T.O. K.O.This hard to believe -- shocking, almost -- and no one would have predicted it. But Nick and Jessica outlasted Terrell Owens and Donovan McNabb.
And just over one year ago, there was so much hope, too. T.O. took a timeout to do his best to clear the air and his reputation, all in one sitting.
Asked two Septembers ago, shortly after his arrival in Philadelphia, if people were waiting for him to fail, T.O. responded in his usual candid way.
"No. If they are, they'll be waiting for a long time."
A similar question on the same day was posed to McNabb: Are people waiting for T.O. to screw up?
"Probably, more than half," McNabb said. "But here we don't have to worry about that. We just have to make sure we're on the same page and hopefully we can turn the negative into a positive."
Even Eagles coach Andy Reid, seemingly so polar opposite of T.O., defended the man who grew to be a "Total Outcast" in San Francisco.
"What people don't understand is, T.O.'s a good person," Reid said in September 2004. "Competitive guy, competitive in practice, at the Pro Bowl. Loves to play the game, emotional. I welcome that into my locker room. He's publicly said there are things he wished he wouldn't have done. It's important to learn from that and grow. I give everyone an equal shot in our locker room."
T.O. then chimed in. "I just think there are critics waiting for you to do something they can pounce on you for. They've been doing that my whole career in San Francisco. Incidents out there; the week after they are looking for me to drop a pass or screw up royal in the game, but I've always relied on my faith and abilities, so regardless of what they say, good or bad, I'm going to go out there and play."
Reid: "As long as he understands ... how I operate ... guys like Donovan McNabb do ... what I and this team are all about, I don't think you have those problems."
Initially there were no problems -- only proposals. A man at Eagles training camp actually held up a sign that, in a different type of brotherly love, read, "Marry me T.O.!"
T.O. himself also was filled with love, talking of his new relationship with his new quarterback, their new beginning, the vows they had taken.
"If you want to say he's been missing a receiver like me, then yeah," T.O. said. "If you want to say I've been missing a quarterback like him, then yeah."
They were perfect, a match as good as Philly and cheesesteaks. And then, it was as if some sort of expiration date passed. The cheese went bad.
The first taste of it came after the Super Bowl -- T.O.'s glorious Super Bowl -- when he openly stated that he wasn't the one who "got tired" in the big game.
His first shot at McNabb. But hardly the last.
Later, T.O. called McNabb a "puppet" for the Eagles organization, even if that puppet once pleaded for his master to bring in the troubled wide receiver.
As if that weren't enough, T.O. later accused McNabb of being a "hypocrite," a charge that went without substantiation.
To cap it off, T.O. proclaimed that Brett Favre's "knowledge of the quarterback position" would make him a better candidate to quarterback the Eagles -- an implication that McNabb's knowledge isn't as extensive as it actually is.
Maybe it was that T.O. resented McNabb's popularity. Maybe it was McNabb's position of authority. Or, most likely, it was McNabb's earning power.
But just as T.O. once slimed his former quarterback in San Francisco, Jeff Garcia, he had done the same for his biggest ally in Philadelphia, Donovan McNabb. T.O. became an offensive Warren Sapp -- a QB killa.
Finally, T.O. realized it, but couldn't even accept it. At his nationally televised press conference in front of the house in which he once did the most famous set of sit-ups, he delivered the Moorestown Manifesto.
In it, he tried to apologize to McNabb, but couldn't even bring himself to fully do it. He apologized for actions that "may have" offended his quarterback.
May have? He did.
And that, in a nutshell, is why T.O. is done. He never could admit he was wrong.
Not to try to be Dr. Phil or anything, but the larger lesson here -- and we see it constantly in personal and professional instances -- is that relationships constantly change.
But T.O., no matter how much he insists he has, doesn't.
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Seeing as I'm a football fan

I amy as well post this up here.