Why T.O. Won’t Shut Up!
“T.O., I get it. Your numbers, your body of work should have spoken for itself, but you’re not helping your cause… He’s always been outspoken. He feels that if someone is taking a slight at him, he’s going to defend himself. That’s who he is. The little bit I’ve been around him, he sincerely, honestly believes that people are out to get him.” Shannon Sharpe
Sharp reads T.O. accurately. From the start T.O.’s grandmother told him he was ‘special’, that everyone—yes everyone—would try to keep him down—in his place, poor, a nobody in society—and that only God could make him strong enough to will his way over, around, or through all the hurdles others would place in his way. He was to trust no-one—yes no one. Given this well implanted view of life, Terrell was fortunate enough to have an unusual genetic degree of willpower. He took this genetic willpower, learned to self-focus on his goal of being a great wide receiver, and it took all of high school and most of his college to develop his limited natural athletic ability into a well muscled athlete. The knowledge of his position was gained by listening to coaches coach first stringers. Before San Francisco T.O. was a shy, introverted person who seldom spoke much with others. People from those early days hardly even remember him, he was so shy and quiet and a second stringer. It was watching Jerry Rice create pressure on coaches and quarterbacks to get him the ball that caused T.O. to create the T.O. persona in practice and during games.
Any effort to get T.O. to tone down his defense of himself regarding the Hall of Fame is likely to fail. At this point he probably is truthful when he states “I no longer have any respect for the process and could care less if I get in anymore.” He will get more attention at this point by being rejected year after year. No one hardly remembers who is in the Hall of Fame or much remembers them at all in their thoughts. But most everyone will remember a ‘stat king’ who the committee refused to admit for their own personal dislike of his personality. Will he ever forgive them for their attack on his character? Hard to see it happening but nothing is ever fixed in stone with T.O. The committee has created their own monster. Now discussions for who to pick are likely to be filled with all kinds of character assassinations. Good luck with the committee pretending Randy Moss was a better teammate. He was with just as many teams, was outright let go by 4 teams and is most known for his giving up playing hard when his team was losing and saying “I play when I feel like playing.” Many star football players were stars in high school and have many of the traits that come with being spoiled brats—supported and protected by coaches, fans, and assorted kinds of ‘posse’s”. T.O. had none of that until he reached the pros, by which time he already had become a genuine loner with everyone kept outside his own personal bubble.
If T.O. didn’t act like he ‘had been there before” when scoring a touchdown—well, he hadn’t until his pro years. He was a ‘one man band’ when it came to celebrating, just as he had been a one man band developing his muscular body, his year round training schedule, his creation of the T.O. personality, and his isolation from others. Not only did others not impact much on him, no matter how hard they tried to understand and get close to him, but T.O. paid a tough price for his focused success and willpower in football at the expense of all other aspects of his life. He didn’t just ignore other people, but he also ignored other aspects of his life. We can hate him for his being a different sort of personality, but without his genetic willpower and learned self focus, T.O. would have been a relative ‘nobody’ just like almost everyone who grew up in his neighborhood—one of the poorest in Alabama. That is, very poor.
The inability of some committee members to tolerate diverse personalities is more a reflection of their unsuitability to be on such a committee than it is any unsuitability by T.O. to have been a first ballot selection to the Hall of Fame. The vast majority of those electing players to the Hall of Fame haven’t a clue about the reality of locker rooms. A lot of these writers enjoy and value getting juicy tidbits about other players from unnamed players and lower level team management personnel on various teams in football. It is fairly certain from T.O.’s personality that these writers never got any attention from T.O. That is not a crime. T.O. lived in his own bubble, why would he choose to let these sport writers be the exception? Their attitude seems to be that he never paid any attention to them at all, and now is their chance to pay him back—and some seriously advise T.O. to just shut up and take it from these people he calls pencil pushers. This is simply up front blackmail. The odds that T.O. is going to tap dance for them at this stage in his life are probably slim.
A lot of people who accomplish great things are unique, different, distant, and wrapped up in their own peculiar world. They are not ‘bad’ people but real challenges to understand. Failure to understand someone ,or particularly like their personality, is no legitimate reason to demean them or refuse to acknowledge their great accomplishment. It is not like we are dealing with criminal behavior here.
My favorite well known intriguing personalities include Abraham Lincoln, Victoria Woodhull, Allen Iverson, Obama, Dalai Lama, Barry Goldwater, Winston Churchill, Jack Kevorkian, John Muir, Jackie Gleason, Teddy Roosevelt, Charles Stanton, Tecumseh, and Terrell Owens. Of course with Lincoln there is so much input and yet he never wears his welcome out. He is by far the King of Intrigue. I guess I would call Lincoln and Victoria Woodhull the King and Queen of Intrigue. Woodhull was a 150 years ahead of her time and most of the policies she stood for eventually became established law.
