According to a report by Yahoo! Sports columnist Michael Silver, the real reason why Terrell Owens was jettison in Dallas was because the team didn’t think quarterback Tony Romo could be a leader with T.O. in the locker room.

Yes, it has plenty to do with Tony Romo(notes). Absolutely, Owens’ penchant for being a major pain in the ass played a role. And, as most of us have suspected, this did come down to his effect on team chemistry. Oddly enough, however, T.O.’s popularity in the Cowboys’ locker room is precisely why he was asked to clear out his belongings.

The bottom line, team executive vice president Stephen Jones said Thursday, is that he and his father came to this conclusion: For the team’s highly paid quarterback to become a truly influential leader, the big man on campus had to be jettisoned.

“It’s hard to take over leadership when you’ve got a strong personality like Terrell,� Jones said.

“If you look back at our old teams [from the 1990s], a lot of people would say maybe Michael [Irvin] was the leader. Then you might say, ‘He was a receiver. What about Troy [Aikman]? He was the quarterback. Wasn’t he the leader?’ And the answer is, yeah, Troy was a leader. But if Michael wasn’t supportive of him, Troy would’ve had problems.

“A lot of our players thought the world of Terrell – they still do. They loved the way he prepared and how hard he played, and everybody respected his skills and what he’d done in the league. And with him here, I think he was always going to carry that kind of weight.�

What must be frustrating for the Cowboys is that, as the article notes, T.O. is a hard worker. As a football player, it’s hard to find someone who works harder at the craft than Owens. Don’t forget, we’re not talking about a young player here – Owens is 35-years old. He’s at an age where most receivers are lucky to find a role as a slot receiver and T.O. is still a viable No. 1.

But the problem is that when things go from great to bad, Owens turns into a cockroach and invests the locker room. He simply can’t lead when it matters most and worse yet, he creates a hurdle that his teammates must overcome. It would be one thing if he couldn’t lead. It’s quite another when he becomes a distraction for others like Romo, who eventually need to be leaders when things go bad.

Either way, T.O. is gone and Romo is out of excuses. He’s already proven that he’s a good quarterback – now he has to show that he’s a great quarterback. It’s his team and he has to grasp the opportunity that’s in front of him.

Now that Terrell Owens is in Buffalo, he’s putting what happened in Dallas behind him and moving on.

Just kidding – he’s making sure that everyone knows he wasn’t to blame for his release in the Big D.

Via Rotoworld:

Terrell Owens is blaming Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and quarterback Tony Romo for running him out of Dallas.

Answering a fan who said he was unhappy that T.O. left Dallas, Owens tweeted: “Neither ws i, blame the OC & romo!! but i’m happy 2 b where i am but i miss the other guys tht were & r true teammates!!”

That’s pretty impressive that T.O. managed to blame both Jason Garrett (the “OC� Owens’ is referring to in his tweet) and Tony Romo in the characters allotted to send a tweet. And might I add, I think it’s great that we’ve become a nation that has found a way to shrink the written word down to only letters to convey a message. Only in today’s society can we look at “ws i� and know that the person writing the message meant “was I.� Awesome.

Getting back on topic, I wouldn’t be totally surprised if both Garrett and Romo did play a part in T.O.’s demise in Dallas. But Owens didn’t help himself by constantly trying to disrupt the chemistry in the locker room and bitching at Garrett that he wasn’t getting the ball enough. In the end, there were many factors that led to Owens getting the boot. But what’s great (and when I say great, I mean infuriating) about T.O. is that he never points the finger at himself. It’s always someone else’s fault.

Kirk Bohls of the Austin Statesman writes that releasing Terrell Owens was a colossally stupid move by owner Jerry Jones and the Cowboys.

Let’s recap this colossally stupid move.

Jones just cut his leading receiver and arguably his team’s best offensive weapon, who put up 38 touchdowns in three seasons. (Sorry, Jason Witten doesn’t get in the end zone enough, and Roy Williams has not proven he can be a No. 1 receiver.)

