Eagles Hold Cards in Owens Saga

At this point in the Terrell Owens saga, there’s really only one option left for him:

Shut up and play.

Act like a professional and deal with Andy Reid, his assistants, and Donovan McNabb on that level. He doesn’t have to party or dine with them. He just has to perform.

That’s because there are so many land mines and booby traps built into the contract Owens signed with the Philadelphia Eagles last year that even the NFL Players Association is worried that it has little recourse if the Eagles suspend him.

That contract makes him “eminently tradable,” in the words of NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw, because it’s structured in a way that the Eagles don’t take much of a hit to their salary cap. That means, of course, that they don’t take the hit if they cut him either, something they seem perfectly willing to do if he continues his feuds with Reid, offensive coordinator Brad Childress and, of course, McNabb, with whom he seemed so connected when he arrived a year ago.

And if he’s cut, what team will want him. And for what kind of money?

On the surface, the Owens camp -- T.O. and agent Drew Rosenhaus -- have spent most of the last three days posturing for the media. They were on ESPN at halftime of the network’s San Diego-Green Bay telecast Thursday night and back on the postgame show.

And that was a day after Rosenhaus appeared on CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman.”

But beneath the surface, there has been a lot of back and forth with the union, especially between Rosenhaus and Richard Berthelsen, the NFLPA’s attorney, about T.O.’s options.

The answer: not many.

“If he’s suspended, we’ll take it as far as we can,” Upshaw said Friday. “But I don’t know how far that is.”

That’s because when Owens signed last year with the Eagles, the team made sure there were all kinds of clauses in his contract (land mines if you prefer) ensuring that he behaved. Those were based on his antics in San Francisco, where he always played hard, but alienated coaches and teammates to the point the team was willing to deal him for no more than second- and fifth-round choices and run-of-the-mill defensive lineman Brandon Whiting.

So if next Wednesday’s reunion with Reid, who kicked Owens out of training camp two days ago, is less than amicable, T.O. could:

* Be suspended under the catchall “conduct detrimental to the team” clause in all contracts.

* Be released. Most of his bonus money is in incentives, meaning it does not accelerate like other NFL contracts and take up eight-digit salary cap space, as would the deals most big-time stars cut early in their deal.

* Be traded -- for less than the Eagles got for him. The problem again is whether anyone wants the headache and the contract.

* Be “Keyshawned.” That’s unlikely because the team has other options, but Tampa Bay kept Keyshawn Johnson inactive for most of the second half of the 2003 season because of his antics, then traded him to Dallas in the offseason.

That’s basically what Berthelsen has been telling Rosenhaus, who has been telling the world for months that Owens is not among the top 10 wide receivers in the game in salary.

NFL salary figures can be skewed many ways and there might be a formula in which Owens doesn’t make the top 10.

But in 2005 salary alone, here are the top five according to the Players Association list:

1. Randy Moss, Oakland, $8.630 million.

2. Marvin Harrison, Indianapolis, $8.08 million.

3. Isaac Bruce, St. Louis, $7.64 million.

4. Eric Moulds, Buffalo, $7.245 million.

5. TERRELL OWENS, Philadelphia, $7.243 million.

So if salary is an issue, it’s not a huge one.

Personality is.

“The one thing about T.O. is that T.O. is very defensive,” Jerry Rice, Owens’ former 49er teammate..

“If he feels like you’ve crossed him or something like that -- that you’ve stabbed him in the back -- he doesn’t forget that. As a professional athlete, you’ve got to be able to move on. You’ve got to put the team first.”

Rice is the best receiver -- maybe the best football player -- who ever lived.

At 42, he’s playing for relative peanuts, just trying to make the Denver Broncos because he loves the game too much to retire.

Owens loves the game, too. No one would perform so well in so much pain in the Super Bowl if he didn’t. But even Moss, who once said “I play when I feel like it,” never caused this kind of angst for his coaches and teammates.

He doesn’t have to love them. He just has to act like a pro when he’s around them.

That’s what Upshaw and Berthelsen are telling T.O. and Drew.

And that’s probably the only option Owens has left.