Terrell Owens has always maintained that he was blindsided by the Dallas Cowboys releasing him after the 2008 season, and the six-time Pro Bowler thinks Jason Garrett had something to do with his dismissal.
In an interview with The Dallas Morning News this week, Owens hinted that he believes Garrett leaked information about him that lead to his release.
“There were some things that kind of swirled around right at the end of the 2009 season. I think everybody has heard that there was some rumbling going around, some whispers about me saying that Tony and Witten were drawing up plays, this and that,” Owens explained. “I understood where I was in my career and I wasn’t trying to be divisive in the locker room or anything like that.
“Once I got to Dallas, I felt like I had matured a little bit, I wanted to communicate with my head coaches, so if there was anything internal going on, we talked about it, even as a receiver group, whatever is said in that room, stays in that room. There were some things that were leaked out that were supposed to be in house from meetings that myself, Roy Williams and Patrick Crayton had with Jason Garrett. It just so happened, of the four of us — and maybe five of us with coach [Ray] Sherman — knowing about that meeting, things got leaked. That’s a shame because, of those four guys, outside of Garrett, I’ll put my life on it that none of them said anything.”
While he complained publicly about not getting the ball enough on more than one occasion during his career, Owens insists he was more concerned about the ball going to the right place in Dallas. Perhaps Garrett, who was the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator at the time, became annoyed with T.O. questioning his playcalling — even if it was behind closed doors.
Owens had a reputation for being a headache in the locker room. Some of that was probably unfair, while a lot of it was warranted. Believe it or not, T.O. is still defending himself over it (video here) more than five years after appearing in his last NFL game.
We’ll never know if Garrett was to blame for Owens being run out of Dallas, but we do know that hardly anyone will blame the now-head coach for T.O.’s career coming unraveled.
