Report: Football Hall of Fame Wants Terrell Owens Rule to Avoid Another Boycott

Terrell Owens made the decision to not attend the NFL Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony Saturday, and the Hall of Fame's board of trustees reportedly wants to make sure it doesn't happen again.

According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the Hall wants a guarantee from inductees in advance of the enshrinement ceremony that they will attend:

"PFT has re-confirmed via a third source what was reported earlier in the day. The subject of an advance commitment to attend the enshrinement ceremony came up on Friday during both the annual Ray Nitschke luncheon (attended exclusively by members of the Hall of Fame) and the meeting of the Hall of Fame's board of trustees. The Hall of Fame staff has been asked to develop a rule, and the Hall of Fame's lawyers currently are in the early stages of crafting language."

Rather than attending the ceremony in Canton, Ohio, Owens held an off-site event at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to commemorate the honor of being elected to the Hall of Fame. During his speech, he called into question the process of electing candidates.

"It's about the mere fact that the sports writers are not in alignment with the mission and core values of the Hall of Fame," he said, per Chris Thompson of Deadspin. "These writers disregarded the system, criteria, and by-laws by which guys are inducted, and ultimately the true meaning of the Hall of Fame, and what it represents."

Owens was a six-time Pro Bowler and five-time first-team All-Pro selection in his career, and he is currently eighth in NFL history in receptions (1,078), second in receiving yards (15,934) and third in receiving touchdowns (153).

But Hall of Fame voters didn't induct him until his third year of eligibility, presumably because Owens earned a reputation for having a personality that was divisive at times, alongside some on- and off-field antics that rubbed certain people the wrong way. 

So Owens instead held his own commemoration. And Florio suspects that financial considerations are the primary factor at play in the Hall's pushback against future inductees doing the same.

He wrote: "There's surely a financial motivation at work here. The weekend brings thousands of people—and hundreds of thousands of dollars—to Canton. Friday night's Gold Jacket dinner, for example, featured tickets that cost $145 each, and at least 4,000 people attended the event at the Canton Civic Center."

Induction in the Hall of Fame is a great honor for any player. But the ongoing Owens' debate has raised interesting questions about whether inductees should have control over how they celebrate the distinction, or whether the Hall should be anything more than simply a place that documents history and highlights the sport's greatest players. 

Owens ultimately had a difference of opinion with the politics of the Hall of Fame. It would seem the board of trustees hopes to avoid this sort of public conflict in the future.