Two Braggadocios: Muhammad Ali and Terrell Owens
While I am much more knowledgable about the personality of Terrell Owens, comparing him with Muhammed Ali is irresistibly interesting. So here goes:
Both were born in dead-end poverty ghettos, T.O. more so than Ali. Both had strong belief in God, and strongly insisted God gave them any successes. Both, at the height of their athletic success, bragged about their skills and how they were the ‘best’—endlessly. Both loved a microphone in front of them. While T.O. pretty much limited his boasting as to how good he was, Ali was relentless in his belittlement of his opponents aka Donald Trump.
Both took strong stands on an issue important to them——Ali against the Vietnam War--and paid dearly for his stand: "Shoot them for what?" Ali asked in an interview after he refused induction. "They never called me nigger. They never lynched me. They never put dogs on me. They didn't rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father. What do I want to shoot them for, for what? Why do I want to go shoot them, poor little people and babies and children and women? How can I shoot them? Just take me to jail”. Well, they did put him in jail and his career was shortened by years spent in jail at a tremendous personal financial cost. At the time most Americans disliked Ali, some really hated him--for his draft refusal and/or his endless self promoting/belittling his opponents. T.O. took his immovable stance that he was going to be paid at the level of his performance on the field or he wasn’t going to talk to hardly anyone on the team or the organization. Most Americans disliked T.O. for this stand (“he makes enough money”) and/or his endless self promotion.
While T.O. finally got himself traded and made a salary commensurate with his performance on the field, a lot of the public held on to their dislike of him. Part of this naturally is because most people are rooting for a different team and it is always easier to dislike opposition players. Many Philly fans hated him for forcing his departure. With T.O. gone any Philly dreams that the T.O./Donovan combination would bring them a Super Bowl went down the drain. Philly never came close again.
Ali had natural athletic talent for boxing. He was a gifted boxer. T.O. had little athletic talent as a wide receiver. It took him all of high school, and all of college before he could even be good enough to be drafted 87th in the third round of the NFL draft. Ali had a small army of personnel handling his career. Terrell was a loner in most every category. He didn’t trust others—and, with his intense self focus on his football game, he had no room in his mind to deal with others much, be they teammate, media critic, or girlfriend.
Both Ali and Terrell had a good amount of genetic willpower and self focus. Both genetic endowments can be used up, especially willpower. Ali spread his willpower and self focus around in various aspects of his life. T.O., to succeed, had little choice but to spend all his amazing willpower and self focus on football. He paid little or no attention to other aspects of his life but paid a steep price for that in other areas of his life—financially, socially, and his interaction with teammates or the press.
Ali was not very promiscuous sexually and was a good family man. T.O. paid little attention to romance, was a true loner in life, and his brief sexual adventures left him with a good number of child support payments. Spending all his focus and willpower on football left him a mess in other areas of life. Ali made a lot more money and hired a lot of people to handle many aspects of his career.
Both T.O. and Ali, as successful young athletes, tended to relive the childhood they never had. With each success they carried on like they had never been there before. They hadn’t. Both became, against the odds, a somebody—writ large—instead of a nobody.
Both lasted many years at their profession before age caught up with them. Boxing and NFL football are two entirely different sports. In boxing once you are at the top, you control everything—who your next opponent will be, how soon, where, and who gets any of the profits. Nobody owned Ali, while T.O. was always subject to owners and coaches, but given his personality, they had to tip-toe around him. Many media critics and fans disliked his unique personality and mannerisms.
Then something disastrous happened to Ali. He got Parkinson’s disease. Constantly battering brain tissue is not really the best of exercises. In football they try to figure out how to better protect the brain, in boxing they spend their time figuring how fast and how much damage they can create for an opponent's brain tissue during the fight. If you can knock the person out you win, style doesn’t matter in that case. Both T.O. and Ali are personable enough in private conversation. Nothing brash or arrogant about either in private conversations. Ali was far more gregarious socially and T.O. remained a loner, distrusting others to treat him fairly. His grandmother told him others would try to bring him down and he would have to leap over, run through, or around hurdles they put in front of him. Amazingly, T.O. could do that as far as football itself was concerned, but he is pretty much defenseless off the field. When pushed to be social on a team when he was not a social person, it produced a result that was awkward and not polished and only got him accused of meddling, dividing the team as many kind of sided with him when he had disputes about anything.
At any rate, Parkinson’s Disease rather quickly began to stifle Ali’s mouth. He was reduced to slow verbal communication which turned the tide for him with the public. Both Ali and T.O. are good citizens, kind hearted, and likable in private matters outside their respective athletic arenas. Ali had been a great boxer whose battle with Parkinson’s disease generated huge public sympathy, along with the fact that most Americans finally realized he was right about Vietnam. To some degree, Ali was never well liked by that many until Parkinson’s Disease muzzled his mouth.
T.O’s post career life is on a different track. His amazing genetic willpower and self-focus is passed off as extremely selfish behavior. His aloofness from others, his loner personality, and his inability to respond to his media critics in the the same manner they attacked him, left him an endless target for their personal character assassination. Ali would respond to critics, when young, tit for tat. Terrell is not that kind of person. He got to the top without responding harshly to those who criticized him and that was his goal—to get to the top.
T.O.’s goal, being one of the best wide receivers ever, was achieved. He thought he would just bask in the acclaim. Unfortunately for T.O., some of his fiercest media critics are the ones who decide who, for example, gets into the Hall of Fame when, and under what, conditions. So, they came up with the interesting notion that T.O.’s personality was an extension of the playing field, coupled with the assertion that nobody wanted him on their team. The latter, of course, is interesting since what other receiver pushing 40 years of age has ever been wanted on a team at that age? One would be hard put to find any wide receivers who were being sought out to play on a team near 40 years of age. What owner, in their right mind, is going to pay big money for any wide receiver who is almost 40 years of age?
Ali is truly a great athlete and has suffered a very cruel long term debilitating disease. The public has watched him waste away physically and mentally for decades. The price he paid for boxing has been huge health wise. It was painful for us all to see him whither away to a shadow of what he once was.
T.O. pays the price in a different way. Some of the media are nothing but vicious in their hatred of him. They have no intention of honoring him for his play on the field. They fully intend to dishonor him for his personality off the field. T.O., for the first time in his life, must learn to live his life without football. He might find it best to simply let those he calls ‘pencil pushing critics” maul him around and let them use the Hall of Fame as a sort of Dating Game elections process— then T.O can claim it a rigged process in which enough media critics use their voting powers to character assassinate him; then T.O. should ask them to remove his name from further consideration. If they won’t, go to court. He probably won’t succeed, but it will make their nefarious and hateful anger work to his advantage. No one really remembers very long who gets into the Hall of Fame. In baseball, more people are aware that Pete Rose was refused, than they remember the names of those who were admitted. T.O. will be remembered by more people for his controversial personality and a rigged vote in the Hall of Fame than most of those others in the Hall of Fame. If he stands his ground with the Committee, a movie is more likely to be made of his career and he will get more fame there than any begging to get into a Hall of Fame.
The real question with T.O. is what kind of life will he live after football? That’s a good question. Getting into the Hall of Fame has no impact on that.
So two interesting and accomplished athletes, with several similar qualities, have traveled different roads after retirement. Life is always good theatre.
