Super Bowl losses get remembered, but apparently, old beef never dies.
Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens are at it again as the former Philadelphia Eagles teammates’ relationship remains icy. And after 15 years, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be thawing out any time soon.
Speaking with Bleacher Report’s Untold Stories, McNabb delved into Owens’ contract holdout at the beginning of the 2005 season, which fractured the locker room.
It was hardly the follow-up the Eagles were looking for after a 2004 campaign that resulted in an NFC title and a narrow Super Bowl loss to the New England Patriots.
Owens played Super Bowl XXXIX injured, dealing with an ankle injury, but still managed to haul in nine receptions for 122 yards on the heels of a regular season in which he posted 1,200 yards and 14 touchdowns.
“The lead into the following year, I’m thinking [Owens] will be back healthy, we have [Jevon Kearse],” McNabb said. “We have guys elevating their game, gaining experience, and I’m thinking, ‘We’re going to be back.'”
Instead, Owens went on a famous holdout that will be remembered for the receiver’s shirtless crunches in his driveway and yucking it up with the media.
“I thought that was the major distraction for us. He’s doing sit-ups, he’s doing push-ups, he’s playing basketball, he’s ordering pizza for the people out there, and we’re sitting there in training camp just like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’,” McNabb said. “We’re in our dorm rooms, and I’m just sitting there watching on TV. Brian Dawkins and Jeremiah Trotter were my roommates, and Dawk would come in like, ‘What’d he do now?’ I’m like, ‘Take a look.’ This is like ‘Days Of Our Lives.’ It’s unbelievable. But that was something that kind of broke us up.”
Owens did return for the start of the 2005 season, posting 47 receptions for 763 and six touchdowns.
But his relationship with McNabb and others Eagles teammates resulted in a downward spiral that led to an indefinite suspension that stayed in effect for the remainder of the 2005 season.
During that season, Owens made multiple comments insulting McNabb while getting in a fistfight with defensive end and team captain Hugh Douglas.
And of course, there was the receiver boarding the Eagles’ team plane after a loss to the Dallas Cowboys with a Michael Irving jersey on.
Following his suspension, Owens signed with those very same Cowboys where he remained for three seasons.
Owens fired back quickly to McNabb’s comments via Twitter:
“Hey… Let me know when u want to hear the truth!!,” he wrote. “Did u ask him about those DUIs and what he was doing at the parties I threw at my house during “our time” in Philly?!! Hmmm Don’t worry, I’ll tell ya!!”
