Terrell Owens
Terrell Eldorado Owens is an American former professional football wide receiver who played 15 seasons in the National Football League. Also known by his initials "T.O.", Owens ranks third in NFL career receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. He is regarded as one of the greatest wide receivers of all time.
Owens played college football for the Chattanooga Mocs and was selected in the third round of the 1996 NFL draft by the San Francisco 49ers. He was a member of the team for seven seasons until he was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles in 2004. Two years later, he signed with the Dallas Cowboys, where he spent three seasons. Owens' NFL career concluded after one season each with the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals. He later played for the Allen Wranglers of the Indoor Football League in 2012 and last played professionally with Fan Controlled Football in 2022.
A six-time Pro Bowl and five-time first-team All-Pro selection, Owens also created a significant amount of controversy during his professional career and attracted attention for his flamboyant touchdown celebrations. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018.
Early life
Owens was born to Marilyn Heard and her neighbor L.C. Russell in Alexander City, Alabama. At 10 years old, he discovered his father's identity after liking his daughter, only to learn that she was his sister. He grew up with three other siblings and was raised by his mother and grandmother. He enjoyed watching football, especially his favorite player, Jerry Rice. However, Owens' grandmother initially forbade him from playing sports until high school. Owens attended Benjamin Russell High School, where he participated in football, baseball, track, and basketball. Owens did not start on his high school football team until his junior year, when one of his teammates missed a game due to illness.College career
While enrolled at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Owens played basketball, football, and ran track. Owens played in the 1995 NCAA basketball tournament. He became a starter during his sophomore year. Owens caught 38 passes for 724 yards and eight touchdowns during his sophomore year, and 34 passes for 357 yards and three touchdowns during his junior year. Having gained respect in the NCAA, Owens faced double coverage more frequently during his senior year, and was limited to 43 receptions for 667 yards and one touchdown. Owens previously held the single-season receptions record at Chattanooga until it was broken in 2007 by Alonzo Nix. In his senior year, he anchored the school's 4 × 100 relay team at the NCAA championship. He also participated in the Senior Bowl, a college all-star game played by college seniors, in preparation for the NFL Draft.College statistics
Professional career
San Francisco 49ers
Because he played his college football at UT–Chattanooga, an FCS school that did not have a winning season during his time there, Owens' visibility to NFL scouts was low, and he dropped to the third round of the 1996 NFL draft, where the San Francisco 49ers chose him 89th overall. Owens made his professional debut against the New Orleans Saints, playing on special teams. He caught his first two passes against the Carolina Panthers in Week 4 on September 22, 1996, for a total of six yards. Owens caught his first touchdown on October 20 against the Cincinnati Bengals; a 45-yard pass from Steve Young. He finished his rookie season with 35 receptions for 520 yards and four touchdowns.After the 49ers' top receiver Jerry Rice suffered a torn ACL early in the 1997 NFL season, Owens took Rice's place in the lineup, beating out former 1st round pick J. J. Stokes for the job. He helped the 49ers win 13 games that season, finishing with 936 receiving yards and eight touchdowns. He scored his first postseason touchdown in a Divisional Round win over the Minnesota Vikings.
1998 saw Owens eclipse 1,000-yards for the first time in his career, catching 67 passes for 1,097 yards and 14 touchdowns. In the Wildcard playoff game, the 49ers faced the Green Bay Packers, who had beaten them five straight times, three of them playoff games. Owens struggled, dropping a number of passes. Despite this, Young kept throwing to Owens and he redeemed himself by catching the game-winning touchdown for a 30–27 comeback victory.
In 1999, Owens' production dropped after Jeff Garcia replaced the injured Steve Young as starting quarterback. He finished the season with 60 catches for 754 yards and four touchdowns.
Owens had a record-breaking day on December 17, 2000, with 20 catches for 283 yards in a 17–0 win over the Chicago Bears. His 20 receptions surpassed a 50-year-old mark held by Tom Fears. Owens finished the year with 97 receptions for 1,451 yards and thirteen touchdowns.
Owens had another strong season in 2001, finishing with 93 receptions for 1,412 yards and 16 touchdowns.
During the 2002 season, Owens had 100 receptions for 1,300 yards and 13 touchdowns. The 49ers hosted the New York Giants in the Wild Card playoff round and after falling behind 38–14, the 49ers scored 25 unanswered points. Owens accounted for two touchdowns and caught two 2-point conversions in the 49ers' 39–38 win. The following week, Owens was held to four catches for 35 yards in a 31–6 loss to the soon-to-be Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In 2003, Owens finished the season with 80 receptions for 1,102 yards and nine touchdowns. The 49ers finished with a 7–9 record in what would be Owens' final season with the team.
In the summer of 2004, Owens appeared in an interview for Playboy magazine, where he was asked about long-standing rumors that his former teammate Garcia was homosexual, to which he implied he thought there might be truth to the rumors.
Although Owens was eager to leave the 49ers, the 49ers asserted that Owens' previous agent, David Joseph, had missed the deadline to void the final years of his contract with the team. The National Football League Players Association and Owens disputed this assertion, contending that the deadline referred to by the 49ers was not the applicable deadline. On March 4, 2004, San Francisco, believing it still held Owens' rights, attempted to trade Owens to the Baltimore Ravens for a second-round pick in the 2004 draft. However, Owens challenged the 49ers' right to make the deal. Owens assumed that he would become a free agent on March 3, and did not believe that the earlier deadline was applicable. Hence, he negotiated with other teams in advance of his expected free agency, and reached a contract agreement with the Philadelphia Eagles. The NFLPA filed a grievance on his behalf.
