Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens is acting like an idiot, demanding a restructured contract, threatening to hold out if he doesn’t get it, crying on national television about not making enough money to feed his family , and ripping Quarterback Donovan McNabb to boot. Yes, if the last week has shown us anything about T.O., it’s that he knows how to ruin a good thing. We should have known that there was a reason the Niners and their fans wanted this tremendous athlete out of San Francisco.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that before Owens signed with Philly last year, the NFL Players Association advised him that the contract contained language deemed unfavorable to Owens’ interests. According to an association source who spoke to the Post, Owens rejected the advice of union officials at the time.

And that is exactly the point that Eagles fans have been making over the last week: T.O. decided to sign the contract, and now he has to honor it. His remarks about feeding his family rubbed salt in the eye of the average working man or woman of this city; his ill-advised reference to Donovan McNabb as the “guy who got tired in the Super Bowl” rubbed salt in the eye of the teammate he most needs on his side.

But if T.O. is acting as if he’s one feather short of a full wing, so are the Eagles fans who have called local sports radio station WIP to say that T.O. should be cut. Fans say that they’re disgusted by T.O.’s selfishness, put off by his greediness, and disappointed by his diss of Donovan McNabb. I’ve heard fans say that they want to burn the T.O. jerseys that they own, that they want him out of here, and that the Eagles should trade him before he causes any more problems.

To be fair, the fans who have called WIP to say that T.O. should be traded or cut are in the minority; a far more widespread reaction, one shared by many hosts on the station, has been that the Eagles should neither give him more money nor cut him, but should let him go after this season, before significant bonuses kick in next year. Most have agreed that T.O. has irreparably damaged his relationship with the city.

The entire hullabaloo should have been a tempest in a teapot, but now it is threatening to damage the Eagles’ long-term future.

While I think that T.O. is absolutely wrong in this situation, the vehemence with which Philly fans have turned on him has surprised me. But maybe it shouldn’t: in the three and a half years since I have lived in Philly, I have seen sports fans turn on Allen Iverson, Donovan McNabb, Jim Thome, and now, Terrell Owens. Having listened to countless fans berate and belittle Donovan in previous seasons, I find it a little ironic that they so strongly defend his honor now. I’m sure that were he to have a sub-par season next year, he would be back on the chopping block.

The superstar turn that surprised me most was Jim Thome. Here is a guy who is all good-natured, country-boy wholesomeness, a slugger who hits home runs the natural way in an age when every other power hitter is looked upon with suspicion. But after Thome failed to become a leader in the clubhouse during the disappointing second half of last season, Philly fans began to turn on him.

I’m most galled by the reaction to the T.O. controversy, though, when I try to square this city’s oft-stated desire for a championship with the urge to trample on T.O. This moment, I believe, is a signal moment in the Eagles franchise. It has been a very long time since the team has been this good, this close to winning it all. T.O. is an important reason why they were as good as they were last year. And his heroic effort during last year’s Super Bowl — a time when, yes, he put the team before himself by risking his future and playing in a game that doctors had advised him to sit out — needs to be taken into account.

I’m not saying that T.O. is right, or that his idiotic and abrasive actions should be overlooked. And I recognize that the reason this controversy has received so much press has everything to do with the loudmouth agent he selected to represent him.

But I believe a city needs to stand by its superstars. It doesn’t need to coddle them — the Eagles should not give T.O. what he wants — but it does need to support them.

It strikes me that when Jason Giambi played his first game at Yankee stadium this year, the first game he played after admitting that he took steroids, he received a standing ovation from Yankee fans. After all he had been through, Yankee fans stood by their player. For the record, I don’t like Giambi and don’t think he should have received a standing O. As Joel Sherman has written in the New York Post, Giambi should have received neither boos nor applause, but silence.

And that, I propose, is exactly what Terrell Owens should be hearing from Philly fans right now.

Let him work out his contract with the Eagles in silence. Because we just may need those T.O. jerseys on Sunday, February 5, 2006.

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