Terrell Owens to Play in Indoor Football League – a Fan’s Take

 First, Terrell Owens was a Dallas Cowboys' killer when he caught passes for the San Francisco 49ers. Then Owens was the best receiver on the Cowboys' team. Then Dallas let him go and Owens failed to impress anywhere else in the NFL until he finally disappeared. Now, Owens is playing for an Indoor Football League team owned by Dallas Cowboys' legend Drew Pearson.
Owens signed a new deal to be a partial owner of the Allen Wranglers of the Indoor Football League as well as their starting wide receiver. I don't know if Owens knows what he is getting himself into.

The Indoor Football League is an upstart league that combined teams from the Intense Football League and the United Football League. In 2011, the owners of the league trumpeted how financially secure the league was as they prepared to expand all across the United States.

I had personal interest in this new league because I worked as the public relations writer for the Bricktown Brawlers, based out of Oklahoma City. The owner came in preaching how the team was going to be a special part of the community. This same owner also owned a rival team in West Texas that happened to be in the same division as Bricktown. He brought in former Oklahoma Sooners' quarterback Jason White to be a partial owner of the team.
With a few games left in the season, the owner left town and released all his players. The final games the Brawlers played in Oklahoma City utilized semi-pro players from Texas. It was a horrible experience for Oklahoma City, leaving fans, season ticket holders and employees angry but with nowhere to turn. Jason White eventually sued the owner for money owed to him.
In 2012, there is no team in Oklahoma City and the West Texas team has left the IFL for a Texas based indoor league. There will be some new teams replacing the ones who left with the Allen Wranglers as one of the few Texas based teams remaining. Allen ran a much better franchise than Oklahoma City and have a fantastic playing facility so maybe Owens picked one of the winners here.
Drew Pearson cares about his team. I hope this deal with Owens works out because I really want Pearson to succeed but this is a low budget, no-money league. The players play mostly for the love of the game and most make no more than $250 a game.
I just don't know if Owens is the kind of guy to stick around a team if love of the game is the only thing keeping players there. Of course, Owens is reportedly getting $500,000 to play for the season, which is great since most players can't even afford to live on their salary.
Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has been a Dallas Cowboys' fan since he was a child. His favorite players range from Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett to the Triplets of the 90s and he enjoys talking about all Cowboys' related news, good or bad

story by Shawn S. Lealos
Yahoo! Contributor Network
via CBSSports.com
photo by AP images