league’s top four receivers in Duke Williams, Derel Walker and Kenny Stafford. There’s also Vidal Hazelton and Bryant Mitchell to consider. Williams and Walker are secure at the top of the pecking order, but if you bring in Owens, the rest ought to take that as a slap in the face. And that’s not a game worth playing if you’re GM Brock Sunderland.
The Eskimos wouldn’t make Sunderland available on Tuesday to talk about Owens.
I know for a fact that T.O. has had interest in playing in the CFL a few times before.