Jones listened to the wrong people and, against his better judgment, sent packing a no-brainer Hall of Famer who should be picked up by the New York Giants to replace their other headache receiver, Plaxico Burress. (TO would get to play the Cowboys and Eagles four times a season, and unlike the G-man packing heat, Owens isn’t facing a suspension by the league or jail time.)

If Owens was a big problem for Dallas, he was problem No. 8. Or lower.

There are so many other things wrong with the Cowboys that any annoying distraction Owens brought to the locker room should fall way down the list of the reasons Dallas hasn’t won a playoff game since 1996.

Here are the Cowboys’ four biggest problem areas:

General manager.

Head coach.

Quarterback.

Offensive coordinator.

And those are just for starters.

Bohls is dead on the money when he says that the Cowboys have bigger issues than T.O., which is why Jerry Jones’ next moves are so pivotal. If he cuts a talent like T.O., but fails to address what else is wrong with Dallas (read Bohls entire piece for how many issues the Cowboys have), then it will be all for naught. It doesn’t make sense to get rid of one destruction force, but then doing nothing to fix the other issues.

Was releasing T.O. a “colossally stupid move�? I wouldn’t go that far. But I do agree that there are bigger issues at hand and if Jones doesn’t follow through with other changes then yes, releasing Owens would have been pointless.

Perhaps something we all overlooked when the Cowboys released wideout Terrell Owens a couple days ago is that now his agent Drew Rosenhaus is relevant again.

Rosenhaus apparently has no concerns about finding his client a job and lucky for us, he boastfully even put a time frame on T.O. being signed.

“These are several teams that are interested in signing Terrell,� Drew Rosenhaus told us Friday morning. “I have been in negotiations with these teams. I will not identify these teams at this time.�
So how quickly will this process unfold?

“Terrell and I expect to have a deal in place by the end of next week if not sooner,� Rosenhaus said.

Riiiight. I don’t doubt Rosenhaus feels that way, but it’s going to be a little tough when NFL teams are tripping over themselves to state publicly that they want nothing to do with the one-man destruction force that is T.O.

If you’re scoring at home, the Jaguars, Saints, Rams, Raiders, Chargers, Redskins, Titans, Ravens, Browns, Falcons, Vikings and Jets have all publicly stated that they want nothing to do with Owens. And when Al Davis and Daniel Snyder want nothing to do with a player, you know he’s going to have a hard time finding a job.

Rosenhaus certainly has his hands full because you know T.O. is going to want to go to a competitor. But at this point, maybe the agent should tell his client that if he wants to play, he’d take any deal that’s tossed his way. (I wrote that last sentence while laughing my ass off at the thought of Rosenhaus taking any deal offered to any of his clients.)

According to ESPN.com, the Cowboys will release wide receiver Terrell Owens.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones did not deny the team is discussing the possible release of Owens in late February.

“There are several decisions on our roster we have to look at,” Jones said at the time. “This is the time of year we do that. I’m not trying to be trite, but as you all know we’re evaluating players in college, we’re evaluating free agents and we’re evaluating our own roster. This is an ongoing thing, not any different than this time last year.”

The Cowboys paid Owens a $12 million signing bonus just last year, included as part of a new four-year, $34 million deal.

There has been talk since the end of the Cowboys’ 9-7 season, in which they missed the playoffs, that they would consider cutting Owens to improve locker room morale.

Wow. There possibility of the ‘Boys cutting Owens has always been there since the season ended, but just a couple months ago it appeared that Jerry Jones would hold onto the toxic wideout and roll the dice that he wouldn’t be a distraction next season.

All of the speculation that Terrell Owens won’t be a Cowboy next season might be a moot point after Dallas owner Jerry Jones recently suggested that his wideout will be back in Dallas in 2009.

“You and I both know that the one [player] you’re asking about all the time, if I gave you the answer that you want to hear, then you would have already had it,” Jones said. “So the fact you don’t have it ought to tell you something.”

Jones assumes most of the media members want Owens gone. With some, it’s pretty obvious. So is there any way to interpret Jones’ answer as meaning the Cowboys plan to cut Owens any time soon?
I don’t think so.

