Football-wise, the logic is impeccable.
The Buffalo Bills haven't made the playoffs since 1999, which in the NFL is a very long time indeed (only the Detroit Lions have been equally bad over that stretch).
Bills head coach Dick Jauron likely has only one more season to turn things around before he's shown the door. Team owner Ralph Wilson is 90, which suggests that another decade of postseason drought might be pushing things a bit.
In 2008, while getting off to a rip-roaring start, then falling apart down the stretch, the Bills were offensively challenged, averaging only 190 passing yards a game. They have a promising young quarterback in Trent Edwards, and they have one exceptional wide receiver in Lee Evans. But their first-round pick of a year ago, receiver James Hardy, was an out-and-out bust, leaving opponents free to double up on Evans.
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And the truth is, free-agent football players are hardly flocking to the Niagara Frontier. This spring there has been an embarrassing parade of familiar names troop through Buffalo.
Familiar names - Fred Taylor and Laveranues Coles among them - stopped by for a visit, held a quick press conference, then immediately signed somewhere else. Buffalo isn't a glamorous place, the climate isn't great, and not a whole lot of people believe the NFL franchise is immediately bound for glory.
So what the Bills required was a still potentially great wide receiver, with few other options, willing to take their money and take his chances.
Welcome to Western New York (and Southern Ontario), Terrell Owens.
"God has a place for me," Owens said on his arrival in Orchard Park, N.Y., on Saturday. "He has a plan for me. This may not be the most ideal place for a lot of people, but I'm the guy.
"I beat to my own beat sometimes, my own thinking, my own intuition. Well, for me, this is an opportunity. It's an interesting situation. No matter what uniform I put on, I perform. So it's not a matter of what tipped the scale. It could be money, it could be this, you never know. ... I saw how the Bills started last year and they made some eyes open last year, so if I can be that extra added piece to the puzzle to get them to the playoffs and make something happen, then that's what I'm here for."
You don't have to believe in divine guidance, or understand the meaning of "beat to my own beat" to know that things are about to get interesting in Billsland.
Finally exiled from the Dallas Cowboys circus this spring after owner Jerry Jones had a change of heart, a quarterback/coach/team-killer wherever he has played, Owens is a singular talent and a singular head case.
His options at this stage were apparently few. He required a franchise desperately in need of his talents, willing to pay the price ($6.5-million U.S. for a one-year deal), and willing to roll the dice on the issues of chemistry, discipline, distraction and especially esprit de corps.
That's the Bills, by definition, who also have another motive: marketing. Their tickets don't sell automatically, and another wheel-spinning season, with free agents taking a pass, the team's football operation inspiring precious little confidence, and the economy in the tank wouldn't have exactly sent the turnstiles spinning. They needed something to energize their fans.
Whether that turns out to be a much improved football team or a destructive sideshow will depend largely on how Owens adapts to his new surroundings. There's no question he can still play, he still cares about winning and in theory he is exactly what the doctor ordered for the Bills' anemic attack.
But in the end, that wasn't enough in San Francisco or Philadelphia or Dallas. Buffalo is a very different place than those. Will it be good or bad for Owens to play where he will be by far the biggest star, in one of the league's smallest media markets?
How will he fare in a city where players can disappear from the spotlight and live a relatively normal life, which would seem to run contrary to what Owens is all about?
Bills fans, understandably, seem to be reacting to the signing with a mixture of excitement and dread. But at least somebody is unequivocally happy. That cheering you heard? That was the folks from Rogers Communications, who this fall are hoping to regain some momentum for their Bills in Toronto series with adjusted ticket prices, a high-profile opponent, and now a guy in the "home" team's lineup who will command plenty of attention, on field and off.
"I just have to create my own following up here in North America," Owens said. "I'm leaving America's team to come to North America's team."
Whether he knew what he was saying or not, he couldn't have said it better had it been scripted.
