sort of angel. He's not. He never will be. But I do wonder what some Terrance Copper would have been fined had he been accused of such a cowardly act? Wonder what the fine would have been if this would have happened on some a mere Fox telecast with the No. 3 broadcast crew doing a regionally-televised game instead of the NFL Network's nationally-televised affair? Wonder if the NFL would have taken Hall's word for this had Owens not apologized Saturday night after the game on the league-owned post-game show, evidently at the time unaware of the seriousness of this charge?
Or so he now says.
"When it happened, we were jawing in each other's face, so it wasn't anything intentional," Owens said on Monday during the team's annual holiday visits to local children's hospitals. "I didn't intentionally spit in his face. He's trying to make it seem like more than what it was by saying I hauled off and spit in his face. I feel like if I spit in his face . . . somebody would've seen it."
No one did. No official. No cameraman. No, no one. T.O. come on, deny, deny, deny, because if they can't find the spit they must acquit.
Maybe Hall, the trash-talking, cheap-shot corner who woke up with excessive burn marks on his backside Sunday morning is considered some modern day George Washington. If that's the case, no sense even appealing, unless there is undeniable video evidence to reverse the fine.
Funny how this incident is so much different than the infamous one during the World Cup Final when Frenchman Zinedine Zidane violently head-butted Italy's Marco Materazzi after walking by, drawing an ejection. Well, the outcry then was the Italian must have said something to provoke Zidane, and it turned into an international incident, complete with lip readers being called in to analyze video tape.
As it turns out, Zidane says Materazzi called his sister a "terrorist" or something, which apparently was vicious enough to qualify his reaction. Hmmm, wonder if we need a spit reader here for verification.
Now Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells did not take this matter lightly here on Monday. While remaining stoic under interrogation since he already knew about T.O.'s fine before the NFL released the amount to the media, you could tell he was a tad exasperated about having to face even more questions about Owen's non-football activity.
"We don't condone that type of activity, that's for sure," Parcells said, and then followed up when the fine minutes later became public knowledge with, "I do think you see a lot of things in sports today you wish you didn't see," already having made reference to the Knicks-Nuggets brawl Sunday night.
And when pressed on the issue, Parcells put up the familiar stop sign: "I'm not going to talk anymore about it."
If only Owens would take the same stance.
Dream on.
Now the high and mighty media will continue to have a field day with this, screaming out about how Owens should have been suspended and how this is the most degrading act a player can pull. More Cowboys drama, especially this week, with the Cowboys playing the Eagles on NBC's nationally-televised Christmas Day game.
But hence, the gift of high drama.
Hey, this year's Cowboys, they wouldn't have it any other way. Come on, this has been their season. The drama kings, with Owens playing the lead role, with the opening act in training camp. We've had hamstrings and bike riding and broken bones and accidental overdoses and abandonment and returning to the scene of the crimes and quarterback change and free safety change and fullback change and kicker change and rumors of last coaching seasons and the beloved "sit-down" interviews.
On and on and on.
Shoot, I don't know, maybe this is good, because so far this Cowboys team has been as resilient as any in history. All this extraneous stuff seems to roll down their backs as if water on goose feathers, just as in the old days when there were holdouts and arrests and suspensions and head coaching changes and cuts and quarterback feuds with the head coach.
Maybe Bill is the reason, since he doesn't address all this mess much with the media. Maybe it's the character in the locker room, because none of T.O.'s nonsense seems
