It Certainly Wasn’t Owens’ Finest Hour

Terrell Owens made his first leaping catch in weeks Tuesday, soaring off his gnarled right ankle to dramatically grab his most prized possession.

An audience.

“Do you believe in miracles?” he crowed to a Super Bowl media day throng. “Just wait until Sunday.”

A miracle like, he shuts his yap?

“I will play,” Owens said. “I can honestly say God has already cleared me.”

Does Andy Reid’s opinion have a prayer?

“I think I’m a special individual,” Owens said. “What I do on the field causes a lot of people to criticize me. A lot of people say I’m controversial, and they may be right, but I am who I am and I’m not going to change.”

How about he start by getting his I’s examined?

Terrell Owens attempted to put his signature on the Super Bowl on Tuesday, loudly, clumsily, as if the game were a football and his mouth were a Sharpie.

As expected, T.O. was in desperate need of a T.O.

During an hourlong interview session in which he attracted as many reporters as Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid combined, the injured Philadelphia Eagle receiver embraced the spotlight as if it were Nicolette Sheridan.

It was an hour that should have been covered up with a towel.

Although the surgeon who inserted pins and a plate into his ankle refused to clear him, and his coach refuses to confirm him, Owens claimed he was going to play Sunday against the New England Patriots.

“They are always going to say that I’m selfish,” he said. “I know my body better than anyone out there.”

Although his teammates are apparently growing weary of being trampled by his entourage of muscular and bejeweled narcissism, Owens said it didn’t matter.

“I can’t change who I am,” he said. “I can’t dispute that, and they can’t dispute that. They are just going to have to deal with it.”

And, although virtually every medical expert quoted says that he has no chance of returning so soon from such a serious ankle sprain and operation, Owens said he was already working on an end-zone dance.

“I plan to get in,” he said. “I have some different things under consideration.”

It’s a shame he won’t consider the distraction he is causing his uncertain team, and the fuel he is giving the confident Patriots.

It’s one thing for a player to nobly try to return several weeks early from an injury. It is another thing for that player to accompany that comeback with brash guarantees that put his team’s focus and field plans at risk.

They’ve scored 27 points in each of two playoff victories without Owens, but now he’s sending the message that they can’t win again without him?

They will be trying to score against a Bill Belichick defense that is nearly unbeatable when it has two weeks of preparation, yet their offense may feature a star receiver who can’t make it past the first series?

It’s tough for the Eagles to ignore Owens, or did you not hear Reid’s comments immediately after the NFC championship win over the Atlanta Falcons, when he said he thought Owens would play ... and then later apologized for being too emotional?

Yet what if they buy his bluster and he’s not ready?

How do they recharge after the first series if Owens is limping to the training room?

Heck, as anyone who watched him Tuesday will attest, he’s limping now.

“We’ll see,” Reid said when asked if Owens was ready. “I want him to think he is. That’s a positive. That’s what’s going to drive him to get ready. If he stops thinking that he’s going to play, then he’s not going to play.”

Of course, there’s always a chance that the entire Eagle team is pulling a prank in which Owens is merely the point man.

Maybe he knows he won’t play, maybe he wouldn’t even dream of playing, but the Eagles want to force the Patriots to prepare for him anyway.

With Eagle practices open to a pool reporter, meaning Owens must take reps to make the joke work, that could be a dangerous game of chicken.

But when it comes to a guy who screams at his quarterback on the sidelines and pantomimes pompom girls in the end zone, who knows?

“God laid out this plan for me,” Owens said. “He has a plan for everybody and obviously it was in his plan for me to be controversial, and I accept that.”

The Patriots just smile.

The ultimate team -- before past Super Bowls the Patriots have refused to even be introduced separately -- has taken notice of the ultimate preen.

“There’s things he says that we take offense to, we tuck those in the back of our minds,” linebacker Don Davis said. “Basically, that kind of personality would not fit on our team. No one person is bigger than this team.”

While Owens’ excess has come to symbolize all that is wrong with professional sports, the Patriots are perceived as being all that is right.

It’s an unfair generalization -- Owens plays hard, and the Patriots have some huge egos -- but T.O. won’t put it on the Q.T. long enough for anyone to see this.

“We don’t have a lot of self-promoting guys,” said Patriot kicker Adam Vinatieri. “We don’t care about being on the front page. We care about winning.”

The Patriots have five Pro Bowl players. The Eagles have nine. It is a statistic that will fuel New England almost as much as the one dished Tuesday by Owens.

When asked what percentage of his pre-injury strength had returned, he never blinked.

“I’m at 81%,” he said, his medical evaluation delving no deeper, no surprise, than the number on his chest.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.