Thursday, January 20, 2005
This entry is a mini-review for Terell Owens' autobiography, "Catch This." I'll still do my standard 10 point scale, but now will introduce a witty little spinoff of the star system as seen below which is dedicated to the awesomness of TO. This will in no way cause bias towards my final score towards the book. :D
It's still hard to believe Terrell Owens (TO) has played for 9 seasons in the NFL already. And what an intense nine years it has been. TO new autobiography "Catch This" cover his entire career from growing up in the not-so-humble deep south, to his college days at UTC, and his entire career in the 49ers organization, and up until he officially became an Eagle in the 2004 offseason. There are some moments where his cockiness does go a little bit too far, but for the most part it is still an enjoyable read for any TO fan or serious football fans to learn the story of the one of the greatest receivers that's still playing the game today.
TO's story picks up from his youth growing up in Alabama. Unlike other sports autobiographies (or biographies/w ghost writers, however you want to view it), TO doesn't drag endlessly about all the little and unimportant details, and his entire childhood up until before he got recruited to UTC is ummed up in five chapters that end up clocking in at 26 pages. Doesn't seem like a whole heck of a lot, but in that period TO seems to get all the need-to-know information out of the way and actually make it interesting. Funny thing about this period is near the end when Owens talks about being so happy when after he signed his recruiting papers thinking he signed for the division 1A Tennessee Volunteers, then to unfortunately find out it was actually its inferior alternative, the 1-AA University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.
TO college days was an interesting 23 read. Football wasn't even that big of a sport at his hometown school, so even after big games he never was that popular around campus. In college he played both basketball and football. Throughout the book TO keeps reminding us why he loves basketball more, saying you're allowed to express yourself naturally on the court without worrying about the dozens of fines we all remembering him receiving from the NFL. Leading up into the draft I was surprised to learn that TO was hoping the Packers would draft him instead of the 49ers.
His NFL career overview I had some mixed feelings on. It was an incredibly interesting reading up on his first year in the league and how he was very-shy and nickeled and dimed his living expenses by eating at cheap fast food restaurants almost daily. As a matter of fact, he said his first year in the league the only people in Cali who really knew him were fast food employees. His whole first year is a great read where he goes into depth on how Steve Young helped him to step up to the big time and leading him to his first big play games.
He goes on about his 49ers career for almost the rest of the book. TO says his favorite moment in the NFL is not the Sharpie, or Dallas TD celebrations, but when he made a spectacular catch from Steve Young that helped the 49ers defeat the Packers in the 1998 season playoffs. He says that catch is what helped launch him to the next level.
TO goes into depth about his early years as Niner, but glosses over some I was pretty curious about, such as their 4-12 season in 1999. It would have been good to know how TO felt about the loss of Steve Young due to a concussion and how disastrous that season ended up being as a result. He goes into great detail about the 2 most controversial TD celebrations for him, one being his posing in the middle of the star logo at the Dallas Cowboys stadium, and his even more famous celebration that became known worldwide as "Sharpie." Obviously, he hated all the heat he got around the league from what he did, and big props to TO for going outright and labeling the NFL the "No Fun League" that I and a large other percentage of NFL fans think of it right now as.
However, I really don't believe how he justifies some of his popular antics. Here is how he explains why he posed on the Dallas star in the middle of the field:
"I wasn't trying to taunt anyone but was thanking and honoring God for all the blessings I've received and for all the things I've been able to do for my family"
.....riiight
As expected TO has a lot to say about his former coach, Steve Mariucci, mostly which are negative. Probably the best part about their whole ordeal is when TO talks about when he goes into Mooch's office right after he found out Mariucci was released a few days after their 2002 playoff lost to Tampa Bay, when Mariucci told TO "Who knows, maybe we'll be working again with each other on another team a year from now" to which TO nodded but instantly thought "You must be out of your damn mind!"
Anyways, the book goes back on track into his well-publicized feud with quarterback, Jeff Garcia. He takes many shots at Garcia, but still respects for what he gets done on the field, except for when he doesn't get the ball to him, which I lost track of how many time TO mentioned. Things boil down to the 49ers disappointing 7-9 2003 season under new coach Dennis Erickson. By this point TO hated being with the Niners and wanted out, his whole offseason struggle where he supposedly missed the deadline for filing for free agency in time is a shockingly interesting read from how the 49ers traded him to the Ravens behind TO's and his agent's back to how they eventually worked out a 3 team trade to land him on the Eagles, where he wanted to be all along.
