T.O. Contract Proposal and Debate

Who would have thought that one phone call to a Boston radio station to promote his show would put Terrell Owens back in the headlines? After he commented that he would love to catch passes from Tom Brady and would take less money from New England to do so, NFL pundits have begun the What if? talk of T.O. to the Pats. Over at the Patriots official website, two Patriots Football Weekly writers took opposite sides of the debate as to whether the Pats should sign T.O.. They are also running a poll where fans can vote on whether the Pats should sign Owens, similar to the poll being run on this site to the right of the page. However, the results over at the Pats website is drastically different than the ones here so far. At patriots.com, fans are voting in favor of T.O. 70% to 30%, whereas here at Musket Fire fans are 60-40 against Terrell Owens. The poll here is open through Sunday so if you haven’t voted yet, go ahead and do so.

Pat Kirwan from NFL.com took it one step further and tried to put together a contract he felt was fair to a team and to Owens. Kirwan’s contract proposal is based primarily on performance incentives that Owens would have to reach that mirror what he has actually done on the field the past few seasons. The proposal makes sense and protects the potential team from getting a less-than-T.O., T.O.. He breaks the two-year deal down into three phases, which work as follows:

Phase One:
$150,000 — 50 receptions
$150,000 — 850 yards
$150,000 — Six touchdowns
$150,000 — 14 yards per catch (minimum 40 receptions)
$150,000 — If he starts 10 games
If he hits all five of these incentives he earns another $750,000.

Phase Two:
$250,000 — 60 receptions
$250,000 — 940 yards
$250,000 — Eight touchdowns
$250,000 — 15 yards per catch (minimum 50 receptions)
$250,000 — If he starts 12 games

Phase Three:
$500,000 — 70 receptions
$500,000 — 1,100 yards
$500,000 — 10 touchdowns
$500,000 — 16 yards per catch (minimum 60 receptions)
$500,000 — If he starts 14 games

Not bad, but I highly doubt that T.O. would sign a deal like this that doesn’t offer some big guaranteed money. Can I do any better? Sure. Follow the jump to see my contract proposal to Owens.

$0 for 0 years! Thanks, but no thanks. Owens isn’t worth the potential problems that he can bring into a locker room, especially one that is in the process of being cleaned out and re-tooled. The only way that I would consider Owens was if there was a major rash of injuries at the wide receiver position. At this point, he’s just not worth it. True, he did not make a stink at his last stop in Buffalo, but New England is a much higher-profile team and people expect the Patriots to win. The Boston media can be ruthless and they’ll just be waiting to pounce at the first sign of something askew. New England is simple not the place for Terrell Owens.