No HOF For TO? OK
John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
From 1998-2008 the best wide receiver hands down was Terrell Owens. You can make an argument for Randy Moss, but he was pretty much sucked in the black hole out in Oakland for a short time. But Owens was a beast unlike any other. You could get him to go deep for a bomb for a touchdown, but you could also get him to take a screen pass. You could tell him to run over the middle, preparing to get decked. You could get him to do whatever as he was probably the one wide receiver in that time that could actually TAKE OVER a game.
Owens was in the shadow of Rice most of his time in San Francisco.
We saw him do it in San Francisco just do whatever he could do. We saw him win games where he just took over (was thinking one off the top of my head against Atlanta in 2001). And he just was unstoppable. He towered above all defenders and just bullied them. He found the end zone a lot in that time span. He would do the same in his two years in Philadelphia, three years in Dallas and then winding his time down in Buffalo and Cincinnati. He probably could have been far greater as well. The numbers are almost top 5 in every wide receiver category in NFL history. So why is he not in the Hall of Fame....again?
It is simple: he is Terrell Owens.
The antics really killed this guy. Is it fair to think that is keeping him from the Hall of Fame? No. But he should be in.
I've mentioned in the past that the Baseball Hall of Fame's criteria for getting in is beyond horrid and for the most part the NFL has been overall fine. But it all comes back to Owens.
Owens had a great thing in Philadelphia with McNabb and then blew it with the griping of contracts and bashing his quarterback.
His issues with Jeff Garcia and Donovan McNabb really hurt both the 49ers and Eagles respectively, especially in Philadelphia. Owens wanted nothing to do with Garcia in San Francisco and did everything in his power to go join McNabb in Philadelphia, even refusing to play for the Ravens who had traded for him after the 2003 season. And then he signed a multi-year contract with the Eagles before 2004 started. After one great season including an amazing Super Bowl performance on really a bum leg, Owens and his agent Drew Rosenhaus, held out for a better contract. Owens, had he stopped with the holdout, ripped McNabb, saying while Owens was doing everything, McNabb was puking and bashed his quarterback. Then we see Owens doing sit-ups out on his driveway for a show while pretty much looking like an idiot in the process. Eagles players such as Hugh Douglas tried to help Owens but to no avail. Philadelphia, suffering from the mess of the Owens debacle fell apart in 2005.
Owens went to Dallas and had his moments, but nothing like the previous years in Philadelphia and San Francisco. The major issues Owens had was lashing out at the team for struggling when he got there and the whole rumored prescription drug overdose, where people were thinking he had been suicidal (to which Owens denies). After 3 seasons in Dallas, Owens was released by the Cowboys as he really fell out of favor with the organization.
He spent one year in Buffalo where it was quiet in 2009 and then joined fellow controversial wide receiver Chad Ochocinco in 2010 and while they were hoping for big things (including their ownTV show), Owens got hurt and the Bengals fell out of favor, really ending his career with a thud.
But constantly Owens kept talking about getting back in the NFL, wanting to do workouts and televising them with no luck from NFL teams. Even now, Owens thinks he can play and hopes somebody will call him for a shot. However, times have passed and nobody is willing to take that shot.
Nobody can ever doubt Owens play on the football field.
Owens issues on the field and with his teammates left a very sour taste in most key people's mouths. Whether he should be branded as a clubhouse cancer is not really of my call though the track record points to it. Do I think he is misunderstood as a person? Yeah, I think so, but if you have people (notably your agent) whispering words in your ear about what you should do and how you should go about it, you may need to make different choices. Owens just could not stay out of the drama with the media and that is why I think he is not in the Hall of Fame in 2017.
But SHOULD he be in there? You bet. He was nearly unstoppable on the field.
-Fan in the Obstructed Seat
