Tony, don't look now but ...

Uh-oh.

Terrell Owens is unhappy.

The Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Me doesn’t think he got the ball enough in Sunday’s Dallas loss to Washington, despite being thrown to 18 times. He not only vented to the press — he reportedly made his unhappiness known to quarterback Tony Romo, heretofore known as T.O.’s best friend.

Have I said “uh-oh” yet?

Owens has a history of throwing quarterbacks under the bus (see Garcia, Jeff and McNabb, Donovan and — wait? Do I hear an engine being started?)

Dallas coach Wade Phillips naturally downplayed any T.O. tension, much the same way Philadelphia coach Andy Reid did back when Owens was an Eagle.

Then Owens imploded. And the Eagles with him.

Uh-oh.


http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/football/cowboys/stories/093008dnspocowsider.14c1b5c.html

His Chief complaint

Poor Tony Gonzales.

As the game wound down Sunday in Arrowhead Stadium, the Chiefs star was only three yards short of setting the all-time receiving mark for a tight end, and his mean coaches wouldn’t call for a pass.

Why? Something about trying to win the game.

Seems as though the Chiefs had the lead and the ball and didn’t want to take a chance on an interception. How selfish can coaches get?

"I had my family out there. I wanted to do it in front of the fans, in a home game," Gonzalez said. "It would have been a great way to do it. I'm disappointed …”

Now, poor Tony will have to break the record on the road — not in front of his family and his adoring fans. Does his life suck or what?

Gonzales was so upset after the Chiefs beat the Broncos, he didn’t talk to the press, which must have been terribly disappointing to the ink-stained wretches. Monday he left a meeting with coach Herman Edwards still in a fit of pique.

Cheer up, Tony. There is still a way for you to hear the fans’ roar when you break the big record: Drop everything thrown your way this Sunday at Carolina, and wait for the Chiefs’ next game, which is at home. Of course, dropping passes would probably ensure a KC defeat against the Panthers, but what’s a loss for the team compared to your personal glory, anyway?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3617044

This week's Howard Cosell Award goes to ...

Give Torii Hunter credit for telling it like it is.

Major League home runs this season were at their lowest level since 1993. Why?

"I think the steroid testing has something to do with it," Hunter said. "If there were any guys who were taking it, they're not taking it anymore."

Not everyone is as upfront as the Angels centerfielder.

Miguel Cabrera, who led the American League in dingers with 37 (37!) said, "I think it's the bigger stadiums.”

Right.

Hunter teammate Mark Teixeira is blaming something else.

"I can feel the ball being a little softer,” he said. “I can feel the seams being a little raised and the leather not being as tight."

Right.

In the midst of the home-run binge, players who didn’t want to talk about steroids talked about how the ball was tighter and traveled farther. Now, a player who doesn’t want to talk about the absence of steroids talks about the ball being softer.

As I said, give Hunter credit.

Friday column: Bad cornerback — bad, bad, bad ...

It happens all the time.

An athlete at a big-time collegiate jock factory does something stupid. The coach is pressed by reporters to reveal if there will be consequences. The coach says “certainly,” then wriggles out of saying what those consequences are.

Southern California football coach Pete Carroll is the latest to take the Weasel Way.
Carroll said that yes, cornerback Shareece Wright would be disciplined for an incident that led to his being charged with felony resisting a police officer. And, Pete, that discipline is ...?

“When we have situations and issues to deal with, we always do so internally,” Carroll said.

Oh.

We know the discipline won’t involve any loss of playing time, because Carroll said early in the week that if the injured Wright was medically cleared to play (turns out he wasn’t) he’d be on the field Thursday night.

Since Pete won’t tell us what the discipline is, we’re free to speculate. My guess is that Wright will be hit sharply on the helmet with a rolled-up newspaper.

