Philadelphia downplays TO's meltdown

By PHIL SHERIDAN
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
PITTSBURGH -- Being a lightning rod comes natural to Terrell Owens. He gets to stand out, high above the crowd where everyone can see him.
It's all great, until he gets zapped. Lightning struck in the same place not once or twice but three times on Sunday, and the NFL's most dangerous man remained standing. He was a little charred, but he didn't back down.
The first bolt struck when Pittsburgh wide receiver Hines Ward scored a touchdown on the Steelers' first possession. Ward ran to the corner of the end zone, put one foot on the ball and did a mocking version of Owens' wing-flapping TD celebration.
"It was fun," Owens said. "Hines and I are good friends. I didn't have a problem with it. He did what he did for his team. That's fun. That's what I do."
The second strike was much more powerful. The cameras found Owens and Donovan McNabb on the sideline in the second quarter, Owens' perpetual-motion machine of a mouth going full blast while McNabb kept turning his back to him.
"It may have looked bad," McNabb said. "But when you get in a battle like that, you get frustrated. You want things to happen. He tried to calm me down. He was trying to be positive about everything."