Wide Receiver Terrell Owens Gets Fined

(Irving, Texas) - Cowboys Head Coach Bill Parells tried to downplay the impending crisis at Valley Ranch. “Is this the Cuban Missile Crisis?” he asked before starting his daily press conference.

Parcells knows there is controversy in the air, but never confirmed that the team had fined Wide Receiver Terrell Owens for being late for a team meeting on Friday and scheduled rehab for an injury.

“I'm not acknowledging that that happened,” said Parcells. “Its a hypothetical.”

Team owner Jerry Jones seemed upset that the information leaked out.
“I promise if I find out, how that type of information gets out, within our organization, the ones responsible will not be part of the Dallas Cowboys organization,” he said.

Owens was fined and he confirmed the fine himself.

“There is really not an explanation,” said Owens. “I just over slept, and I was late, and that was the consequences of that, so not anything I tried to do intentionally. It’s not the first time and it probably won't be the last time. I'm not perfect by any means, and like I said, its just one of those things that happens.”

Said Parcells, “Listen, he has a history of what? I don't know about that history. I don't know if he was fined by other teams for being tardy, I have no idea whether he was or not.”

Owens said it was the only time since he joined the Cowboys that he's been late checking in at Valley Ranch. Obviously, everything he does is being closely monitored.

“Its been different because I am who I am, so anything that I do is going to attract any attention, and you guys are going to blow it out of proportion. I don't really worry about that. I get it. I know who I am. I know the attention that I get from the media, so I know I'm under a microscope. It’s very unfortunate that I got fined, and I was late, and in that, to my teammates, I apologize and so I just got to move on.”

“Whatever opinion anyone else is totally irrelevant, to my line of thinking,” said Parcells, “Because they don't have all the facts, and I do.”

Said Jones, “There is an old adage, that sometimes, whether it’s bad or good, keep them talking about you, so from that standpoint its all good.

So while Owens admits that he was late and missed valuable meeting and rehab time, he still doesn't know when he'll be back on the field, and the season opener is now less than two weeks away.