Sooner Eclipse
7/21/2006, 11:50 PM
I'd like to hear what he really thinks of TO. Lee Roy is too gracious to say what he really thinks in public.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/columnists/orl-whitley2006jul20,0,2706835.column?coll=orl-sports-col
Old-school guy like Selmon can't understand T.O.
Published July 20, 2006
A book has just come out, and it isn't on Lee Roy Selmon's summer reading list. It's nothing personal, he just doesn't like the author's style.
"We were more old-school," Selmon said.
The first hint is his use of the word "We." You won't see it much in the 242 pages of T.O.
For $25, you do learn about the great love of Terrell Owens' life, Terrell Owens.
Based on reviews and the media blitz he's on, Owens was apparently the unsung hero in the Philadelphia story. He tried to make peace, but Donovan McNabb wouldn't go along.
There's plenty of blame to go around, though judging from the arbitrator's report, Owens deserves most of it. Unless you consider skipping camp, refusing to talk to coaches and sleeping through meetings the kind of behavior that warrants a raise.
Owens did. His book is basically "T.O. For Dummies" -- a look inside the mind of the modern diva-athlete.
Whoever was at fault in Philly, it's apparent McNabb and Owens couldn't get along, and they let their personal differences sink a season.
It just doesn't make sense to an Old School guy.
"You let personal things stay on the sideline," Selmon said. "If you're a team player, the team will get accolades and you'll get accolades."
Few players have ever gotten as many accolades as Selmon. He was an Oklahoma Sooners legend, Tampa Bay's first draft pick, a Pro Football Hall of Famer.
If only he'd have cut a rap CD, Selmon really would have been somebody.
"To the haters that said I'm not going to get my money, I'm laughing in your face."
So raps T.O., reveling in the fact Jerry Jones welcomed Owens' ego to Dallas. T.O.'s whole goal was to get a bigger contract, so the Cowboys' $25 million validated his every mutinous move.
Selmon is also a fund-raiser, only he does it for the University of South Florida. He never has said a bad word about anyone and wasn't out to criticize Owens. He just sees T.O. as the product of the times.
By the time a player today turns 18, he's seen 592,000 chest-beating highlights on SportsCenter. Thousands of adults have fawned over him. The entitlement mentality leads to a new concept of teamwork:
If I'm happy, I'll perform and the team will benefit. If I'm not happy, the team will suffer. So it's the team's duty to keep me happy.
If only T.O. had spent a little time in Eufala.
It's the nowhere place in Oklahoma where Selmon learned his definition of teamwork. He was the youngest of nine children. Their daddy was a sharecropper who couldn't afford a tractor to work the 160 acres he rented.
Who needed a tractor when there was Lee Roy and Lucious and Dewey?
"We discovered we'd get more done working as a team than individually," Selmon said. "The work required us to come together."
There were hogs to slop and hay to bale and cows to milk. The work began before sunup and didn't end till dinner.
Their house had no running water or air-conditioning, and there sure wasn't much money. But it was rich with love and lessons that would last a lifetime.
It just seems like another lifetime.
"I don't know if we'll ever get it back," Selmon said.
His family eventually moved away from Eufala. The little house burned down in 1992. What went on there still lives in Selmon.
Too bad he never wrote a book. Now that would be one worth reading.
David Whitley can be reached at [email protected].
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/columnists/orl-whitley2006jul20,0,2706835.column?coll=orl-sports-col
Old-school guy like Selmon can't understand T.O.
Published July 20, 2006
A book has just come out, and it isn't on Lee Roy Selmon's summer reading list. It's nothing personal, he just doesn't like the author's style.
"We were more old-school," Selmon said.
The first hint is his use of the word "We." You won't see it much in the 242 pages of T.O.
For $25, you do learn about the great love of Terrell Owens' life, Terrell Owens.
Based on reviews and the media blitz he's on, Owens was apparently the unsung hero in the Philadelphia story. He tried to make peace, but Donovan McNabb wouldn't go along.
There's plenty of blame to go around, though judging from the arbitrator's report, Owens deserves most of it. Unless you consider skipping camp, refusing to talk to coaches and sleeping through meetings the kind of behavior that warrants a raise.
Owens did. His book is basically "T.O. For Dummies" -- a look inside the mind of the modern diva-athlete.
Whoever was at fault in Philly, it's apparent McNabb and Owens couldn't get along, and they let their personal differences sink a season.
It just doesn't make sense to an Old School guy.
"You let personal things stay on the sideline," Selmon said. "If you're a team player, the team will get accolades and you'll get accolades."
Few players have ever gotten as many accolades as Selmon. He was an Oklahoma Sooners legend, Tampa Bay's first draft pick, a Pro Football Hall of Famer.
If only he'd have cut a rap CD, Selmon really would have been somebody.
"To the haters that said I'm not going to get my money, I'm laughing in your face."
So raps T.O., reveling in the fact Jerry Jones welcomed Owens' ego to Dallas. T.O.'s whole goal was to get a bigger contract, so the Cowboys' $25 million validated his every mutinous move.
Selmon is also a fund-raiser, only he does it for the University of South Florida. He never has said a bad word about anyone and wasn't out to criticize Owens. He just sees T.O. as the product of the times.
By the time a player today turns 18, he's seen 592,000 chest-beating highlights on SportsCenter. Thousands of adults have fawned over him. The entitlement mentality leads to a new concept of teamwork:
If I'm happy, I'll perform and the team will benefit. If I'm not happy, the team will suffer. So it's the team's duty to keep me happy.
If only T.O. had spent a little time in Eufala.
It's the nowhere place in Oklahoma where Selmon learned his definition of teamwork. He was the youngest of nine children. Their daddy was a sharecropper who couldn't afford a tractor to work the 160 acres he rented.
Who needed a tractor when there was Lee Roy and Lucious and Dewey?
"We discovered we'd get more done working as a team than individually," Selmon said. "The work required us to come together."
There were hogs to slop and hay to bale and cows to milk. The work began before sunup and didn't end till dinner.
Their house had no running water or air-conditioning, and there sure wasn't much money. But it was rich with love and lessons that would last a lifetime.
It just seems like another lifetime.
"I don't know if we'll ever get it back," Selmon said.
His family eventually moved away from Eufala. The little house burned down in 1992. What went on there still lives in Selmon.
Too bad he never wrote a book. Now that would be one worth reading.
David Whitley can be reached at [email protected].