***
On the other hand, in the Wright incident no one at USC has lied — as far as we know — which distinguishes the Trojans from many athletes who ply their trade in the National Basketball Association.
In just the last few weeks we’ve had:
* Rookies Darrell Arthur and Mario Chalmers deny smoking marijuana despite enough apparent reefer madness to set off a hotel-room smoke alarm.

* Another first-year player, Michael Beasley, originally deny involvement in the same pot incident before copping to the truth.

* Golden State guard Monta Ellis lying to his team about how he suffered a serious ankle injury months after signing a six-year, $66 million contract extension.

* And no list of NBA prevaricators should exclude O.J. Mayo, who in May denied receiving improper benefits from an agent in high school and college.

Last month, the agent, Calvin Andrews, was suspended for a year by the NBA Players Association for unspecified recruiting improprieties regarding guess who? — Mayo — which means somebody doesn’t believe him.

Since that action, Mayo, smartly, has made himself unavailable to reporters.

***
Ah, if only Josh Howard could learn to make himself unavailable for comment.
Howard, who in April felt the need to profess his love for cannabis, in July at a charity flag-football game looked into a cell-phone camera and said, “ ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ is going on. I don’t even celebrate that shit. I’m black.” Howard then disparaged America’s first serious African American presidential candidate.

I don’t think even Pete Carroll would think a sharp rap with a rolled-up newspaper is sufficient for Howard; I suggest a muzzle.

Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.

Here's a move Astaire never made

A Google search of the words “dancing” and “romantic” will bring up a Web site with this sentence: “With the dance craze sweeping the nation, learn how dancing can improve your romantic relationships.”

Perhaps that’s what DeAngelo Wilkinson was trying to do last month at an Old Town bar in Fort Collins, Colo.

Wilkinson, 20, a cornerback for Colorado State, was dancing with a woman, when, according to milady, Wilkinson reached down and grabbed her crotch.

The romance of that particular move eluded the woman, who yelled at Wilkinson, leading a bystander to grab him and hold him for the bar’s bouncers. When they arrived and the bystander released Wilkinson, the player reportedly took the opportunity to hit the man in the face, breaking his nose in seven places, police said.

Wilkinson has been charged with assault and the Rams have suspended him indefinitely.

If you’re wondering (and you’re probably not — at least not very hard), police say yes, Wilkinson was drunk.

Think about it, Hank

So.

Baby Boss, aka Hank Steinbrenner, who essentially canned Joe Torre as Yankees manager, claims he’s happy his former skipper is on the verge of winning the NL West with the L.A. Dodgers. But he’s not so happy he can’t take a shot at Torre’s new team.

Said Steinbrenner, whose team is not playoff bound — for the first time in 14 years: “… you have to compare the divisions and the competition. What if the Yankees finish the season with more wins than the Dodgers, but the Dodgers make the playoffs? Does that make the Dodgers a better team? No."

Good, Hank. Now we have a question: Thanks to you, Torre left one team — the Yankees — after last season and joined another: the Dodgers. Which team got better this year — and which team got worse?

How to screw up your life, Part I

A while back, Maurice Simmons would have seemed to have had the world by the tail. A highly recruited linebacker at Compton Dominguez High near L.A., he was given a scholarship to football power USC, following the path of his brother, who played for the Trojans in 2002-03.

So why did Simmons help Lamont Lee Hall rob a man at gunpoint on a Compton street? Considering the widespread gang influence in Compton, perhaps before heading off to school he was trying to “keep it real.”

Wednesday, a Compton judge demonstrated another way to “keep it real,” sentencing Simmons — convicted of felony robbery, assault with a firearm and the misdemeanor of allowing someone to bring a gun into his car — to four years in prison. His buddy, the one who pointed the gun, got 12.

Simmons’ attorney described the young man as “stunned.” After all, a probation officer had recommended probation Simmons, citing his football potential. Note that — not citing his work in or his value to the community, not citing his remorse or desire to try to make it right with the victim. Citing his football potential.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-spw-simmons25-2008sep25,0,3673415.story