On Tuesday, receiver Terrell Owens worked out for scouts in California. The only problem? No scouts showed up.
For starters, most scouts currently are criss-crossing the country, visiting college practices and games. Also, teams with interest in available free agents will bring them in for workouts, in lieu of traveling to watch them run and cut. Any team interested in Owens can do that, any day of the week.
Then there’s the fact that, if a team brings T.O. in, the team will want him to do things he didn’t do on Tuesday, like run 40 yards in a straight line.
The most common day of the week on which players work out for teams is Tuesday, and 53 players not named Terrell Owens received on-site workouts this week.
Here’s the list of all of them. Keep an eye out for a certain former top-five draft pick, and for the absence of a man whose DNA match is still getting it done for the Buccaneers, who currently are in significant need of a running back.
Falcons: tackles Kirk Chambers, Kyle Jolly, Kenny Wiggins; running backs Mike Cox, Verron Haynes, Jason McKie, Dimitri Nance, Lousaka Polite; guard Dennis Landolt.
Cowboys: running backs Aaron Brown and Jason Parmele; defensive backs C.C. Brown, Chris Horton, Darcel McBath, Justin Taplin-Ross, C.J. Wilson; guards Nick Cole and Mike Gibson; receivers Yamon Figurs, Johnnie Lee Higgins, Tiquan Underwood, Demetrius Williams; tackle Langston Walker.
Broncos: running backs Xavier Omon and Tyrell Sutton.
Lions: defensive end George Selvie.
Texans: defensive tackles Kentwan Balmer, Landon Cohen, Lamar Divens, Ra’Shon Harris, Trey Lewis, Kade Weston.
Vikings: quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson; receivers Chris Brooks, Kerry Taylor, Terrence Toliver.
Jets: receivers Andy Brewer, DeMarcus Ganaway, Dexter Jackson, Jamarko Simmons; tight end Shawn Nelson; defensive end Ricky Sapp.
Eagles: defensive back Andrew Sendejo.
Buccaneers: running backs Jon Hoese and Eddie Williams; tight end Ryan Winterswyk.
Titans: guards Stanley Daniels, Leonard Davis, Vincent Manuwai, Duke Robinson.
Redskins: running backs Tristan Davis, Kareem Huggins.
Back to Owens, it’s hard not to wonder whether the open workout was part of his latest reality show, a plot line aimed at driving whatever contrived notion the producers are trying to push.
It doesn’t mean T.O. will never find another job in the NFL. All it takes is one team to be sufficiently desperate to bring him in, check him out, and offer him a contract. He played well for the Bengals last year, and if he is recovered from the torn ACL he suffered in the offseason, he could still contribute to a team.
If that team is willing to assume the risk that Owens will find a way to tear the team apart from the inside out.