It’s been almost a full week since the news of Terrell Owens signing with Buffalo was brought to my attention. I purposely waited to write an article about it because I didn’t want to jump to conclusions and wanted to gather more information before going public with my thoughts.

Had I written an article the day it was written, I have no doubt that the article would’ve been laced with profanities and had an overall sour tone. In fact, when a friend from Buffalo sent me a text message during the whirlwind of news that said “Owens is a Bill” I replied back with, “I know, I want to puke”. Granted not much has changed, but I’ve had time to calm down and think things through a little bit more.

It’s true. I have no like for T.O. nor do I like any of the teams he has played for. I didn’t mind him so much in San Francisco, despite the way he left the team and trashed his former teammate Jeff Garcia. It wasn’t something I defended or applauded, but I wasn’t offended and didn’t really care. I gained a large amount of respect for T.O. when he played in Philadelphia and carried them during the Super Bowl on a damaged leg, all in a losing effort. I joined along with most of America in bashing the Eagles as a team for their horrible clock management in that game as that most likely cost them the championship. The one person I didn’t bash in that Super Bowl: T.O. He finished the game with nine receptions and 122 yards, which considering the situation, was simply amazing.

But then the circus came to town. Owens came into his second year just itching to cause trouble. He was suspended before the season even finished and the Eagles washed their hands of him. You might remember the series of incidents in Philadelphia being highlighted by his impromptu press conference and sit-up demonstration that was held in his driveway. I think it was at that time that I finally stopped liking anything about Owens and wished he would just go away.

Then it got better. Instead of going away, he went to the Dallas Cowboys, who are easily in my top five of franchises I can’t stand. The honeymoon started out nicely in Dallas as Owens finished his first season in Dallas with 85 receptions, 1180 yards and 13 touchdowns. He seemed to have great chemistry with Tony Romo and despite him coming into the starting role mid-season, Romo and Owens seemed to click. The following season the Cowboys finished 13-3 and Owens had an even better year finishing with 81 receptions, 1355 yards and 15 touchdowns. They were bounced in the playoffs by the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants, highlighted by T.O. crying at the end of the game in defense of Tony Romo. Honestly, I’ve seen the clip a million times and up until last Saturday, it never got old.

Owens didn’t quite have the year he is used to last season, finishing with only 69 receptions, 1052 yards and 10 touchdowns. The Cowboys were involved with several rumors about releasing Owens, but it didn’t happen when the season ended. It was at this point that I thought Dallas owner Jerry Jones would just hang on to Owens for another season, considering he had signed a three year extension the prior off-season. So you can imagine my surprise when I woke up one morning for work and Sportscenter was showing the news that Dallas had released Owens. Beyond getting a laugh out of the situation, I never even thought twice about it. That is, until this past Saturday.

It took me a few days to really gather my thoughts on this for several reasons. Now knowing he will be playing in Buffalo, the circus is in my town. All the insane and annoying coverage on Sportscenter will be focused around my team this time. The picture of Owens with his Bills hat on just doesn’t seem right. It almost looks like someone’s poor attempt at an April Fools joke done in Photoshop. I’ve had plenty of time to think about this since Buffalo sports talk radio has practically jammed this topic down my throat during every possible second this week. You know, never mind the fact that the Sabres have 15 games left in the season and are fighting for their playoff lives.

However, the Bills are doing the smartest thing they could do, both from a football and financial standpoint. I guess you could chalk this up as a plus to having your organization employ someone in marketing as the GM of the team. Russ Brandon isn’t stupid. He knows that the team was about to take a massive hit in ticket sales because the fans of Buffalo have had more than enough of the Dick Jauron era. So what do you do? Sign a big name free agent who will bring an obscene amount of exposure to Buffalo. It’s a low risk deal for the Bills because it’s only a one year deal. If Owens does well, the Bills might do well and they are rewarded on the field. If Owens doesn’t do well and the Bills fail, he moves on next off-season and at the very worst, the Bills will benefit from another losing season with high ticket sales. At this point in the Buffalo Bills era, they have absolutely nothing to lose. Could they be the laughing stock of the league this year? Probably. Are they already a laughing stock as they close in on a full decade of losing? Absolutely.

Despite the “down” year T.O. had last season, he still would’ve led the Bills in all three categories. The Bills leading receiver last season was Lee Evans who finished with 63 receptions, 1017 yards and 3 touchdowns. So on paper, this is going to have amazing implications. How will defenses line up to stop this attack? Lee Evans on one side, T.O. on the other, and assuming Marshawn Lynch doesn’t miss a significant amount of time due to suspension; this should open up the running game as well.

When free agency started this off-season and the Bills entertained a few receivers, I knew this was a need for the offense. Lee Evans has been hampered throughout his career with sub-par talent on the opposite side of the field and the Bills definitely needed to address this situation before heading into next season. So with the signing of Owens, the Bills definitely filled their need at receiver and exceeded expectations. The only issue is that the games aren’t played on paper and T.O. has a long history of hurting teams in the long run. Oh yeah, and Trent Edwards is still the QB in Buffalo.

I am no doubt more interested in this football season than I was a week ago. That doesn’t mean I’m counting down the days until training camp and that doesn’t mean I have one single thought in my head that the Bills will finally break the post-season barrier for the first time since 1999. But at the very least, it might be a little more entertaining to watch the games. Lord knows that the Bills were the opposite of entertaining during the latter part of last season. I had already planned on not purchasing tickets this season for the simple fact that Dick Jauron is coaching the team again. Those plans haven’t really changed that much. Will I soften up as the season draws near and crack yet again? Probably. Will I purchase a new Owens jersey in the store? Not at all. Do I have my popcorn ready? You bet.