It was Oct. 14, 2002. The Monday Night Football game featured a matchup between the lowly Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers. While most observers expected the game to be a dull contest featuring the 49ers arriving in Seattle and coasting to victory, history was made that night.

Terrell Owens, showboating wide receiver for the 49ers, had promised an autographed ball to his financial advisor, Greg Eastman. In the fourth quarter, Owens scored a touchdown, pulled a Sharpie out of his sock, autographed the football and handed it to Eastman -- who, of course, was present at the game. It was a controversial stunt, of course, and one that angered folks even more than when Owens kept scoring touchdowns and downing the ball in the middle of that big star at Texas Stadium.

Now, criticize Owens all you want, but the man knows quality. Did he choose some cheap, rotten, off-brand pen? Heck, no! He chose a Sharpie because Owens demands quality. That's right. Quality. He'll not waste his time with an inferior pen. No, sir! Nothing but the best will satisfy Owens, and Sharpie should be considered the choice of showboating wide receivers all over the NFL.

So, what makes a Sharpie so darn great? Well, there are a number of things. First of all, these pens feature bold colors. You get black, blue, green and red in the Sharpie, fine point series. The black isn't some nasty little color with a blue tint to it. The green is about as pure as you can get, while the red Sharpie doesn't border on pink and the blue one doesn't splatter out some miserable little pale color.

Also, the line with a Sharpie is solid on just about any surface. A Sharpie will last quite a long time, provided you keep the cap on it. A Sharpie doesn't tend to dry out -- it simply runs out of ink at some point. And, you want to mark up a surface and have it stay marked? You can't do better than a Sharpie. Write on footballs, metal, plastic, wood or just about anything else (the pen says not for cloth, but I'm not sure why). The ink dries quickly and is, indeed, permanent.

And, of course, the fine point on this particular line of Sharpies provided a very bold line, but one that is thin enough for writing. This particular Sharpie is not one of those large, clunky pens with a tip as wide across as your index finger. This Sharpie features a well-designed, durable tip which holds up after several uses and makes that thin, sure line.

And, it's darn comfortable, too.

Now, the Sharpie does come with some drawbacks. A Sharpie should never, never, never be placed in the hands of a child. Small children like to mark on walls, doors, the family dog, your Fender Stratocaster, the clothes of their visiting aunts, the carpet, the kitchen floor, the dishwasher and etc., etc. Because this is permanent ink, a child can do a lot of damage with a Sharpie.

Similarly, the Sharpie features a comfortable design which is very similar to that of several dry-erase pens on the market. If someone is to confuse a Sharpie with a dry-erase pen, that spells doom for a white board.

Now, I'm not sure of how much these cost, yet I have several of them. Why? My company likes quality as much as Terrell Owens, and I like stealing top-notch office supplies. I'm glad my firm has chosen Sharpie because I'd hate to resort to swiping junk from the office. So, as far as I'm concerned, the Sharpie is free.


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