Owens Lands in Buffalo

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Well, we didn't have to wait long to find out who was willing to pay for Terrell Owens' services as a wide receiver.

The Buffalo Bills signed him today, making Owens' tenure on the unemployment line one of the shortest — if not the shortest — of the current recession. The Bills gave him a one-year, $6.5 million contract. Not bad for a 35-year-old wide receiver.

I must admit, I wasn't sure what to think when I heard the news. I had lunch today with an old friend, and we talked about Owens, who had just signed with the Bills within the hour. I observed that Owens loves atmospheres where he can get a lot of media attention, like San Francisco, Philadelphia and Dallas — and there just isn't much media in Buffalo.

Of course, the media will follow Owens to Buffalo and, as long as he and the Bills are winning, the media will stay on the story. But if Buffalo reverts to form and starts losing games in bunches, the media will leave Buffalo rapidly. Who wants to hang around upstate New York with winter starting to move in to cover a football team that isn't going to the playoffs — again?

Clark Judge of CBS Sports thinks Owens and the Bills are a bad match. "Owens joined a team that makes less sense for him than he does for it," Judge writes, "and we're left with one inescapable conclusion: There just wasn't a market for the guy."

Ross Tucker of Sports Illustrated thinks the one-year deal makes sense. Owens typically behaves himself in the first year with any team, and coach Dick Jauron faces "likely his last year in Buffalo" unless he can produce a winner.

Nevertheless, Tucker wonders, "how is T.O.'s flash gonna play in blue-collar Buffalo? I mean, picturing T.O. in Buffalo is kind of like imagining the Queen of England at a monster truck show. Just doesn't seem to fit."

Clearly, Peter King writes for Sports Illustrated, the Bills think Owens is worth the risk.

And he agrees that Owens' history is an argument that favors the one-year deal. "One year is smart," he writes. "More than that, history tells us, is stupid."

Time will tell if the Bills are smart or stupid.

And, while we're waiting for the answer to that one, remember what Forrest Gump said.

"Stupid is as stupid does."

Split Decision on Terrell Owens

Considering his track record as "clubhouse cancer," the media reaction to the Dallas Cowboys' decision to cut Terrell Owens this week has been surprisingly mixed.

Initially, the Dallas media seemed to agree that cutting Owens was the best, if not the only, thing to do.

Writing in the Dallas Morning News, Jean-Jacques Taylor said releasing Owens "had to be done."

Jennifer Floyd Engel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram said the Cowboys are "far less radioactive" without Owens. His departure, she said, "makes them a team. Period."

And Jim Reeves of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram agreed with his colleague.

"Owens sows controversy like a Kansas farmer sows wheat," Reeves wrote. "He has made three stops in the NFL ... and departed each one in a cloud of unhappiness and internal backbiting."

Even so, it wasn't long before speculation began on where Owens will wind up.

While Jason Cole wrote, for Yahoo! Sports, that the Cowboys' offense will be better without Owens, Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman wrote that releasing the "gifted if occasionally troubled wideout" won't cure what ails the Cowboys.

It was, Bohls wrote, a "colossally stupid move."

Steve Rosenbloom writes, for the Chicago Tribune, that the Bears should pursue Owens. Newsday's Bob Glauber suggests that the Giants should enter the bidding war. Others have suggested that the Vikings, Dolphins, Patriots, Chiefs, Raiders — even the Super Bowl champion Steelers — might enter the fray as well.

Owens' agent, Drew Rosenhaus, didn't indicate which team was the front-runner for Owens' services, but he said, in a text message today, that he expects to have a deal in place by late next week.

I have to wonder if Owens is all that valuable now. He is in his mid-30s, which is getting a little old for a wide receiver in the NFL.

But it seems that, as long as he wants to play, there will be someone who is willing to pay.

So I feel confident in saying this — we haven't heard the last from Terrell Owens.