Hall of Fame voters hopefully can’t wait to get rid of the false “teams couldn’t wait to get rid” of Terrell Owens narrative. One of them already has.
In his Friday appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio, James Lofton took scissors to the laminated card bearing the most common talking point parroted by his fellow voters.
“‘Teams couldn’t wait to get rid of him,’” Lofton said. “He played for the 49ers for eight years. So was it in year one when they couldn’t wait to get rid of him? Was it in year four? Was it in year six? Was it when they signed a six-year, $40 million contract with him? There’s no reality there. Maybe the last couple of weeks or the last half of the last season, maybe. But he was a pretty good teammate. They like the way he played.”
Regardless, concerns about his behavior as a teammate aren’t nearly enough to overcome statistics that put Owens and Randy Moss at No. 2 or No. 3 all-time behind Jerry Rice at the receiver position.
“When I looked down on the 100 by 53 and a third yard wide field, man, I saw a special player,” Lofton, also a Hall of Famer, said. “And I said, I was a good player. I scored 75 touchdowns. Seventy-five. That was a lot. He scored double the touchdowns I scored.”
These scattered, vague, embellished, and/or incomplete concerns about Owens would be far more relevant if his numbers put him on the borderline. They don’t; he belongs in Canton.
Hopefully the cabal of voters who are blocking him will be honest and objective about this. If they can’t be, then maybe they should take a scissors to the laminated “I’m a Hall of Fame voter” card that too many of them think means a hell of a lot more in the grand scheme of things than it actually does.