Before an arbitrator could make a ruling on Owens' grievance, the NFL and the three teams involved in the controversy reached a settlement on March 16, 2004. The Ravens got their second-round pick back from San Francisco, and the 49ers in turn received a conditional fifth-round pick and defensive end Brandon Whiting from the Eagles in exchange for the rights to Owens. Owens' contract with the Eagles was worth about $49 million for seven years, including a $10 million signing bonus.
Philadelphia Eagles
On December 19, 2004, Owens sustained a severely sprained ankle and a fractured fibula when Dallas Cowboys safety Roy Williams took him down with a horse-collar tackle; Williams' horse-collars resulted in injuries to several NFL players, and the horse-collar tackle was later prohibited. Owens' injury required surgery, including insertion of a screw into his leg, and Eagles trainer Rick Burkholder stated that he would miss the rest of the season, with only an outside chance of playing in the Super Bowl if the Eagles advanced.After the Eagles defeated the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC Championship game, Owens defied the advice of his doctors and played in Super Bowl XXXIX. Owens' trainer, James "Buddy" Primm, helped bring Owens back much sooner with the use of microcurrent and a hyperbaric chamber. Owens started in the game and had nine receptions for 122 yards, but the Eagles lost to the New England Patriots. After the game, Owens stated that the media would have called Brett Favre "a warrior" for playing with such an injury, but that "For me, they said I was selfish."
In April 2005, Owens announced that he had hired a new agent, Drew Rosenhaus, and indicated that he would seek to have his contract with the Eagles renegotiated. Owens made $9 million in 2004, and was slated to make $4.5 million in 2005. This two-year amount did not place Owens in the top ten paid wide receivers playing. He also made a comment that he "wasn't the guy who got tired in the Super Bowl." The remark, directed at quarterback Donovan McNabb, caused a controversy to heat up between them. On July 1, Owens' relationship with the Eagles became even more tense after Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and club president Joe Banner denied Owens permission to play basketball in a summer league under the auspices of the National Basketball Association's Sacramento Kings.
Owens, with the negotiating help of Rosenhaus, continued to lobby for a new contract. Owens and Rosenhaus met with Eagles head coach Andy Reid and president Joe Banner, but no agreement was reached. Owens threatened to hold out of training camp until a deal was reached, but reported to camp on time. When the 2005 football season began, Owens was in the second year of a seven-year, $49 million contract. However, the contract was heavily back-loaded, and while outlets like Sports Illustrated touted the $49 million figure to mock Owens for wanting more, the money guaranteed to him was under the annual average for a top-tier wide receiver.
Owens and McNabb, to their credit, did not appear to allow the off-the-field controversies to affect their play on the field during the first half of the season: through Week 7 Owens was McNabb's receiving target an average of 13.14 times per game, with Owens second only to Panthers WR Steve Smith Sr. in receiving touchdowns, receptions, and receiving yards at that point in 2005. McNabb was leading the NFL in several passing categories at that point.
However, after a game against the Dallas Cowboys on October 9 in which the Eagles lost, Owens was seen by reporters wearing a throwback jersey of former Cowboys player Michael Irvin on the team plane. On November 2, Owens was involved in an argument in the training room with team ambassador Hugh Douglas, which led to a fistfight between the two. The argument was reportedly started after Douglas said there were players on the team who were faking injuries.
During an interview with college student journalist Graham Bensinger the next day, Owens made several comments that Eagles fans perceived as verbal jabs at McNabb and the team. In this interview, when asked whether he agreed with a comment made by analyst Michael Irvin saying that the Eagles would be undefeated if Brett Favre was on the team, Owens replied, "That's a good assessment. I would agree with that." Owens went on to state that if Favre were the Eagles quarterback, "I just feel like we'd be in a better situation." Owens stated on his radio show that his remarks were taken out of context, noting that he had just stated two questions prior that the Eagles' record would also be better had McNabb not been injured. While he did not comment on Owens' slight at the time, McNabb later stated in an interview that "It was definitely a slap in the face to me."
Two days after the interview aired, the Eagles suspended Owens indefinitely for "conduct detrimental to the team". According to Owens' agent Drew Rosenhaus, head coach Andy Reid demanded that Owens make a public apology to McNabb. An apology was drafted by Rosenhaus, but Owens balked at reading a specific apology to McNabb, and crossed that part of the statement out. The apology he read on TV did not address McNabb directly. The following day, Reid announced that Owens' suspension would be increased to four games and that he would be deactivated for the remainder of the season.
On November 8, Owens and Rosenhaus held a news conference at Owens' residence, where he apologized to the fans, the team, and McNabb specifically, and also made an appeal for reinstatement to the team. The NFL Players Association filed a grievance against the Eagles, claiming violation of the sport's collective bargaining agreement, but Owens' suspension and deactivation were upheld by an arbitrator.
On March 14, 2006, the Philadelphia Eagles released Owens.