During his recent appearance on Dr. Phil, receiver Terrell Owens said that he has squandered most of the $80 million he has earned while playing pro football.
Owens now says he didn’t squander $80 million.
Appearing on 790 The Zone in Atlanta, Owens said that he isn’t broke, and that the suggestion that he lost $80 million was “skewed.”
“I’m not broke,” Owens said, via SportsRadioInterviews.com. “My broke, for the normal person, is not their broke.” (Call me crazy, but I always thought “broke” meant, you know, “broke.”)
“My circumstances have changed,” Owens said. “That means I don’t make the same amount of money that I used to make. With my financial situation, people are asking how did I blow $60 million or $80 million? Those numbers are skewed. If you just kind of factor in the numbers of what I made and how many years I’ve played. Other than that, I don’t know what else to say. . . . I’m not an extravagant living-type person. I didn’t blow my money. My money was stolen and mismanaged.”
Owens said he wasn’t paid to appear on Dr. Phil, and that Owens did the show because he was accused of being in contempt of court after unilaterally cutting his child support payments. (Call me crazy, but I always thought that unilaterally ignoring a court order meant, you know, contempt of court.)
He still wants to return to the NFL, but he stopped short of claiming that he has been blackballed. “To say I’m blackballed, that’s a strong topic,” Owens said. “I really don’t want to take it there. My thing is, just let me have an opportunity to go out on my own terms. . . . I know I can still play.”
It would be a shock at this point if anyone gives him a chance. He hasn’t even gotten a workout since recovering from a torn ACL.
And so his best bet at this point would be to commence the process of transitioning to life after football, which is something that the NFL and the NFLPA should start helping all former players do.