The Pro Football Hall of Fame will announce the latest five-person class this weekend, and former San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Terrell Owens is a finalist for the third straight season. Although TO ranks second all time in receiving yards and eighth all time in receptions, he has been left waiting because some media take issue with his personality and behavior off the football field.
Owens arrived in Minneapolis earlier this week, and the folks at TMZ caught up with him as he was leaving the airport. You can watch the video above, or click here if you can’t see it.
The cameraperson asks Owens which helmet he will “wear” if he is inducted. The 49ers, Eagles, and Cowboys are the three teams with whom he is most regularly connected. In response to the question, he said, “Well, it won’t be the Niners.”
First of all, unlike baseball, you do not enter the Hall of Fame with a given helmet. The baseball HOF plaques feature a player wearing a hat for a specific team. The football HOF creates busts that usually don’t include head-wear. The exception to that is Tom Landry with his famous hat.
That being said, I’m not overly concerned one way or the other with this kind of response. He’s had his own attitude about everything that’s gone down in his career, so it’s not at all surprising he would have some beef on this. Nonetheless, he still belongs in the Hall of Fame. I think he brought plenty of his problems on himself, but he remains one of the greatest wide receivers in NFL history. It’s pretty simple, really.