This Is Owens's Best Behavior?

Dallas Cowboys Coach Bill Parcells has said regularly in recent weeks that if there was going to be a controversy involving his new wide receiver, Terrell Owens, it wasn't going to start with him. Parcells has done all he could, at least publicly, to strike an open-minded, conciliatory tone toward Owens.

But Owens continues to push.

According to a report in today's Dallas Morning News, the Cowboys fined Owens $9,500 for missing a team meeting and a rehabilitation session and being late to an offensive meeting Friday. That came at a time when Owens had missed 19 of the club's 31 practices since training camp opened, and all three of the team's exhibition games, because of an ailing hamstring muscle. Owens has undergone two MRI exams that have revealed no serious damage, but he said he aggravated his injury because his number of practice-field snaps wasn't closely monitored when he tried to resume practicing after first getting hurt.

When Owens signed a three-year, $25 million contract with the Cowboys in March just after being released by the Philadelphia Eagles, he said all the right things about having learned from his past transgressions in Philadelphia and being certain there would be no problems co-existing with Parcells. Other Cowboys players said they were sure that what had happened with Owens in Philadelphia wouldn't be repeated in Dallas.

Perhaps nothing that has transpired during Owens's Cowboys tenure is all that serious yet. Perhaps nothing has been done to his relationship with Parcells or the organization that can't be repaired. But he's yet to even suit up for a preseason game for his team, and this is a time when he's supposed to be on his very best behavior. Even his supporters can't believe that his stay with the Cowboys is off to a particularly promising start.

By Mark Maske |  August 27, 2006; 9:16 PM ET  | Category:  Cowboys
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