It’s safe to say that many New York Giants fans hate Terrell Owens. Even six years after his retirement, animosity lingers.
But are the emotions of rabid fans the only thing keeping the second all-time leading receiver out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame? The answer is no because fans do not vote!
But professional sports writers do, and despite his transgressions on and off the field, Owens probably deserves a spot in Canton. Keeping a level head about this debate can be difficult. As much as I want to say that Owens deserves his place in the Hall, words and actions still matter.
I chuckle every time I see Randy Moss and Chris Webber as part of media coverage teams. These two guys were sullen and obnoxious as players. It’s hard for me to determine if they love the game, or are they in it for the payday now.
Former Giants coach Bill Parcells won two Super Bowls, and revitalized the fortunes of four NFL teams. When he was denied entry at first, I didn’t see Mike Golic and Manish Mehta taking up Parcell’s cause. But they run to T.O. It’s pretty ridiculous.
Anyway, we digress.
Terrell Owens History
Statistically, Owens is a no-brainer, but as Gary Myers of the New York Daily News pointed out last week, he was a wretched teammate. Since Hall of Fame voting is still done by humans, those humans have every right to not vote for Owens. No explanation necessary.
Yet Mike Florio takes shots at the ‘No” votes, as if he is the thought police. Gary Myers is a long-time sports writer for the NFL, he knows a few things about being in the locker room. Conversely, Florio is a lawyer by trade, and he sits behind a microphone.
Here’s what Myers had to say.
"“First, he was such a problem he got thrown out of camp by Andy Reid and later in the season, he was thrown off the team. The Eagles finished in last place with a 6-10 record. I know a lot is made of his courageous Super Bowl game and it was pretty amazing. But the Eagles won two playoff games without him to get to the Super Bowl that year and then lost the Super Bowl with him,” Meyers wrote to Owens defender Mike Florio of NBC Sports"
Florio does not even acknowledge that Owens was thrown off the Philadelphia Eagles. But he also berates the non-Owens voters as wrong and stubborn. No matter what the venue, a person is never wrong in how he or she votes. It’s either a personal preference, or that person has acquired the right to cast a ballot. The latter is the case here.
If you want to talk about the body of work, Mike, talk about the entire body of work, not only statistics.
To see where Florio’s head is, he just opined that it will be difficult for authorities to get a conviction in the Darrelle Revis case. He basically did that off the police report. Obviously for Florio, any conduct is irrelevant. But that’s simply his opinion in a very large sea of opinions.
Comparing Beckham to Owens
For New York Giants fans, Owens played for three teams that their fan base hates: the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers. Pairing Owens up with those teams was poetic justice. The most hated player on the most hated teams.
Which is why comparing Odell Beckham emotionally to Owens has become fighting words to fans of Big Blue.
Lumping Beckham in with Owens was been done on more than one occasion last season. As reported by Brett Smiley, the comparison was made last Fall by Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe on “Undisputed”.
According to Smiley, “Skip feels Beckham Jr. has not reached T.O. territory yet while Shannon fears OBJ is heading down that road.”
Since this is not a favorable comparison, the T.O proponents don’t maintain the high ground entirely.
Future Hall of Fame Voting
For those who simply want to whitewash Owens history, you’re wrong. And all of us who remember his insulting and outrageous behavior ought to take every opportunity to bring it up. For those like Florio who just want to argue statistics, I don’t have a proper rebuttal. At this point, I’m just thankful that Aaron Hernandez didn’t have a long enough career to warrant an HOF vote.
New York Giants
From afar, Florio can be judgmental, but I would rather rely upon someone who coached Owens. Someone like Bill Parcells, who’s been on both sides of this equation.
“There are things that go unseen by the public, and people watching the games — there are things that happen on the field that, even when they happen, the fans and the laymen do not recognize what happens,” Parcells said via NBC Sport’s Pro Football Talk. “And in his case, he was somewhat unreliable in some of the things he would do. Sometimes we’d have a route that was called at 12 and he’d run it at nine . Well, that disrupts your quarterback and things like that. But that being said, he still was highly productive and I do think he warrants very, very strong consideration. I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t get in very shortly.”
The endeavor of sports is a human endeavor, and as much as millennials want to dehumanize everything, you simply cannot.
Maybe Owens high pressure, bully tactics will work on weak kneed voters, hopefully they won’t. In my mind the best way for Owens to get his golden ticket is to demonstrate he is a changed man. The truth is that Terrell Owens maybe a great football player, but his personal conduct leaves much to be desired.