Buggin'

Niners beat the flu, but Owens presents a different problem

So now we turn our attention to the other knucklehead.

The West Coast knucklehead.

Let me set the stage of L'Affaire Terrell Owens by saying the San Francisco 49ers had a 10-point lead over the Washington Redskins Sunday at 3Com Park midway through the fourth quarter. The 49ers took the ball, ate the clock superbly, and marched from their 3-yard line to the Washington 16 with less than two minutes remaining and the clock moving; Washington had no timeouts left. All coach Steve Mariucci had to do was have backup quarterback Tim Rattay kneel on the ball twice in the final minute-plus on the clock, and the 49ers would have a 20-10 win. Which is exactly what Mariucci did, and the 49ers left the field with a decisive win.

They also left the field sick as dogs. No fewer than 22 San Francisco players were either vomiting or dehydrated Saturday night and Sunday morning because of a mysterious bug that swept through the team. So many guys were on IVs for hydration Sunday before the game and during halftime that a good number of the players were taking fluids intravenously at their lockers; there was no room on the overcrowded training tables. Even Bill Walsh, the Niners consultant, came down with the illness.

"So all we want to do is get out of there without getting anyone hurt," Mariucci said. "Plus, when you're up by more than one score and you can run out of the clock, you always do that. I did want to really kick their rear ends, but not at the expense of the health of our team or the very small chance that we'd turn the ball over and give them any kind of chance to come back."

Mariucci said the team was so concerned about the flu bug that everyone's shoulder pads and helmets were being disinfected this week.

Fine. Into this situation, however, steps the mouth of the great 49ers receiver, Owens. After the game, unhappy with his team's choice to sit on the ball at the end of the game, Owens said the 49ers lacked the killer instinct needed to be a great team.

On its face the comment is silly. Great coaches through history have had double-digit leads midway through the last quarter and wanted only one thing -- to eat up the clock and go home by mashing the ball down the defense's throat. Not running up the score, or trying to, was the professional thing to do, and that's how Mariucci coaches. Adding the sickness factor to Owens' comment makes it seem downright ignorant. The 49ers were playing to survive a game, they have a double-digit lead, and they win by 10. What's the problem?

"Look, I'm asking you not to make a big deal of this," Mariucci said. "Terrell's been good this year. Really good. Much better than in the past. It's just that, with him, you know there'll be flare-ups. He gets emotional. I'm not even considering this an issue."

Then Mariucci admitted he'd had a couple of meetings with Owens about this issue, and apparently about the fact that Owens caught only two balls in the game. That's not an issue? Seems like an issue to me when you have two meetings with the guy.

It looks like the 49ers will simply have to accept the fact that they're going to endure some silly eruptions from Mount Owens four or five times a year. The only good thing about it is that Owens is not a locker room leader, and so he won't be able to infect many of his teammates.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Check out his Monday Morning Quarterback column every -- and you should see this coming -- Monday morning.

 

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