Bills' Owens criticizes media
Buffalo Bills wide receiver Terrell Owens is upset at the media — again — and he turned to a nationally syndicated radio show to vent his frustration Monday.
As a guest on Sporting News Radio's "Two Live Stews," Owens suggested that the line of questioning directed at him after Sunday's 27-7 loss to the New Orleans Saints was intended to provoke him to say something controversial.
During Sunday's brief postgame news conference, he repeated answers or gave very short responses to questions about the game and his performance.
"It really just shows you the angle that the media has taken all these years," Owens told show co-hosts Ryan and Doug Stewart. "Over the years I've always kind of spoken openly about whatever is being asked wi th my answers, so the last four or five years I've kind of noticed that and tried taking some steps to prevent some of those things from happening.
"But [Sunday] as you saw, it was obviously ... [the media] took some more than initiative to try to get me to kind of go down the wrong path. I know the last two teams that I've been on, I felt like I left those teams prematurely due to media interviews that I've done and things kind of taken out of context and they created sort of a media whirlwind in the locker room and things kind of went downhill from there. I'm just trying to do the best job I can do as far as answering the questions and trying to be a better teammate and not try to throw people under the bus."
Sunday was the first postgame interview Owens has conducted, which drew a reprimand from the NFL because of rules that requires players to speak to the media after games.
But Owens said the reason he declined to do interviews after the first two games because comments he made turned into bigger stories than he felt they should have.
In a conference call with the New England media prior to the opener, Owens was asked if he liked the no-huddle offense. His reply was, "No, not really, but I've got to deal with it. It's all right. It gets you a little winded."
Owens wrote on his Twitter account that he was clearly joking, but some media outlets ran headlines that said Owens didn't like the no-huddle. He created more news the following week when he said quarterback Trent Edwards "has to better assess what he's seeing out there and take some shots down the field."
"The last couple of games I haven't done interviews because I've done interviews where I've been tongue-in-cheek or playful with the interview and again the media has taken those things and misconstrued them and taken them out of context," Owens said. "So I was trying to take myself out of the situation and not do interviews at all until I had a talk with [NFL Senior Vice President of Public Relations] Greg Aiello and kind of got into a heated discussion with him as far as my stance on not doing postgame interviews because I'm not trying to go down the same road that I've been down before.
"So I took the initiative and they told me I had to talk in the postgame. I just went in there and did the best job that I can do without creating any media headlines. Obviously, what I did [Sunday] created headlines."
Owens also said in his 11-minute interview that he wasn't as upset with his 185-game streak with a catch ending as he was about not getting an opportunity to make plays to help the Bills win.
"I know I can play this game at a high level," he said. "We've just got to find some ways to get myself and Lee more involved in the offense. Our run game is right where it needs to be. We just got to complement our run game with the pass game.
"We've just got to keep plugging away and staying positive, and I'm trying my best to be positive. Even with the things that I'm obligated to do as far as the media interviews and things of that nature, I'm just trying to find an even keel and a way to just be positive and be the best person I can be in the locker room and on the field."
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