Image courtesy of Seahawks.com
The halls of Canton Ohio’s National Football League Hall of Fame are decorated with NFL legends. The NFL Hall of Fame is where legends live and record-breakers are displayed triumphantly. Many of these premier players are even nominated and are First Ballot Hall of Famers. This list includes NFL greats: Ray Nitschke, “Mean” Joe Green, Walter Payton, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and many more.What do these people have in common? They’re all remembered for being the best at their positions. They’re remembered for changing the game – for scoring more points or rushing for more yards than anyone else. So why should the wide receiver who has scored the 2nd most touchdowns of all time AND has the 6th most receptions of all time not be considered for this honor?
Terrell Owens is a controversial player who, in recent years, hasn’t been getting the respect that he truly deserves. One of the things T.O. is known for (other than being a deep threat against any team he plays against) is that he celebrates after catching touchdown passes. There is a large group of football fans that believe that the game should be played completely by script and when a player scores a touchdown he has to “act like he’ll be there again.” That’s understandable, but there’s a big difference between acting like you’ll be there again, and being happy that you scored a touchdown in an NFL game on a national stage! Terrell Owens’ touchdown celebrations should not take away from his play or his records whatsoever.
Owens has a controversial history.
Image courtesy of Cowboys.com
“But, he hasn’t been good since leaving the Cowboys!” some may say. True, his numbers haven’t been the same after working with a prolific quarterback in Steve Young, the sometimes impressive Jeff Garcia, Donovan McNabb at his best, and the gun-slinging Tony Romo. Yet, after Jerry Rice left the 49ers it’s as if no one remembers anything after that. Jerry could do nothing wrong and T.O. could do nothing right. After putting up decent numbers with the Bills and the Bengals (two teams who quite frankly weren’t going anywhere, anyway) critics just wrote him off, and said he didn’t have a big impact on those teams’ success so he can’t be good anymore. This is after a season of over 900 yards and 9 TD’s, at the age of 36.
Now, Terrell Owens is struggling to find a team after being cut by the Seahawks and one the NFL’s all-time greatest receivers just may be forced into what he believes to be a premature retirement. No matter how hard it is walk away, he needs to embrace what has been a great career, and realize his accomplishments over the past years have been impressive, to say the least.
Terrell Owens worked for his spot in the record books next to all time greats. Once T.O.’s gloves come off; however, it’s up to the voters at Canton to understand that he has in fact earned a spot next to legends, and is indeed one of the NFL’s greatest players of all time.
