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NFL
Owens vows to play in Super Bowl
By RICK STROUD
Published January 24, 2005
PHILADELPHIA - Terrell Owens danced, jumped and led the cheers on the Eagles sideline as the final minutes melted away in Sunday's 27-10 win over the Falcons in the NFC Championship game.
The Eagles receiver might not be an innocent bystander at the Super Bowl.
Owens, who is recovering from a severe ankle injury and leg fracture, vows to play in Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville Feb.6.
Even coach Andy Reid predicted T.O. would be able to go in two weeks and announced it to fans at Lincoln Financial Field.
"I got caught up in the emotion," Reid said. "We'll see. We'll see. He was standing right there, so I had to make him feel good.
"We've got to see. Every day he's making progress, and we'll see how he does this next week, if he can put a little bit more pressure on it running-wise. You saw him down there walking around, jumping around actually. We'll see."
Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb wasn't as confident.
"You ask him, he said he's going to be back so that's the only thing we can go on right now," McNabb said. "I'm not a doctor, so I can't tell you what's going on with that. But I'm sure he's going to rehab well and do whatever he can to get back on the field again."
THE WEATHER WAS FRIGHTFUL: All week, the debate was which team would be the most affected by the winter storm that hit the northeast Saturday, dumping 10-12 inches of snow on Philadelphia.
Turned out it was the Falcons.
The temperature was 17 degrees at kickoff with 26 mph winds gusting to 35 mph, resulting in a wind chill of 0 to minus-5 degrees. But McNabb had little trouble throwing into the wind. He completed a 45-yard pass to Greg Lewis in the second quarter into the teeth of the gusts.
"The winds were blowing pretty hard and obviously we know how cold it was, but we weren't going to let anything hold us back," McNabb said. "But we're not a team that tries to make excuses, so we just continue to run our offense and do it effectively, and we did an excellent job of it today."
Reid said he considered altering the game plan when he awoke.
"When that wind was blowing sideways this morning, I thought it was going to be a little tough throwing the football," Reid said. "So were were prepared either way."
NO RING THIS TIME: Falcons general manager Rich McKay wore the Super Bowl XXXVII ring he earned as Bucs GM in Philadelphia to remind his new team the Eagles could be beaten in the NFC title game.
But it didn't matter.
McKay and former Bucs running back Warrick Dunn came up short. Dunn finished with 59 yards on 15 carries and a touchdown.
"Well, everybody's going to say we had a good season," Dunn said. "We were able to accomplish a lot, but we didn't accomplish our goal. You just have to look at that and try to build on it. I know guys are hurting now. It's a tough loss. We were just 60 minutes away from going to the Super Bowl."
[Last modified January 24, 2005, 06:39:57]
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