By Sean Evans (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: February 22, 2012
Terrell Owens:
T.O. is the definition of the old saying, “pride comes before the fall.” Owens was once the center of the football world. Owens played 15 seasons in the NFL, scoring 153 touchdowns, receiving 1078 passes, and taking the ball a whopping 15,935 yards. Owens was king of the league for a while. Over the years, Owens brought home the bacon in a big way – over $80 million in contracts and sponsorship deals. Owens was set to retire with a bank account stuffed full of cash and surrounded by his friends. Things were not as they seemed.
Following a number of bad investments and child support lawsuits, Owens is currently out of money. At just 38-years-old, Owens had made and lost a fortune. As fast as the money disappeared, so too did any friends. Owens made the mistake of believing in his own hype – he was the best of the best. He didn’t need anyone. The sad truth, however, is that Owens can’t even get a spot on a roster in the NFL. Now in desperate need of cash flow, Owens has been reduced to signing a contract to play Arena football, the equivalent of Alex Ovechkin agreeing to play professional ball-hockey. Owens move is a financial one, but it is also fitting into his chronic need to be the center of attention. As ESPN writer, Jeffri Chadiha noted, his only other option would be to start dating Kim Kardashian.
Steve Moore:
Steve Moore, for those of you who forgot, played 69 games for the Colorado Avalanche between 2001 and 2004. Moores career came to an abrupt end on March 8, 2004 at General Motors Place in Vancouver, BC. It all started a month earlier, when on February 16, 2004, Moore took out then captain of the Vancouver Canucks, Markus Naslund with a hit to head with the elbow. No penalty was called on the play, nor was there any subsequent discipline dolled out by the league. Vancouver players threatened to retaliate. The next time the two teams met was on March 8. The rest is history: Todd Bertuzzi of the Vancouver Canucks sucker-punched Moore from behind, and then fell on top of him, after Moore refused to fight. The results were brutal: three broken vertebrae and a concussion. Moore would never play again.
Following “the incident,” as it has become known as in Vancouver, Moore worked on his recovery but faced numerous challenges, including reoccurring concussion symptoms. Moore filed a civil lawsuit against Todd Bertuzzi, the Canucks and Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment on February 16, 2006. He sought a total of $38 million. The issue has yet to be settled. In the mean time, Moore has been waiting. In 2006, Moore told CBC News that: “I think I have missed about 184-185 games up until this point and he has been playing for two years and I am still sitting here.” To date, Moore has simply been in lawsuit mode, counting the number of games he may have missed.
