Owens, left, and Garcia in happier times

Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history.

Pro football, 2004: Terrell Owens and Jeff Garcia were once teammates for the San Francisco 49ers. When Owens left for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2004, he did an interview with Playboy and was asked if Garcia was gay. Owens’ comments caused a media firestorm:

“Like my boy tells me: If it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, by golly, it is a rat.”

Garcia had denied that he was gay months before (he would later marry Playboy Playmate Carmella DeCesare and have a child to prove it) and Owens tried to backpedal, though he never did explain how else his “rat” comment could be interpreted.

I wrote this at the time:

Terrell Owens implies that Jeff Garcia is gay. Garcia denies it and mentions that he has had girlfriends. The mainstream media is excited. I yawn.

I confess that the Owens-Garcia lover’s quarrel, as one friend jokingly dubbed it, leaves me underwhelmed. I don’t think Owens’ comments, while classless and ignorant, were all that heinous. And Garcia’s response is annoying.

Yet the dustup between the two former teammates has provided grist for a media mill lacking in much else to write about in the dog days of summer. A Google News search turns up 150 media sources that have run with the story, and ESPN devoted a segment to the issue, spinning it into a larger “homosexuals in the NFL angle.”

It is hard to say whether this is a great gay sports moment given the absurdity of the two participants and the fact that both claim to be straight, but it did get people talking about the issue, which is never a bad thing.

For more information:

• Terrell Owens says Jeff Garcia is gay
• Jeff Garcia: “I’m not gay”

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Roddy White was the perfect No. 1 fantasy pick

All through July and August, fantasy football players struggle with the planning of their NFL fantasy draft. They review the experts’ picks, look at matchups, check the injuries on the offensive line, and at some point in the late summer sit down and spend a couple hours selecting their team. With all of that, most drafts look the same. The same players get picked in the first round, the second round, the same defense gets picked first. And with all that, it’s safe to say nobody got it right this year, because with the fantasy regular season over, here’s what the perfect 2010 fantasy football draft looked like (with average ESPN draft position in parentheses).

Round 1 – WR Roddy White, Atlanta (23)
“Interesting, interesting,” is what your draft buddies would say. Everybody in your draft had a shot at Roddy White in the first round. If you had the No. 1 pick in the whole draft, you made a mistake if you didn’t take Roddy White. He would have ended up as your No. 3 receiver, but he was the best value here. By the way, White was my No. 1 draft pick in my fantasy draft (with Jim) this year.

Round 2 – TE Antonio Gates, San Diego (44)
“What? A tight end in the second round? You haven’t picked a running back yet. See you in the toilet bowl!” I can hear the cackles from your fellow draft buddies now. They have a sucker on the line, and they can’t wait to kick your ass all season long.

Round 3 – RB Arian Foster, Houston (47)
“Okay, good pick-up.” Foster was high on a lot of lists. Maurice Jones-Drew said in August the one big break-out fantasy player this year would be Foster. So your buddies would be kicking themselves for not taking him earlier.

Round 4 – WR Dwayne Bowe, Kansas City (62)
“Bwahahaha! He drops more than he catches!” And that crappy QB throwing to him. It’s back on the razz train.

Round 5 – WR Mike Wallace, Pittsburgh (75)
At this point everyone is just focused on their own draft and has stopped paying attention to what you’re doing. Wallace won’t even start for you most weeks, but he’ll be trade fodder if you want to use him there.

Round 6 – WR Terrell Owens, Cincinnati (78)
“Dude, what are you doing? That’s your fourth wide receiver and you don’t even have another running back yet.” The rest of the guys would get a chuckle, but they’ve essentially written you off for the season at this point.

Round 7 – RB Darren McFadden, Oakland (107)
“He shouldn’t have even been drafted this high in the REAL NFL Draft.” Most “experts” think McFadden will share too much time with Michael Bush, and many think Bush will be the starter by mid-season at the latest.

Round 8 – DT Pittsburgh Steelers (113)
“A defense? Dude, you haven’t picked a QB yet. Are you trying to lose?” Ha ha ha ha ha.

