OWENS STAKES CLAIMS TO NUMBER 81

The first skirmish involving receiver Terrell Owens might not involve Trent Edwards or any other quarterback on the team. Instead, T.O.'s initial victim in Buffalo could be receiver James Hardy, the person to whom number 81 was issued last year. In his first Buffalo radio interview, with our pals Shredd and Ragan of 103.3 WEDG, Owens made it clear that 81 belongs to him. Asked whether he’ll be wearing the only number he’s worn throughout his NFL career, Owens said, “Yes I am. . . . That’s my number.” Owens then was asked whether he has worked out a deal with Hardy, which is typically the custom when a new player wants to finagle a jersey number that already has been issued to another player on the roster -- and which typically entails a sizable cash payment to the player currently in possession of the number. It was a simple “yes” or “no” question. But Owens opted not to answer it directly. “When I walked into the building for the first time and they showed me around and I walked into the locker room,” he said, “first thing I saw was a locker and it had the number 81 with Owens . . . on the back and I had some other Buffalo swag hung up in the locker room. As far as working deals out, I don’t know. That’s not my department. I think Russ [Brandon] the General Manager, he’ll have to deal with that.” Translation? “I ain’t payin’ Hardy sh-t.” Owens’ name continues to be absent from the team’s official roster -- and Hardy’s name on the roster continues to reflect that his assigned number is 81. Meanwhile, the team is now selling jerseys with Owens’ name appearing over the number 81. Some might think it’s a small matter. But football players can be very territorial about their numbers. Just ask Clinton Portis, who was sued by Ifeanyi Ohalete after Portis promised to pay $40,000 for number 26 with the Redskins and stiffed Ohalete out of half of it after Ohalete was cut. That said, Hardy doesn’t have a long history with 81; he wore 82 at Indiana, which Josh Reed wears with the Bills. Still, it’s the principle that could take on a life of its own. If the team is willing to automatically take Hardy’s number and give it to another player without so much as a head’s up, the message to the rest of the players is that the front office and the coaching staff will cater to T.O.'s every wish and whim. So if the team doesn’t handle this specific situation properly, it could make it even harder for a guy with a history of locker-room issues to be properly accepted by his newest set of teammates.