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OXNARD, Calif. – Duane Thomas has never met Terrell Owens, but the former Cowboys' running back sees some similarities between him and the current Cowboys star.

"I was into challenging myself," Thomas said as the Cowboys practiced Saturday. "I was a competitor. Competitors challenge each other, whereas the perception may be based on whatever standards that you've gone by. Just from afar and as a player and not really taking sides, he's just into challenging himself."

When he played, Thomas was called moody and surly. He went through a season not talking to anybody – teammates, coaches, media. And the Cowboys won a Super Bowl.

"They weren't wrong," Thomas said. "That was their perceptions. I might've been all of those things, but that was not all of me. I had other sides as well."

Owens has other sides, too. His teammates and coaches see it. You maybe did not hear much about him coming to the aid of an ESPN reporter who was struck by a car after the ESPY's recently.

He said the accident sounded like two cars hitting each other but he couldn't find the other car. He kept the reporter calm until the ambulance arrived, leaving before any kind of thank you.

"Honestly, it's like a slap in the face because it wasn't me just going out of my way to do anything," Owens said. "I would do it for you if you were in that situation. It's sad that it took something like that for someone to see who I am as a person."

Thomas had contractual issues with the Cowboys. Owens had contractual issues with Philadelphia and San Francisco. Thomas made some off-the-wall comments, calling Tom Landry, "Plastic man," before adding, "no man at all." Owens famously said, "I love me some me." Thomas was disruptive to his team, once refusing to get in a three-point stance. Owens was suspended the final nine games in 2005 by the Eagles.

"Sometimes I'd discombobulate people by asking questions because they already had their minds made up about me," Thomas said. "The best way to deal with that situation was to keep my mouth shut and just perform on the field, and I was still misunderstood."

Owens, however, has not kept quiet, but since coming to the Cowboys, the perception has started to change some.

"I'm still the same person as I was coming into the league," Owens said.

LOUIS DeLUCA / DMN

Calvin Hill (left) said he sees plenty of similarities in his former teammate, Duane Thomas, and Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens.

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Thomas' career lasted only four years, but he was the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1970 and ran the Cowboys to their first Super Bowl win a year later. Entering his 13th season, Owens' statistics are Hall of Fame worthy, but he has yet to win a Super Bowl.

Calvin Hill was Thomas' teammate and has gotten to know Owens, working as a consultant in the team's player development program.

"You know, it's funny," Hill said. "Machiavelli once said, 'For the great majority, they see things as they seem, rather than what they are and are often more influenced by appearance than reality.' If you get to know Terrell, if you get to know Duane, you realize at the end of the day when it's all over, those are the guys you call up."