Admit it! OK, even I can’t admit it, but don’t you kind of miss Terrell Owens? Yes, I’m writing about him because he and Chad OchoCinco are coming to town for the Bills vs Bengals preseason tilt this Saturday. Look, I’d be the last person to feed into T.O.’s gigantic ego. I totally think he used Buffalo as much as we used him for football by suckering our city into being the opening montage for his reality TV career. Honestly, I was pretty cool with the guy until his whole ditching of practice to venture into Toronto for a autograph session.

However, even though I dumped T.O., like many jilted lovers, I still think about him once in a blue moon (Cue the tears).

Yes, I’ll confess, I had flashbacks after watching T.O. do his best self-promotion with OchoCinco on ESPN and during the Bengals first preseason game. Even still, that really didn’t do too much for me. What got me was when he wrote a personal letter to the city of Cincinnati; telling fans to mark February 6th (The Super Bowl) on their calendar. He also mentioned a number of other pleasantries, but that was the one that stuck with me.

Ah, yes….the hype machine is in full effect in Ohio and I kind of miss that for Western New York.

Look, anyone who says that they were the sole voice of reason against Owens signing here and didn’t envision a more exciting offense are full of it. Sure, some will claim that the offensive line was in flux going into last season. However, in 2008, the Bills biggest problem was easy to dissect: The offense didn’t put enough points on the board and were easily defended in the passing game. Owens seemed like a missing ingredient.

In all honestly, all the hoopla you hear from people in media about how the Owens signing was a waste were just pissed off because he didn’t give them any sort of bulletin board material that they were all hoping for. Now, these people weren’t saying that in December, instead, they were going full anti-Owens in the fall. Frankly, Owens was dull as s#!t with the media and was highly resented by the press core because of that.

Another thing  I kind of miss about Owens is how he made Buffalo seem more relevant. Yes, I know by November of last year Owens was nothing more than a afterthought in the national media. However, from March to September, I could actually carry a conversation with these damn New Yorkers, who didn’t know diddly pooh about the Bills.

You have to understand, I’m envious of most of my readers who are living in Buffalo. They can go to their jobs or schools and just turn to their fellow classmate or co-worker, and just shoot the breeze about the Bills. You think I can talk to anyone about Chan Gailey or Buddy Nix living in New York City? Hell, no, because everyone wants to talk about Rex Ryan swearing his brains out on HBO. T.O. was my only way to carry a conversation with peole. I miss being able to do that.

There’s a reason why I’m in every single Buffalo News chat. I know most of you think that I’m just trying to stir things up, but it’s really about hearing people talk about the Bills. That’s honestly the thing I miss the most about not living in Buffalo: being able to talk local sports. Besides the whole conversing with New Yorkers, I didn’t mind being able to turn on ESPN and hear the talking heads speak about Buffalo.

Now the big question, what could Owens bring to the Bills this year? Well, I’m sure he’d be a better option than Stevie Johnson or whoever is going to be the 2nd option on this team. However, the Bills are rebuilding and with Owens at the end of the line, starting him would only stunt the growth of the other young wide receivers.

Plus, you don’t add a guy like Owens to your team when you are rebuilding; a lesson Dick Jauron didn’t learn last year.  Owens brought expectations the team never had a real chance to deliver.  In ways, it would cost Jauron his job.

So, there. I miss the hype of Owens, but I totally get why it’s better for the Bills to move on and retool without him. I still think he used the city of Buffalo to propel his reality TV star to the heavens, but at least he kind of made it fun… at least the fun lasted until the start of last season.

(Joe is a Buffalo State graduate living in New York City as a freelancer on TV shows for different networks.  He also has his own outstanding sports blog called JoeFromNYC.  You can read this post and many other interesting takes and insight by visiting his blog right here)