The Eagles have had two Super Bowl windows over the past twenty years and if not for the destruction of a few key relationships, Andy Reid might already have his first Lombardi Trophy.
Back in 2004, the Philadelphia Eagles acquired Terrell Owens to pair with franchise quarterback Donovan McNabb. The initial results were dynamic, as McNabb and Owens led the Eagles to a 13-3 record and appearance in Super Bowl XXXIX.
The Eagles went on to lose to New England 24-21, with Owens carrying the Birds offense on one leg. Fast forward six months later and the relationship between quarterback and wide receiver started to deteriorate.
If you ask Owens, the relationship deteriorated after McNabb allegedly became jealous of the wide receiver, and changed his interactions towards him.
“A lot of people speculate as to what happened but I think over the years now, people see that I wasn’t really the problem in Philly,” Owens told Adam Schein on Mad Dog Radio. “People said that Donovan and I had some friction. Maybe he had some friction with me, but I didn’t have any with him.
“From my understanding, he had a problem with the way the city embraced me and not the way they embraced him. I am going by what I’ve heard in the streets.”
Now McNabb is telling his side of the story.
While a guest on the latest installment of “Untold Stories” with Bleacher Report’s Master Tesfatsion, the six-time Pro Bowler believes the drama between him and Owens “broke up” the Eagles.
“I give a nice peace sign and keep it moving” ✌️@donovanjmcnabb says the T.O. drama broke up the Eagles. His relationship with Owens is fractured to this day.
New “Untold Stories” with @MasterTes pic.twitter.com/rzQDtDZF9Z
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 22, 2020
“The offseason goes through and then all of a sudden there’s turmoil there and (Owens and the Eagles) are in a conversation going back and forth, and we had to answer those questions instead of focusing on what we need to do in order to get back to where we were,” McNabb said. “I thought that was a major distraction for us … That was something that kind of broke us up.”
Owens, like many players in today’s NFL, had outplayed his contract and wanted a new deal. It appeared that Owens felt some type of way about McNabb not endorsing a new deal for the Hall of Fame wide receiver that took McNabb to new heights in that initial season together.
The 2005 season turned out to be a disaster and Owens was subsequently released prior to the 2006 season and eventually signed with the hated Dallas Cowboys.