Round 9 – K David Akers, Philadelphia (139)
And then the party starts. They have to stop the draft as your buddies spend ten minutes laughing. Some of them are on their phones calling and texting their other friends to tell them what an idiot you are for taking a kicker in the ninth round. The league commissioner asks you to pay your entry fee on the spot because he doesn’t think you’re good for it. Oh, they’re loving this.

Round 10 – QB Kyle Orton, Denver (153)
You skip over Roethlisberger and Mark Sanchez for Orton. More laughter.

Round 11 – QB Michael Vick, Philadelphia (200)
The coup de grâce. That which ends any possible hope you had of winning a single game this season. You pick a quarterback who isn’t even his team’s starter. “You think he’s gonna play some wide receiver?” Your buddies joke. Your season is lost.

Round 12 – RB Peyton Hillis, Cleveland (NR)
Another guy who isn’t even the starter on his team. “Your draft will go down in history as the worst ever. I can’t wait to email Matthew Berry this one. He’ll frame the email!”

Round 13 – WR Brandon Lloyd, Denver (NR)
Guys want to laugh at every pick now, but this one isn’t that funny. Except that you have the Denver QB and starting WR. And Lloyd isn’t even their No. 1 guy.

Round 14 – TE Marcedes Lewis, Jacksonville (NR)
“What, you gonna draft a backup kicker next?” Hmmmm…Dan Carpenter’s on your list, but you’ll stick with just Akers for a couple weeks….

Round 15 – RB Mike Tolbert, San Diego (NR)
The guy who make a “great pick” by drafting Ryan Matthews in the second round already scooped up Darren Sproles as insurance. So you’re left with lumbering Mike Tolbert. Curses.

Round 16 – WR Steve Johnson, Buffalo (NR)
With your final pick of the draft you select a guy buried on the depth chart. He’ll finish 12th overall for wide receivers in fantasy points scored, but he’ll never see your starting lineup. Eventually you’ll have to drop him to snap up a kicker for a week. Or you’ll trade him. But for now, he’s one of the many laughing stocks of your “disastrous” draft.

So that’s it: It’s all you had to do to get these results:

QB rankings: 1, 7
RB rankings: 1, 2, 4, 16
WR rankings: 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 12
TE rankings: 1, 4
K rankings: 1
DT rankings: 1

Chances are you wouldn’t have lost a single game all season. In fact, chances are you wouldn’t have won by less than double digits all season. Sure, the week Vick got knocked out of the game you would be hurting if you’d started him over Orton (who had 340 yards and 2 TDs that week). But I guarantee this: You’d be the only one laughing now.

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10) The Vikings won’t make the playoffs.
I have no question that Favre will play all 16 games. That’s why they won’t make the playoffs. He’s gimpy already, and he won’t pull himself out of a game. With a mediocre offensive line, I see 20+ picks for Favre again this season; And a team with that secondary can’t survive that.

9) Kevin Kolb will be a top-5 quarterback this season.
People outside of Philadelphia were scratching their heads when the Eagles traded Donovan McNabb. But Eagles fans rejoiced. For all the criticism of Andy Reid, he has a fantastic passing system and the guys to run it: A four-star receiver and deep threat in DeSean Jackson, a strong receiving tight end in Brent Celek, and one of the league’s best pass-catching RBs in LeSean McCoy.

Wade Phillips and Lovie Smith will finally be shown the door.
An owner has only so much patience. And despite Jerry Jones saying he’s been told to not talk about the Super Bowl, that doesn’t mean he isn’t thinking about it again. Chicago management feel they’ve delivered everything Lovie Smith needs to win, but he won’t be able to escape the team’s fourth straight January watching the playoffs from home.

