Terrell Owens always has been a big mouth, but the Dallas Cowboys put up with him and fed his ego until he recently created a controversy for his team by accusing his quarterback of favoring someone else.

Why would anyone put up with these guys and their selfish behavior? The answer to that is right here in Chicago:

Rashied Davis, Brandon Lloyd, Marty Booker and, apparently, Earl Bennett. That's why.

The NFL keeps changing, and you need a big-time receiver more than ever. That need is feeding the psyches of more and more superstar wideouts, who know they can get away with anything. Meanwhile, the Bears have a group of guys who can't get away from a linebacker.

Last week, I urged the Cubs not to sign Milton Bradley because he's a greater pain than he is a player. And maybe this sounds like a flip-flop, but the Bears' receivers make me rethink that whole philosophy.

Almost.

There must be something between a bigheaded receiver who is great and whatever it is that Bears general manager Jerry Angelo has had the nerve to put on the field.

The Bears' entire air attack now is to dump the ball to running back Matt Forte, throw to wherever tight end Greg Olsen happens to be or throw deep to Devin Hester and pray for pass interference.

Of course, Angelo didn't bring in these receivers because they're good citizens. It was just that he couldn't do better, especially without spending.

PIA factor a point to ponder

Meanwhile, whenever Owens and his mouth sign with another team, the offense of that team gets better. And since Burress shot himself, the Giants have gone from a dominant force headed to another Super Bowl to a team on a losing streak.

There is such a thing as a PIA factor, and it's like this: You can be a pain in the backside -- PIA -- to the extent that your production outweighs your burden. What typically happens is that teams and fans see only the production side first and try to ignore the PIA side. After a while, that PIA side starts to overwhelm production.

But with the Bears' receivers, they aren't a pain, but they also have zero production. Which suffering is worse, Owens or the Bears?

Lloyd has such low production that when he seemed to suggest he didn't want to play hurt, that in itself was more than he had accomplished. So he was out.

The Bears' receivers are going to cost Kyle Orton a performance bonus for completions.

Imagine that. Orton suddenly is dropping away from the promise we saw early in the season because his receivers keep dropping passes. You can't give up on him.

Doubts, maybe. Teams are starting to figure him out, break his rhythm. But he still has very little mobility, thanks to his sprained right ankle, and has almost no one to throw to.

Remember Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter who kept winning gold at the Beijing Olympics last summer? He showboated his way across the finish line, slowing down to celebrate when he could have shattered the world record instead of merely breaking it.

There seems to be a connection

I wonder if there is something about these superstar receivers that is making them as much of a look-at-me act as Bolt was.

With the sprint, it was part of the game itself, part of the culture that actually helped these guys make the most of themselves. So when Bolt was selfish, it seemed like pure joy to me.

But when Owens is doing it, I start thinking about how long his shelf life is.

What's the difference? Maybe it's that Football is a team sport, so playing look-at-me is tougher to accept.

It's not that Booker would be effective if he became a creep. And there is no guarantee that bad guys make good receivers.

But there seems to be a connection. And coaches and GMs will talk themselves into taking these superstars, no matter the baggage, by saying they can blend in with the team. Or that, in the right hands, they can be reformed.

The truth is, they just don't want to get stuck with a receiving corps like the one the Bears have. You saw how the Carolina Panthers took back Steve Smith, who broke his teammate's nose.

Would you take Smith on the Bears next season if you could get him? Would you take Owens?

The answer, in theory, might be no. But think about it as the Bears play the Green Bay Packers on Monday night, with their playoff chances disappearing or gone.

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