T.O. -- Typically Outrageous

The Philadelphia Eagles knew that Terrell Owens came with baggage. Little did they know those bags would arrive by express mail.

The season doesn’t start for three weeks, and already the Pro Bowl receiver is causing a stir. His comments have not only made headlines in Philadelphia, but have him triple-teamed by reporters from Baltimore, San Francisco and Cleveland -- cities especially ticked off at T.O.

In an interview in the September issue of Playboy magazine, Owens was asked about rumors that Cleveland quarterback Jeff Garcia is gay.

Said Owens: “Like my boy tells me: If it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, by golly, it is a rat.”

People in Baltimore took it personally five months ago when Owens refused to play for them, and Raven linebacker Ray Lewis was particularly incensed. Then, in his first training-camp media session, Owens remarked that Lewis was “not the hardest hitter that ever played the game of football.” And it gets better.

Baltimore Coach Brian Billick, whose team plays an exhibition game at Philadelphia tonight, recently suggested to the Philadelphia Daily News that his veteran-laden team would be better prepared than the Eagles to keep Owens in line.

“It would’ve been fun to see if we could have absorbed T.O.,” Billick said. “I think I have some strong leadership here. I think it could have been done.

“What’s going to be interesting up there ... one of the problems in San Francisco was, there was nobody to tell T.O. to shut ... up. Not a coach, not a player in that organization. Here, between the leadership we have in the Ray Lewises and the Jonathan Ogdens, even a young Ed Reed, a Jamal Lewis, when you have a future Hall of Famer [Ray Lewis] sitting over there, when you have a Hall of Famer on your coaching staff like Mike Singletary, there are a lot of people here that command a certain level of respect.”

Billick later added, “There will be subtle distractions. Even in handling it, it can be a problem if there aren’t enough guys to absorb that kind of distraction. And hell, it may have been the same way here. Maybe I’m smoking dope, thinking we could have handled him.”

This week, Owens sat down for half an hour after practice for a wide-ranging, one-on-one interview defending his outspoken comments, his outrageous antics -- doing a touchdown dance on the midfield star at Texas Stadium, pulling a Sharpie from his sock and autographing the ball in the end zone -- and the reasons for his outsized ego:

* On his reputation for being selfish: “I don’t think I’m a jerk. If I don’t give people the reaction [they’re] looking for, then they’re obviously going to read into me like a jerk.

“During training camp, I was one of the guys who’d stay after and sign autographs for 20 or 25 minutes.... We went to New England to play and there were some guys ... outside the hotel ... trying to get autographs. Me and Freddie [Mitchell, another Philadelphia receiver, were] going out and I didn’t really sign anything. The guy had his son there. Apparently I wasn’t paying attention and he wrote my assistant a letter saying that I disappointed his 9-year-old son, that they came up there to see me.

“He pointed out that Freddie Mitchell at least acknowledged them and said no to the autograph but just made it a point to say I didn’t acknowledge them at all. My thing is, I still would have said no. He said his son used to look up to me and that he wished me well with the Eagles but then he said, ‘I don’t like Terrell anymore.’ You can’t please everybody.”

* On people expecting him to self-destruct in Philadelphia: “They’re waiting on it to happen. For whatever reason, I guess I got the rep being in San Fran that I was a cancer to the team, probably doing more harm than good there. So I think that’s part of the reason I’m here and not there. But from day one, stepping in the mini-camps, being there with Steve [Young] and Jerry [Rice] when they were just two years removed from a Super Bowl in ‘94, I’ve always wanted to be a big part of a championship, that’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

* On his battles with former San Francisco and current Detroit Coach Steve Mariucci: “When Mooch was there, it was like he wanted to be the guy in the limelight. He would take the credit for the wins instead of just letting the players go out there and win ballgames.”

* On playing hurt: “I’ve played with injuries to the point of, dude, I couldn’t run from here to there [pointing to a spot about 10 feet away]. I couldn’t run. But on Sunday I sucked it up. I took [an injection of painkiller] just so I could play. But nobody knew that. Nobody had my back to even let the media know that I was playing with a nagging injury like that. I had to take that home with me every night.

“The last two years, it got so bad that I didn’t even practice. I just played on Sunday. It’s been situations where my feet were hurting in training camp so bad that I didn’t even want to get up and walk. It felt like I was walking on glass, my feet hurt so bad.”

* On Garcia: “I didn’t have any conditioning, but when I was out there on that field, I played. But then everybody made a big hoopla about Jeff playing through injuries. And then it killed me that I could take a shot, be playing hurt, and I’m running and beating guys -- hurting -- and then he’s throwing the ball at my feet, behind me. And they don’t expect me to vent? They want me to just go out there and play. Like, if I’m not catching the ball, I’m not making an effort and it’s my fault.

“I knew my role and value on the team. They looked at me as a go-to player, a playmaker. I’d go to the sidelines and I had guys like Garrison Hearst and Ray Brown and Diesel [tackle Derrick Deese]. They’d ask me, ‘When are you getting it?’ They were concerned. They knew what I can do. I’m like, ‘Dude, I can do whatever, but I can’t call the plays.’ ”

* On the way Garcia ran the 49er offense: “Everybody has their strengths and weaknesses, and our offense was obviously catered to his strengths. We couldn’t do a lot of things that the West Coast is designed for because of his weaknesses. That’s how it is. I remember when Steve Young was there, Elvis Grbac, all those guys, we ran slants and we ran square-outs religiously. When Jeff got there, I think we were playing in Atlanta, and Jerry was running a comeback or square or something. And the ball wasn’t thrown on time, Jeff threw it and it got picked for a touchdown. Ever since then, we didn’t run no more of those.”

[Through officials from the Cleveland and Detroit organizations, Garcia and Mariucci declined to respond to Owens’ comments.]

* On his war of words with Baltimore’s Lewis: “That comes with the territory. You have two great athletes that want to go at it, it’s like two heavyweight boxers. You get two good boxers in the ring, obviously everybody gets amped up before it really goes down.... So I understand. I don’t have any animosity or anything toward Ray. I guess they feel slighted a little bit. I guess it’s because I didn’t end up there. That’s just business.”

* On playing in Philadelphia, one of America’s roughest sports towns: “I love being here. I’ve heard all the stories: booing Santa Claus, booing Kobe. And Kobe was raised here, he grew up here, went to school here. If they boo Kobe and Santa Claus, how bad can it be for me?”

* On whether he thinks millions of NFL fans want to see him flop in Philly: “Oh, yeah. I can honestly say, the major things that happened to me in San Fran -- ranging from the Dallas incident to the Sharpie, different things I’ve had to deal with -- I already know that whatever the situation is, I’m really watched on game day. They’re really looking forward to me maybe dropping the big pass, fumbling the game away, this and that. I know that’s what they want me to do, but I’ve always been able to overcome all those things of adversity. I feel like I always come out on top.”