George Teague should never have to pay for another meal in the state of Texas as long as he lives. Opportunities to stand up and defend what you hold dear to yourself are rare. Everyone thinks they are ready to do the right thing, but when the action is happening and emotions are high, not everyone who talks a good game is ready for that action.
20 years ago Thursday, Teague was ready for that action. When San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Terrell Owens decided he was going to capitalize on the downturn the Dallas Cowboys organization was entering and desecrate the sacred midfield star at Texas Stadium, Teague wasn’t having it. The safety, on his second tour of duty with the Cowboys stood up when no one else did. He refused to let Owens celebrate in his house, his teammate’s house, the way Owens wanted to with no repercussion. Everyone remembers the highlights of how it went down, but everyone should hear it directly from Teague’s mouth.
You remember. We all remember. The Dallas Cowboys franchise was on the tail end of one of the greatest runs in NFL history. After an 8-8 finish in 1999, the Cowboys started off with two losses and then defeated rival Washington. The 49ers came into the game struggling too, starting with an 0-3 record and trying to find their way.
Leading 10-3 as the second quarter reached it’s end, San Francisco was able to pull ahead by two scores when QB Jeff Garcia found Owens for a three-yard score. What happened next set off the events that led to Teague living in Cowboys lore forever.
“First of all, 20 years ago bro… 20 years ago,” Teague reminisced. “It don’t even seem like it.”
}In the game, man, emotions are flying. Anybody that’s involved in competition, or a high level of competition or doesn’t like to lose knows that you can get pretty irritated. I don’t know how many of your fans play spades or dominoes, or whatever it is but there tends to be a whole lot of trash talking in the games.”
“So pretend that you’re playing dominoes except you’re on a field with 80,000 people watching you get your hand beat up really, really bad and you got a showboat that keeps running his mouth and running his mouth. Sooner or later you gotta say ‘hey bro, c’mon now, let’s not do this’.”
“So after he goes out to the star the first time and everybody’s just kinda shook like ‘whaaat just happened? ‘ok good one’ you gotta chalk it up a little bit, alright. So Emmitt says, ok well lemme go get this back. Got a touchdown, take my hat off — man this is a great movie, we need to make an episode of this– So when we get down to right before the play, it’s, and it’s bad to say this about teammates right? But the way things are going and knowing everything that’s gonna happen but I’m sitting there watching going like ‘man they’re f–in gonna throw the ball to Terrell Owens, he’s gonna score. We got a rookie corner over there, they’re gonna match up- they’re just gonna throw him the ball’ and that’s exactly what happened, put him over there.”
“So they put him over there, I’m on the other side. Before the play, I’m watching like literally not doing anything because I know where the ball is gonna go. I mean, all I’m doing is watching Terrell Owens, that’s all I’m doing and I’m wondering what is his celebration gonna be. Call me a fan or whatever you want but I’m watching him.”
“They throw up the fade ball, he goes over he catches the ball. It looks like he’s finna say something to the fans and you see him change his mind and say… I’m going back. And that is the moment where I just absolutely lost it and just darted, in my best track form to meet him at the star.”
“So I blacked out, I knew once I saw him change directions if he was just standing over there by the field that probably wouldn’t have happened. But once he went on over and said man I’m going back, I said whoa whoa whoa whoa, wait a second. And then, I was ready to throw blows at that point and was ‘let’s get it on. To my fault, I can say, I really didn’t care about any fan that was out there, any team that was out there, whatever it was ‘no this is not about to happen.”
“And so, that’s how it ended up, now I can lighten it up a little bit, but this is what most people miss.”
But the story didn’t end there, of course. There’s aftermath.
“Most people don’t really see what happens after I hit Terrell Owens,” Teague continued. “They kinda see him go back to the star and standing on the ball, but what they don’t see is my athleticism, because there was a big lineman that tried to decapitate me right after I hit Terrell Owens. Go back and watch it! I made him miss, so I gave him the ol’ Mr. Miyagi ‘whaaaaa’ move off to the side, and then I was ready to get him and that’s when Flozell Adams and the guys came, Ryan McNeil they came and grabbed me and started to calm me down.”
“I’m very glad — I wouldn’t take anything back about hitting Terrell Owens, I’ll go ahead state that — but I’m so glad that I got those DB eyes and that peripheral vision that I saw that lineman getting ready to decapitate me but I made him miss!”
Defending the honor of not just your teammates, but the entire organization was major, especially for someone usually mild-mannered as Teague.
“Yes, those are one of the moments, and maybe you’ve been around them when people are kind of out of character a little bit. I would say I’m generally a nice guy, try to resolve problems the best way I can. And it was like once that happened, everyone just kinda looking at me like ‘dude you crazy. You alright? You need some medicine? What’s going on?”
“I can tell you when I had to go into the meeting on Monday, cuz I had been kicked out of the game, and that’s when the fines come down on Monday. And I got called in by Jerry Jones and the gang and they gave me my talk. ‘Well, you know what? We’re very, very proud of you. Thank you for standing up for the star and defending our house’ and then they hit me with ‘but… we gotta fine you for getting kicked out of the game.'”
Fans often believe that teams rally around players and help pay their fines. That was not the case, according to Teague.
“Naw! There wasn’t no collection plate. I need some help, bruh! I need your listeners to send in some change, man, I’m hurting! Fine was about $24,999 to get kicked out of the game. That cost me a couple Nintendos and Sega Genesis back then.”
The Cowboys lost that game, 41-24, and finished the season at 5-11. It was the first of three consecutive 5-11 seasons that eventually led to the hiring of Bill Parcells. Parcells famously was saddled with the immense talent and all the theatrics that came with Owens a year into his tenure. But before any of that happened, Teague and Owens would face off on the field once again.
“So we actually played them again the next year, in Dallas. And no one even talks about this, but I actually got matched up with him. I know they did this on purpose. That’s just how coaches work, I think they were sitting up in the box going ‘how are we gonna get George Teague and Terrell Owens matched up in a one-on-one situation’. And it happened, down on our goal line, again, it was almost identical but they didn’t put him on someone else, they actually had he and I matched up. You talk about heart throbbing, blood flowing like ‘oh I know where this ball is going.’
I ended up getting the best of him… I actually broke the pass up, gave him a lil’ summin’ summin’ to the head. He didn’t like that, but I did get a chance to play him again.”
When the Cowboys did sign Owens, it clearly would stir up some emotions in Teague after all that surrounded that fateful day. Some fans welcomed him with open arms. That ain’t Teague.
“Well, so I came from a different lens, KD. I know who Jerry Jones is. Anything controversial that can get him on TV and people talking about him is a plus. So bringing Terrell in is gonna bring a whole lot of conversation about the Cowboys.
Obviously he’s in the Hall of Fame, so yes it works. But there’s other pieces I think as an owner as a coach you just gotta say ‘nah, this is not a fit for us’.”
Teague is more than just the guy who rocked Owens off the star. He’s a national champion and former first-round pick. Teague was a clutch performer with four return touchdowns over this career. To hear more of his story, including why he and Jimmy Johnson didn’t get along, his time engineering a turnaround for John Paul II as their head coach, and thoughts about a myriad of other topics, subscribe to the Catch This Fade! Podcast to hear the full interview.
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