Terrell Owens made his much-anticipated return to practice Wednesday afternoon in Oxnard, Calif., but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll suit up for Monday’s preseason game against the New Orleans Saints in Shreveport, La.
The Cowboys’ star receiver had missed 13 consecutive days of practice with a sore left hamstring before trotting out in uniform for his first practice since Aug. 2. Head coach Bill Parcells, who had been non-committal about Owens’ possible return during his daily news conference a few hours earlier, said he would need to see how sharp he looks before deciding if he will play in the nationally-televised game Monday night.
“He has missed a lot of time,” Parcells said. “So it wouldn’t be so much whether he practiced or not as how he looked while he practiced and did he get enough practice to make a good judgment about playing him.
“I don’t want to jeopardize the early part of the season by making a mistake here, I really don’t.”
Meanwhile, the Cowboys’ other two top receivers haven’t practiced either this week. Patrick Crayton will miss at least a week with a high ankle sprain and Terry Glenn has been bothered by a sore foot caused by compensating for the painful blisters under his big toe. Glenn still was not practicing on Wednesday.
“I think today would be probably 50 percent of the practices we have prior to Jacksonville,” Parcells said. “So we need to get going here if possible.”