There is no Hall of Fame without Terrell Owens

The Hall of Fame is for celebrating the game’s greatest athletes and to preserve their legacy throughout history. And it has to be home for Terrell Owens.

It’s hard to understand why there is even an argument for Terrell Owens to not belong in the home of football’s heroes. It’s okay to have a loose interpretation on what it takes to be a Hall of Famer, but at the end of the day, it is a numbers game. Pure and simple.

Terrell Owens has the most receiving yards of any wide receiver sans Jerry Rice. He is third for touchdowns with 153. His 1,078 receptions are eighth all time. The numbers speak for themselves that he is an all-time great.

He led the league in touchdowns in three separate seasons. He made the Pro Bowl six times. Hall of Fame wide receiver Lance Alworth is the only other player to have five 1st-team All-Pro selections. Of course, Jerry Rice leads all receivers with ten.

What makes Terrell Owens is the diversity in his career. He did not have Joe Montana tossing the pigskin to him with Walsh looking from the sidelines. The closest he had was Steve Mariucci and Steve Young.

But once Steve Young left San Francisco, his career fell into the hands of Jeff Garcia, Donovan McNabb, Tony Romo, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Trent Edwards, and Carson Palmer. Fine quarterbacks and not nearly as rough as the quality of gunslingers Larry Fitzgerald had in his career. But it is amazing to see a player tally over 1,500 yards with all of these different offenses, quarterbacks, coaches, and schemes.

There should be no knock for his playoff success. He only played in a total of 12 playoff games in his 15-year career. But his heroic play in Super Bowl XXXIX with a fractured fibula puts him on the map that he came to play come January and in this case, February. Only two positions have a win-loss as a statistic. Quarterbacks and coaches. It is unwise to judge any player, let alone a wide receiver, for a team’s success.