And does the optimism that bubbled out of Jones at different times Tuesday afternoon suggest this is a man about to take a $9.6 million salary cap hit to get rid of his best receiver?
I don’t think so.

Jones isn’t going to change his ways now. He’s always been an owner that marches to the beat of his own drummer and that means chemistry always takes a backseat to talent in terms of teams he runs. Jones knows he has a ton of talent, but it just needs to come together. He’s waited for that talent to come together for two years now and he might have to wait longer if he continues to ignore the internal problems that are going on in the Cowboys locker room.

Peter King of SI.com and Michael Lombardi of the National Football Post both believe that wideout Terrell Owens will not be a Cowboy next season.

Now, for the real news out of Dallas regarding Terrell Owens. Peter King wrote this yesterday in his Monday Morning QB, and I believe he is dead-on accurate. When, not if, is the real question everyone is asking about T.O. He will not be back, but the team is still deciding when to make the announcement of his termination or trade.

Maybe Jones can work a trade out to send Owens to the Raiders since they have a huge need at wideout and have never been afraid to take on a big challenge. This will be interesting to follow as it develops.

One can’t help but wonder if the Cowboys aren’t making moves for 2009, but perhaps 2010 when Jerry Jones hopes to land Bill Cowher or Mike Shanahan. Neither of those coaches would likely sign a contract with the ‘Boys knowing they would have to put up with T.O., so the team parts with him this year and fumigates the place for a season until one of those two are ready to coach again.

Regardless of what Jerry Jones and the Cowboys’ future plans are at head coach, it appears that Owens’ days in Dallas are numbered. And if they are, his situation in Dallas proves that having dysfunctional players on your roster will more than likely lead to destruction and desertion.

It appears that Terrell Owens will be the front and center of news this NFL offseason. In Jennifer Floyd Engel’s latest column for the Dallas Star-Telegram, Keyshawn Johnson and Cowboys’ offensive coordinator Jason Garrett sound off on the “poison pill� that is T.O.

Johnson also noted that current Cardinals and former Cowboys’ offensive coordinator Todd Haley could turn the culture at Valley Ranch.

“You know, Jen, why aren’t you touting Todd Haley for the job?” he asked. “He was the only one with the [guts] to tell Jerry ‘I really want this job but I can’t coach this team with this guy on it. And I don’t think you are going to win anything of any consequence with this guy on it.’ ”

This guy, of course, was Terrell Owens. And he and Haley were not exactly BFFs in their one and only season together as Cowboys under Big Bill.

T.O. vowed to “find the rats” with Haley being his prime suspect and blamed him for failing to use his considerable talent. Haley, a Big Bill disciple in every way, refused to cower and snapped right back which only further enraged perpetually touchy T.O.

Owner Jones did interview Haley, along with almost everybody else, when Bill Parcells left. Of course, Haley did not have a chance, bucking convention and saying what Jerry did not want to hear which is T.O. is the rat.

Now, Haley is the offensive coordinator of a team going to the Super Bowl and T.O. is whining about locker room rats again and how the offensive coordinator is to blame. And a few misguided souls actually believe this self-plagiarized rant with Haley being replaced by Jason Witten and Jason Garrett.
“What is obvious is you can’t keep Jason Garrett, T.O. and the coach,” Johnson said.

And almost as an exclamation point, The Red-headed Genius chimed in from the Senior Bowl where he answered a question about T.O. with a very read-between-the-line-ish “I certainly have a lot of respect for him as a player. And we’ll just leave it at that.”

My guess is JG thinks T.O. is going to be waived. No way his normally cautious self says what he said otherwise. Or else he figured out what Haley did two years ago which is you are not going to win anything of any consequence with this guy on your team. So better to jump from that doomed-to-fail ship.

The key to this entire situation is Jerry Jones. If he feels T.O. really is the cog holding the Cowboys back, then Owens will be jettisoned before next season. But Jones can’t part with Owens’ talent and that’s why everyone around T.O. (Parcells, Haley, etc.) are now elsewhere (and winning might I add).