This is a great read in the end, and a very good perspective on TO's career thus far, though it would have been interesting to see this version a year from now with all the interesting events that related to him following the 2004 season (monday night football promo with one of the desperate housewifes, his other controversial comments about Jeff Garcia, the posedown battle against Ray Lewis and the Ravens on Halloween, and more importantly his leg injury that caused him to miss out on the 2004 post-season). Maybe we'll get lucky with some bonus chapters covering these events in the inevitable paperback release. While skipping some important years about his career and seeming a little bit too egotistic at times, this is still a entertaining read through and through, and a must for any TO fan. I'd score it a 8/10. Which on my new 5-star icon translates into:
It's still hard to believe Terrell Owens (TO) has played for 9 seasons in the NFL already. And what an intense nine years it has been. TO new autobiography "Catch This" cover his entire career from growing up in the not-so-humble deep south, to his college days at UTC, and his entire career in the 49ers organization, and up until he officially became an Eagle in the 2004 offseason. There are some moments where his cockiness does go a little bit too far, but for the most part it is still an enjoyable read for any TO fan or serious football fans to learn the story of the one of the greatest receivers that's still playing the game today.
TO's story picks up from his youth growing up in Alabama. Unlike other sports autobiographies (or biographies/w ghost writers, however you want to view it), TO doesn't drag endlessly about all the little and unimportant details, and his entire childhood up until before he got recruited to UTC is ummed up in five chapters that end up clocking in at 26 pages. Doesn't seem like a whole heck of a lot, but in that period TO seems to get all the need-to-know information out of the way and actually make it interesting. Funny thing about this period is near the end when Owens talks about being so happy when after he signed his recruiting papers thinking he signed for the division 1A Tennessee Volunteers, then to unfortunately find out it was actually its inferior alternative, the 1-AA University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.
TO college days was an interesting 23 read. Football wasn't even that big of a sport at his hometown school, so even after big games he never was that popular around campus. In college he played both basketball and football. Throughout the book TO keeps reminding us why he loves basketball more, saying you're allowed to express yourself naturally on the court without worrying about the dozens of fines we all remembering him receiving from the NFL. Leading up into the draft I was surprised to learn that TO was hoping the Packers would draft him instead of the 49ers.
His NFL career overview I had some mixed feelings on. It was an incredibly interesting reading up on his first year in the league and how he was very-shy and nickeled and dimed his living expenses by eating at cheap fast food restaurants almost daily. As a matter of fact, he said his first year in the league the only people in Cali who really knew him were fast food employees. His whole first year is a great read where he goes into depth on how Steve Young helped him to step up to the big time and leading him to his first big play games.
He goes on about his 49ers career for almost the rest of the book. TO says his favorite moment in the NFL is not the Sharpie, or Dallas TD celebrations, but when he made a spectacular catch from Steve Young that helped the 49ers defeat the Packers in the 1998 season playoffs. He says that catch is what helped launch him to the next level.
TO goes into depth about his early years as Niner, but glosses over some I was pretty curious about, such as their 4-12 season in 1999. It would have been good to know how TO felt about the loss of Steve Young due to a concussion and how disastrous that season ended up being as a result. He goes into great detail about the 2 most controversial TD celebrations for him, one being his posing in the middle of the star logo at the Dallas Cowboys stadium, and his even more famous celebration that became known worldwide as "Sharpie." Obviously, he hated all the heat he got around the league from what he did, and big props to TO for going outright and labeling the NFL the "No Fun League" that I and a large other percentage of NFL fans think of it right now as.
However, I really don't believe how he justifies some of his popular antics. Here is how he explains why he posed on the Dallas star in the middle of the field:
"I wasn't trying to taunt anyone but was thanking and honoring God for all the blessings I've received and for all the things I've been able to do for my family"
.....riiight
As expected TO has a lot to say about his former coach, Steve Mariucci, mostly which are negative. Probably the best part about their whole ordeal is when TO talks about when he goes into Mooch's office right after he found out Mariucci was released a few days after their 2002 playoff lost to Tampa Bay, when Mariucci told TO "Who knows, maybe we'll be working again with each other on another team a year from now" to which TO nodded but instantly thought "You must be out of your damn mind!"
Anyways, the book goes back on track into his well-publicized feud with quarterback, Jeff Garcia. He takes many shots at Garcia, but still respects for what he gets done on the field, except for when he doesn't get the ball to him, which I lost track of how many time TO mentioned. Things boil down to the 49ers disappointing 7-9 2003 season under new coach Dennis Erickson. By this point TO hated being with the Niners and wanted out, his whole offseason struggle where he supposedly missed the deadline for filing for free agency in time is a shockingly interesting read from how the 49ers traded him to the Ravens behind TO's and his agent's back to how they eventually worked out a 3 team trade to land him on the Eagles, where he wanted to be all along.
This is a great read in the end, and a very good perspective on TO's career thus far, though it would have been interesting to see this version a year from now with all the interesting events that related to him following the 2004 season (monday night football promo with one of the desperate housewifes, his other controversial comments about Jeff Garcia, the posedown battle against Ray Lewis and the Ravens on Halloween, and more importantly his leg injury that caused him to miss out on the 2004 post-season). Maybe we'll get lucky with some bonus chapters covering these events in the inevitable paperback release. While skipping some important years about his career and seeming a little bit too egotistic at times, this is still a entertaining read through and through, and a must for any TO fan. I'd score it a 8/10. Which on my new 5-star icon translates into:
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