Terrell Owens, Tim Tebow and 10 Recent Contracts Worth a Double-Take

Free agency is an exciting time of year with the potential of your team reeling in the big fish. Exciting until your team makes that signing that makes you go, “’Doh!”

There have been a lot of strange and horrible contract signings over the years.

In honor of Terrell Owens signing with the Bengals, we will take a look at some recent head-turners.

Here are 10 recent contracts that make you look twice for reasons across the board. Most of them were in the last year or so, but a few had to be dug up from the past.

10. Tim Tebow

Well, what do you know? Maybe T.O. didn’t sign the craziest contract of the week.

Broncos fans are still waiting for him to sign, so in the meantime Tebow gave us something to talk about. Like the media needed a reason to talk about Tebow.

Tebow makes this list for signing with Jockey this week.

It spurred jokes about messages on his eye black. Not the kind referencing the Bible, but ones referencing his Jockey.

Female Tebow fans rejoiced at the idea of him wearing much less clothing than this in his photo shoots.

9. Alex Rodriguez

We had to go back a little ways for this one, back to a time when baseball contracts were absolutely ridiculous. But he did just win his first ring, so that's recent enough for me.

Maybe players also put steroids in their contracts back then, but A-Rod set a standard for absurd contracts that might never be surpassed.

Let’s just say $250 million might ring a bell for you.

The guy is good, but nobody is worth that much money. I think the Rangers overreacted a little bit.

This contract was the biggest in a lot of questionable decisions that led to owner Tom Hicks’ financial troubles.

8. Jake Delhomme

The word in Cleveland is that the Browns are now the face of the city.

Scary, though, when you consider who they put their faith in. Sure, Colt McCoy may be the future, but that doesn’t make this contract any less questionable.

Delhomme may pull out a vintage season, but it seems that he went off the deep end against Arizona in the 2008 playoffs with five interceptions.

He has yet to recover from that performance. Browns fans are already waiting for the McCoy era.

7. Lane Kiffin

People are still wondering how Kiffin managed to weasel his way into the USC job after Pete Carroll left.

The guy went from USC assistant to a short stint as Raiders coach to a year in Tennessee to the head man in LA.

All of that happened in three years, and Kiffin is still only 35.

The guy may have pissed off Urban Meyer and the rest of the SEC with his mouth. But he also knows how to talk his way into some good recruits and cushy jobs.

6. Josh Childress

We will go back a little bit for this one, but because Childress recently signed with the Suns, it’s recent enough for me.

Childress didn’t want to re-sign with the Hawks in 2008.

Some players will force a sign-and-trade. Others will pout their way out of town.

Childress and his Stanford education took a very innovative route.

He didn’t want to sign with the Hawks so badly that he left the entire continent and signed a contract to play in Greece.

Welcome back to America, Josh.

5. Terrell Owens

You knew someone was going to do it.

History says that the Bengals more likely made a mistake than not.

Not only did people take a double-take on someone signing T.O. because it’s T.O., but this has to be one of the most interesting combinations in recent memory.

T.O. and Ochocinco.

Maybe they will play nice. Maybe they will explode.

Chad Ochocinco has already posted pictures of the pair as the new Simon and Garfunkel and challenged LeBron, Wade and Bosh to a three-on-three game.

Something tells me this signing is only the beginning of things to come.

I guess I'll have to wait a few years before he signs that contract with the Globetrotters.

4. Pete Carroll

Carroll surprised everyone by jumping ship, leading to the aforementioned questionable hiring of Lane Kiffin.

After a few seconds of letting it set in, we all realized that Carroll was leaving for a reason.

Maybe there was something to the rumors of sanctions at USC. The jokes of the Trojans being LA’s NFL franchise weren’t so funny to Carroll anymore.

It remains to be seen how he will fare as a real NFL coach. His supporters say he never got a fair shake the first two times around.

3. Reggie Bush

The contract Reggie Bush signed with the USC Trojans is the primary reason Carroll left town.

He signed it a long time ago, but the details are only starting to fully come out recently.

Something about a lot of money and housing for his parents. Somewhere, Maurice Clarett is wondering how Reggie Bush signed an NFL contract early, too.

Yeah, college athletes and money tend to make headlines. People may not have been entirely surprised, but they certainly did a double-take.

At least he has this trophy to replace his Heisman.

2. The Miami Heat

LeBron James. Dwayne Wade. Chris Bosh.

Some people still think we are talking about the 2012 Olympic roster. No, these guys are actually playing together for the Miami Heat.

Double-take? Try triple-take. People are still gaping.

The three have inspired opinions across the board. Some people think they will win 100 games this season. Other people reminded them that NBA teams only play 82 regular season games.

Then, there is the group that was disappointed in LeBron for taking the “easy road” to a championship.

1. Joe Johnson

Sure, the My-Egos, or whatever you want to call them, were the biggest headlines this offseason.

But Joe Johnson signed the biggest free agent contract of them all.

No, I’m not going to let you forget that one. Here is your double-take.

The Hawks couldn’t get past the second round, so they overpaid their superstar who gave the worst playoff performance deemed worthy of a new contract.

Somewhere, guys like Daniel Snyder are laughing. I hope Snyder didn’t think I forgot about him for that bone-headed Albert Haynesworth contract.

Johnson is good, but he is not that good.

The Hawks may continue to make the playoffs. But I don’t think they will look back on this contract favorably.