7) The Raiders’ predicted rise from the basement is premature.
Why is everyone talking about how Jason Campbell is the savior of this team? “He’s better than JaMarcus Russell,” is what I hear over and over again. But folks, he was not good in Washington throwing to Santana Moss and Chris Cooley; Why is he suddenly going to be a break-out star throwing to Louis Murphy and Zach Miller? And with that offensive line, my guess is he’s not even in the top 20 of all QBs at the end of the season (I could see him being benched). The defense could be quite good, and that will keep them from the three-touchdown losses that plagued them last year, but the Raiders aren’t going anywhere this season.

6) Cincinnati’s predicted fall from grace is premature.
It seems everyone considers the Bengals’ run at the playoffs last year a fluke. Not me. I see it as a long time coming. This is a good team that hit hard times over the last couple years, and last year it all came together. While I usually hate the disruption T.O. brings to a team, I’m banking on him being a model citizen who just wants to win the Super Bowl. And if that passing offense can just be ranked in the top half of the league, they will win the AFC North again.

5) Aaron Rodgers will be the NFL MVP.
This season will mark the completion of Rodgers’ emergence from Brett Favre’s shadow. Not only will his Packers win the NFC North, but Rodgers will put up crazy numbers that hand him his first league MVP trophy. He had a stellar season last year despite a horrible offensive line. But midway through the 2009 season, the team switched its blocking scheme and Rodgers soared. Look for 4,700 yards and 40 TDs (passing and running) from Rodgers this year.

4) San Francisco 49ers will be in the NFC Championship game.
Mike Singletary and the Niners front office are building a champion in the Bay Area. I don’t think any team had a better draft, with San Francisco taking two stud offensive lineman (one of their biggest weaknesses last year) in the first round. I think that will allow their offense to explode this year, with Frank Gore, Vernon Davis and Michael Crabtree leading the charge. And with a top-5 defense, the 49ers will be playing deep into January; Whether they play in February or not may depend on whether they have to visit Green Bay in the snow.

3) The New York Jets will miss the playoffs.
As a Patriots fan, I’m thrilled that another team is now the most-hated team in the league. The Jets have taken their bragadocio to national television, proclaiming themselves the best team in the NFL. But it seems everyone has forgotten that this was a 7-7 team last year before their final two opponents (Colts and Bengals) decided to sit their starters in their final two games. Mark Sanchez was terrible last year (passer rating of 63.0), and that was with a 1,400-yard rusher in Thomas Jones (who is now gone).

2) The Lions will be a .500 or better team.
No team will take a bigger leap on defense this year than the Lions. Last year they couldn’t get any pressure on the quarterback and gave up over 30 points and 265 passing yards per game. In the offseason they revamped their defensive line, drafting Ndamukong Suh and bringing in Corey Williams and Kyle Vanden Bosch. And while we hear about the “sophomore slump” for quarterbacks all the time, I think Matthew Stafford and the offense will be better. The Lions are rebuilding, and they will see some of the fruits of that rebuilding this year.

1) The Kansas City Chiefs will win the AFC West.
The fall of the Chargers is at hand. They let their best running back go, their best wide receiver won’t play for them, and one of their key offensive lineman is holding out. This team doesn’t start strong to any season, and this time they won’t be able to recover. On the flip side, we will witness this year the rise of the Chiefs. I love what they did this offseason. They now have a two-headed monster at running back in Thomas Jones and Jamaal Charles. They have two fantastic coordinators in Charlie Weiss and Romeo Crenell (guys who weren’t great head coaches but who know their side of the ball as well as anyone). And while everyone is talking about whether Dwayne Bowe will finally break out this year, I look for Chris Chambers to have a resurrection. Add to that a favorable schedule and you have a 10-6 division champion.

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Then there’s Terrell Owens. He talked some big talk in the offseason, looking to prove the Cowboys (who cut him) wrong. He had his own reality show and competed on ABC’s Superstars show. Now he sits in the cellar of the AFC East and his stats sit in Neverland: Averaging 36 yards per game and recording only 1 score in his first six games with the Buffalo Bills. Those are averages he has never, not even in his rookie season, seen.

Quinn has the chance to find another home and be a backup somewhere, but Owens is likely done. And because he chose to go to Buffalo, he’s pretty much forgotten.