It seems that Jones takes pride in gathering all of these dysfunctional characters, putting them all under one roof and trying to make it work. But eventually he’s going to have to realize that chemistry trumps talent in most cases and he might have to go more conventional route to build a winner.

Ed Werder of ESPN.com reported on Thursday that the Cowboys were entertaining the idea of releasing receiver Terrell Owens sometime this offseason. But T.O.’s agent Drew Rosenhaus thinks that idea is ridiculous.

Agent Drew Rosenhaus definitely isn’t sweating the speculation about the Cowboys cutting his most famous client. He completely dismissed the possibility that T.O. has cashed his final check from Jerry Jones.

“It’s not going to happen,” Rosenhaus said on WQAM Radio in Miami. “The reason why they got rid of Pacman is because Pacman has terrible off-the-field problems, and the guy just simply can’t play anymore. He’s just not that good.

“Terrell’s never had off-the-field problems, and he’s been one of the greatest players ever. And they just gave him a monster contract. I mean, they just gave him a huge extension before the season.

He’s not going anywhere.”

Rosenhaus might be right about T.O. returning to Valley Ranch. But T.O. and Pacman have more in common than Rosenhaus wants to admit, although you don’t have to worry about T.O. getting arrested.

Like Pacman, T.O.’s performance might not justify the distractions he creates anymore. That’s what the Cowboys front office needs to determine.

Rosenhaus makes good points but what else is an agent going to say? That there’s a major possibility one his clients isn’t wanted anymore? Not a chance.

In the end, I don’t think Jerry Jones would ever go through with releasing T.O. Jones has a new stadium ready to open and he needs players like Owens on the field to put butts in the seats. Plus Jones likes to take on semi-dysfunctional (or fully dysfunctional in the case of Pacman Jones) players and make them into winners. So Rosenhaus is probably right – Owens will be in a Cowboy uniform again next season.

According to Ed Werder of ESPN.com – who must have a little cot set up at Valley Ranch – the Cowboys are considering releasing receiver Terrell Owens so that the team will have better chemistry in the locker room next season.

“I think we all know that chemistry is the problem with this team more than the schemes or anything else,” a Cowboys source said. “Are we going to continue to allow talent to outweigh everything else in the decisions we make with players and putting the roster together? We’re like the Redskins used to be when they signed every player they wanted. There’s more to it than talent. It has to be more about the team.

“The big one [Owens] didn’t get discussed yet, but I’m sure it will and real hard.”

The Cowboys released twice-suspended cornerback Pacman Jones last week and Tank Johnson is expected to depart through free agency. Both decisions are at least partly related to the renewed emphasis on creating a different atmosphere in the locker room. The Cowboys began their ill-fated 2008 season with three players on the roster who had been suspended by the league or their previous teams — Jones, Johnson and Owens.

At least two sources believe that vice president Stephen Jones will attempt to convince his father that Owens should be finished with the Cowboys. But Jerry Jones just last year invested a $12 million signing bonus in Owens, which means there would be salary-cap fallout. In fact, Jerry Jones has suggested that there might be enough damage that the team would find it difficult to sign NFL sack leader DeMarcus Ware to a new contract.

“I think some of people want to just cut our losses and get rid of all those guys … T.O., Tank, Pacman,” another Cowboys source said. “But I really think Jerry likes the thrill of trying to make it all work.”

After what happened at the end of the season with the Tony Romo/Jason Witten/Terrell Owens saga, some people (mainly Owens) will read this and say, “There’s that Ed Werder again – making sh*t up.�

But think about it, Werder is in Dallas 24/7 reporting on the Cowboys for ESPN. I swear the guy is required to sleep on site just in case any story breaks and it’s not like he can go around stirring the pot with fictional stories because then nobody would talk to him. So anyone that thinks this is just Werder trying to get a quick headline needs to get a grip.

The possibility of Jerry Jones wanting to change the culture in the locker room is very real. He has a new stadium ready to open and despite having some of the best talent in the league every year, the Cowboys never win. If Jones really wants to make a change, parting with Owens might be the first step. It’ll be interesting to see how this story develops this offseason.