FOOTBALL over the long, long Thanksgiving weekend was not, mercifully, dominated by stories about Terrell Owens. There were recaps, of course, and the TV people seemed reluctant to let go of what had been a very good thing for a very long time. T.O. (such is Owens' celebrity that he is known by his initials alone which are even recognized by Google) gave good copy. He knocked his own teammates, coaches, team, and organization with the kind of shrill arrogance that plays so well on television. He was the Howard Dean of SportsCenter. (Didn't someone once famously say that television is a "cool medium?") When T.O. spoke--or ranted--ESPN listened.

When the Philadelphia Eagles finally struck back, it was with a kind of ponderous certainty. Enough was enough. Owens was no longer worth the aggravation. Great player; rotten employee. The Eagles suspended Owens for four games, without pay, and benched ("deactivated" in the bureaucratic locutions) him for the rest of the season. It was also plain that he would be released by the team before he could collect several million dollars in "bonus" money that he was still owed.

THE SQUABBLE now became one of those events that keep columnists, talk show hosts, and professional busybodies . . . well, busy. Jesse Jackson, unsurprisingly, got into the act on Owens's side as though it were another case of raw oppression by The Man. The NFL Player's association supported Owens' in a grievance hearing before an arbitrator and for days, the sports media--to include

The Germans did better at Versailles than Owens did at his hearing. The arbitrator backed the Eagles all the way down the line. The best the union could do was to swear vengeance against him when his term expires. That man, the union vowed, will never arbitrate again.

Cold comfort to Owens and his agent.

Football fans, no matter how they felt about Owens, were no doubt relieved to get the overall discussion back onto important questions like whether or not the Colts have the defense to go all the way. Owens, as they say, is history, which the media defines as yesterday's story.

STILL . . . a theme seems to lurk behind all the headlines and supercharged talk. Forget Owens and his unappealing personality, his feud with his quarterback, the issues of team morale, and questions about the Eagles' way of playing financial hardball with players. Consider the T.O. affair as a union struggle.

While Owens' ordeal does not inspire one to strike up a chorus of "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night," there was a serious labor / management element to the whole business.

And labor lost.

This came not very long after the baseball players association--the toughest of all the sports unions--caved on steroids. And there have been other recent setbacks. The hockey players who went on strike were routed and lost an entire NHL season. Professional basketball players were told by their NBA bosses that they had to dress nice when in public. There were murmurings of dissent and the predictable charges of racism. But no picket lines, no work stoppages, and no slowdowns during fast breaks. The players appeared, meekly, in appropriate dress.