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At any rate, Terrell Owens, wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills (at least until he throws another quarterback under the bus), was visiting Miami. About 24 hours ago he needed a ride to the airport after partying at Mansion and eating at Big Pink:

Need a ride 2 airport ladies! Ummmm i’m n the aventura area. Preferably No dudes!!

“Preferably no dudes”? This gives new meaning to the phrase “If it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, by golly, it is a rat.”

seriously, i need a ride 2 airport, flt is @ 7am. who wants 2 give me a ride?

Fortunately, he got hooked up. With a ride to the airport, I mean. Meanwhile, after T.O. arrived in town, he tweeted a fellow receiver, Donte Stallworth:

@D_Stallworth18 wassup homie? i’m here! u gettin out?

Ummmmm, T.O.? I don’t know if you heard, but Donte is under house arrest after serving less than a month in jail for DUI manslaughter. If he’s getting out, it’s not to Mansion or Big Pink.

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The Wall Street Journal has an interactive segment, with video, with T.O. discussing how he keeps so ripped. It discusses his training, his sleep habits and what he listens to to get motivated (Jennifer Hudson and Jay-Z are two faves). To me, though, the most important factor is his diet. You can have muscular abs, but they won’t show if covered by a layer of fat.

During football season, breakfast is usually one bowl of oatmeal and eight to 10 scrambled egg whites. He might have a banana or low-fat yogurt for a midmorning snack. For lunch, he’ll have two baked chicken breasts or 10 ounces of grilled turkey breast, and a baked sweet potato. Fruit, a small salad or about 20 almonds is his afternoon snack. Dinner is usually 12 ounces of grilled fish or eight ounces of grilled lean steak, with steamed brown rice or whole-wheat pasta. His evening snack is usually steamed or raw vegetables. …

Mr. Owens doesn’t drink alcohol and stays away from sweets during the season. When the season comes to an end, though, his first stop is a fast-food restaurant — usually Domino’s, where he orders a large Meat Lover’s pizza. “I feel like I can reward myself for a few months and rest the body,” he says. “But then I get right back on track to prepare for the season.”

It’s a very common sense diet, absent a lot of gimmicks, and his breakfast is exactly what I eat every day. Go figure — T.O. and I have something in common, though he still is a bigger drama queen.

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The big excitement of the game came at the end of the Titans’ first possession: A fake Statue of Liberty play out of a punt that saw the punter keep the ball and run 40 yards for a touchdown. Not sure why the Titans would show that at the end of their first preseason drive, but I have to believe we’ll see some trickery during the season that will pay that off.

The last little tidbit from the game: Why do teams and the League insist on wearing throwback jerseys? They look terrible. The Titans aren’t even the Oilers anymore, yet there they are with an oil derrick on the side of their helmets. Harrumph.

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Terrell Owens is one beautiful man and he knows it, oh, Lord, he knows it …  Why else would Owens spend at least 60% of his time in front of the camera shirtless?

Good thing too, because the sculpted pecs, mighty shoulders and perfect abs are just about the only thing the show has going for it. No, wait, I take that back; he has a lovely smile as well.

My DVR is set to record it to see how much of a fleshfest it is. Feel free to post your review of the show after it airs.

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The show looks fantastic. It picks up Owens as he’s cut from Dallas and follows him through a stint in L.A. and on to Buffalo. If the trailer is any indication, there will be explosions, laughs, tears and a good amount of skin. Check out the trailer after the jump.

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So, for the inaugural STOTW we feature one Terrell Owens. The Dallas Morning News reports he’s officially thrown another quarterback under the bus. A fan said that he was unhappy that the Cowboys released Owens, who is now with Buffalo. T.O.’s reply:

neither ws i, blame the OC & romo!! but i’m happy 2 b where i am but i miss the other guys tht were & r true teammates!!

“OC” is a reference to Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett. Romo, of course, is QB Tony Romo. I guess this is no longer a testament of T.O.’s true feelings:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNO6On7cK1M]

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