Nobody loves TO like TO loves TO (Sally Jenkins, WaPo)

[northzax]

Nobody Loves T.O. Like T.O. Loves T.O.
By Sally Jenkins

Thursday, November 10, 2005; Page E01

Terrell Owens is, plainly, a narcissist. He can't even apologize to the Philadelphia Eagles without talking about himself. The Eagles don't buy his apology and have concluded that he should play football somewhere else. Better yet, maybe he should be self-employed.

...

The Eagles are perfectly right to get rid of Owens, as any expert in workplace dynamics knows. "He's useless to them," said Richard Boyatzis, an author for the Harvard Business School Press, and a former CEO who is professor of organizational behavior at Case Western Reserve University. It's tempting to look at Owens's receiving statistics and rippling physique, at his talent, energy and abilities, and say that surely the 4-4 Eagles are better off with him than without him. But that would be to underestimate the problem that is Terrell Owens. "He's not really a great player," Boyatzis said. "He's technically proficient. But great players can play with others." Owens can't get along with anybody. And while that may not be a contractual violation or a crime, it's intolerable.

Terms like "chemistry" and the saying, "There is no 'I' in team" are idiotically vague bromides. But Owens's unbalanced ego has a very specific and diagnosable effect on others. Narcissistic behavior in the workplace has been studied before, and it's often discussed in terms of "malignancy" for a good reason, because it has a tendency to infect entire buildings. Management experts and prosecutors alike have theorized that corporate narcissism was at least partly responsible for the abuses at Tyco, WorldCom and Enron....

READ THE REST at the Washington Post it is a great explanation, from a team perspective, of what happened.

[GOPisEvil]

1. "I love me some me." - Terrell Owens, while "mic'ed up" on NFL Films.

By the way, this was filmed back when he was with the 49ers. It's not like he said it once either. He said it repeatedly.

[friesianrider]

2. Everyone's a psychologist...

:eyes:

[northzax]

3. including the psychologists

used as sources in the column. but hey, what would organizational psyche people know about organizations?

[friesianrider]

4. Yeah, because they spent enough time with him to diagnose him, right?

No psychologist worth their salt would diagnose someone as narcissistic or whatever without seeing the patient several times first. Frankly, these people don't know any more about what motivates him to do what he does than you do. They're just giving their opinions baed on the little amount they know/have heard about him, and you know what they say about opinions, just like assholes, everybody's got one. Not convinced here.

All I see is a bunch of sports writers and bored internet cruisers mouthing off. Funny how someone so "mentally disturbed" and worthless has so many people discussing him nonstop and 'round the clock.

Sounds like jealousy and misunderstanding to me.

[northzax]

5. I guess the whole word is jealous and misunderstanding, huh?

since the only person I can find, besides you, who thinks TO is being treated unfairly is Michael Irvin.

The players want to win, which explains the torrent of noise coming from the Eagles' locker room asking for reinstatement. why just yesterday, the entire team signed a petition asking management to reinstate him. And then they said that they refused to play a game while a beloved teammate was being treated so unfairly.

oh wait, that didn't happen? huh.

oh, and by the way, are you stalking me this time, or didi you just find something you wanted to respond to?

[friesianrider]

6. Nope, just find the things you say utterly absurd.

Edit: Nevermind, you aren't worth it.

[MrSlayer]

10. Do you live in Philly?

Every player (except McNabb obviously) that has been on every sports talk show here (and there are a ton of them) has said that they have no idea what happened and that they'd take him back. They are baffled by it because he really didn't do anything serious. Everyone in the media and the outside fans seem to think he was feuding with all the players and everyone hated him when in fact that is false. The whole team hangs out together at Jevon Kearse's house on Monday Nights to watch the game and D-Mac and T.O. were always there together and got along fine, joking around and all. I'm beginning to wonder if it wasn't Lurie and upper management who were really the ones offended and who caused this to happen. Every time he said something prior to this he never mentioned the organization, it was always McNabb. This particular time he dissed the organization for not recognizing his 100th receiving TD against San Diego and all of a sudden he has to go. I really think that T.O., by attacking McNabb, was taking jabs at them and not really dissing Donovan. It was just being a pain in the ass to try and prod them to pay him more which I think they should have done. As a fan it's very disheartening, I pay a lot of money for my tickets and I want to see the best players play. The Eagles hadn't had a star receiver since the mid 80's before T.O. came and last year was the most exciting year we've had offensively ever.


You say the players didn't all decide not to play in T.O.'s favor and that's true. You know they aren't going to do that. What is also true is that you did not see one player come screaming to Donovan's aid in the press or on any shows either.

[realisticphish]

7. they aren't diagnosing

a narcissistic disorder, they're just saying he is exhibiting narcissistic BEHAVIOR, which is undeniable.

[jakefrep]

8. If this is the worst thing TO ever does...

...he's still a better man than many in the penal colony that is the NFL.

I don't understand why this is such a big deal.

[friesianrider]

9. Well said.