thanks for a great laugh.

He is not perfect. His pictorial muscles are undeveloped compared to the rest of his body.

For a guy who attempted suicide two seasons ago, he he very high self-esteem.

I don't think it was an actual suicide attempt, IIRC.

Jim - that might means the therapy is working.

For a guy who attempted suicide two seasons ago, he he very high self-esteem.

He denies it was a suicide attempt. I believe him.

He denies it was a suicide attempt. I believe him.

A slip with a blade or some other accident I can understand.

How, exactly, do you accidentally overdose on prescription pills?

The only way I can see that happening is having too many prescription bottles around and he took the wrong one at too high of a dosage. Which doesn't seem very likely for someone who cares so much about what goes into his system.

People have too much self-esteem.

Stupid In America

I loved him in Superbowl XXXIX.

"Well, my arms--they have this tendency to contract when there's a hard-hitting DB or safety on the opposing team. My coaches keep calling it 'alligator arms' but my agent says there's no such thing. Oh, and that connecting between my mouth and my brain housing group goes loopy sometimes."

Oh, sorry, I guess I got the non-edited version.

People knock T.O. for dropping passes, but I think that critique is a bit overblown The man's not Braylon Edwards, for goodness sake. Plus, whatever else you can say of him you can't denigrate his work ethic.

Ruthful,

The man's work ethic depends on how you define it. Sorry, but someone with a great work ethic and T.O.'s athletic gifts would not A. blow up every locker room he's been a part of and B. not be capable of being taken out of his game by physical corners who can jam him at the line.

Put another way, in his prime there was only one corner who could stop Jerry Rice, and that was Deion Sanders. Others could contain him to varying degrees, but seldom if ever in big games. If Steve Young or Joe Montana had time to throw (another discussion for another time), Jerry Rice was nigh on unstoppable without double coverage, and if you went zone he regularly found the soft spots.

Bottom line: If T.O. came without his baggage, I'd agree that he's a pretty good receiver. The problem is, he comes with his own Sampsonite truck and has a tendency to disappear in games that he's really needed in or drop balls that he absolutely needs to catch. He'll help the Cowboys beat the teams they should beat, but he's never taken over a game and willed them to victory over teams they _had to_ beat during the playoffs like, say, Michael Irvin did.

Bunch of haters. I'll take him shooting off at the mouth any day over shooting himself in a club.

I don't think it's fair to compare him to Jerry Rice. With the exception of Chris Carter, and maybe Michael Irvin, I don't think that there's any recent wide receiver who approaches the level of Jerry Rice.

I agree that he can be an extremely negative influence on the locker room, e.g. in Philly, but on the other hand, there are very few truly great wideouts who don't come with huge downsides. There aren't too many Rod Smiths around the league.

Bunch of haters. I'll take him shooting off at the mouth any day over shooting himself in a club.

Buuuuuurn.

I think it's fair to make that comparison given that T.O. believes he should be the centerpiece of Dallas's offense and thus is implicitly making it himself.

IC, why do you even bring Plexiglass into this conversation. Mentioning the dim-witted Mr. Burress in the same sentence as T.O. is like talking about some relative's donkey in a discussion about thoroughbred horses--not only is it utterly inappropriate, it will make people wonder if your brains are addled.

He may not be TO but Burress is pretty good. But even aside from him, trouble making top-flight WRs are as much the norm than the exception in the league: Chad Johnson, Randy Moss, Braylon Edwards, Steve Smith, Santana Moss, Roy Williams.

I know you can argue that some of these guys are not elite but just consider the general point i'm making. Top WRs are cocky athletes that believe they make their teams better. While certain WRs are total team guys (Harrison, Fitzgerald), the rest will b*tch when they don't get the ball, including Jerry Rice. When Rice's wasn't getting the ball at the end of his career he complained as much as the next guy...

Rice complained at the end of his career because his mind still thought he could make the plays his body had no business trying--and everyone knew that but him.

To me, an elite WR doesn't have to b*tch for the ball because, hey, it's coming to him. Period. Prime example, once again, Michael Irvin. Rice in his prime. John Taylor in his prime. Hines Ward right now.

I think the problem with T.O. is that he has yet to totally take over a game his team _has to_ win. I'm willing to cut a guy some slack if he's, you know, actually won something--but the man's on his third stop and he's done what again? He b*tched and whined his way out of San Fran, Philadelphia _got to_ the Super Bowl without him then he blew their locker room up the next year, and now he's in Dallas undermining the coach. If the guy hung 150 yards and 3 TDs on someone in a playoff game, I could see that being okay--but he never has.

Irvin? The guy got to push off on every play! But Deion still owned him...

As for TO, he couldn't carry Anquan Boldin's jock.

As long as you didn't need him for run support, Deion owned everyone.