Terrell Owens: Why T.O. Will Score First Ballot Hall of Fame Induction

Terrell Owens' playing days may or may not be over, but he is at the point in time where we can effectively look back on his career and consider his place in the history of the game.

Drafted in the third round of the 1996 draft by the San Francisco 49ers, Owens wasn't T.O. when he first entered the league. 

The 6'3", 224-pounder out of Tennessee-Chattanooga started his career playing behind the greatest receiver to ever play the game, Jerry Rice.

In 1997, Rice went down with an injury and opened the door for Owens to start becoming one of the NFL's elite. Eventually, in 2000, Rice left San Francisco and Owens responded in a major way.

His career has plenty of ups-and-downs, and he certainly made more than a few enemies along the way, but Terrell Owens was one of the most physically dominating players to ever play the game of football.

As far as modern day receivers go, you could argue that his body type, physicality and speed is what every team would want in a dynamic No. 1 wide receiver.

Owens may still have a few more touchdown receptions, yards and enemies to add to his list before his career is over, but if he has played his final down, he deserves to be a first ballot Hall of Famer.

Touchdowns

Terrell Owens and Randy Moss, the two best receivers to play football in the past two decades, are tied for second on the all-time touchdown receptions list.

Leaving Moss out of the argument for the time being—because he is also a first ballot player—Owens simply knows how to get in the end zone.

In his 15 NFL seasons he's caught double-digit touchdowns eight times, and in no season did he have less than four.

Jerry Rice's record (197) is virtually out of reach for Owens (153), but there are two things to remember when looking at that.

One, Owens spent time on the same team as Jerry Rice. Minus the injury in 1997, Rice played four full seasons with Owens by his side and caught 30 touchdowns during those years; Owens caught 43.

Two, and this you could argue both ways, Owens played in a different generation of football from Rice for the most part. Jerry stuck around until 2004, but his last big season was 2002.

The offensive and defensive differences in the game even from then until are extremely far apart. Owens played in a more pass-happy era, but also had to deal with more wide receivers in the game and more complex defensive schemes.

Either way you look at, Owens scored touchdowns, tons of them, and is one of the three best to ever do it. 

Receptions

Owens caught a lot of passes in a lot of years regardless of who was playing quarterback.

Only once did he catch 100 balls (2002), but he averaged over 70 catches per season in the NFL.

Four players in the history of game have caught more passes than him—Rice, Marvin Harrison, Cris Carter and Tim Brown—and he currently leads all active players (Tony Gonzalez could catch him in 2011).

Owens did drop the ball from time to time, this is true, but few players will get the chance to hang onto the ball 1,078 times in their career.

Only one current Hall of Famer is above T.O. in this category: Jerry Rice.

Receiving Yards

This category is interesting. 

No player will catch Jerry Rice here; he has almost 7,000 more receiving yards than the No. 2 player on list, and that is Terrell Owens.

Owens has 15,934 career receiving yards and averaged 1,062 yards per season. For his career (unfortunately including the latter years) Rice only averaged 28 more yards per season than Owens.

Rice's numbers are incredible, especially given the era of football he played in, but since that time no player has been better than T.O.

Randy Moss can catch Owens' No. 2 spot if he continues to play football and needs about 1,100 more yards to do so.

The closest other active player is Tony Gonzalez who is over 3,000 yards behind. 

In this era, where receivers have become the most dangerous weapons in the game, Owens has been the best in the business.

Big Plays

Big plays have always been a part of the game, but when Terrell Owens is on the field they are a part of every game.

There is a reason Owens has so many yards and such a high seasonal yardage average: He can go the distance from anywhere.

The longest play of his career actually came during his one-year stint in Buffalo when he went 98 yards for a touchdown.

His seasonal longs for his career are such: 46, 56, 79, 36, 69, 60, 76, 75, 59, 91, 56, 52, 75, 98, 78.

Only one of those plays didn't go for a touchdown and it happens to be the shortest of them all, 36 yards in 1999.

Owens was a threat to score a touchdown every single time he touched the football. He could beat a cornerback deep down field on a bomb or he could take a five-yard hitch route and turn it into a 91-yard touchdown.

There aren't many receivers that ever played with this skill.

One of a Kind

Teams are still trying but there really isn't another Terrell Owens, not yet at least.

I'm not talking about his personality and things like that; I'm talking purely about his god-given physical skill and athletic prowess.

Owens, at 6'3", 224 pounds, could jump higher, run faster and physically dominate any defender in his way.

He was never the best pure "receiver" to play the game, his routes weren't always great and his hands were inconsistent at times, but he might be the best athlete to ever play the position.

Teams had to worry about Owens going over top, Owens going over the middle, Owens running a hitch route. Defenses simply couldn't afford to take a chance covering Terrell Owens.

Unlike Randy Moss and Marvin Harrison—the best other than Owens during his era—he could dish out punishment just as well he could take it and could do so in a variety of ways.

They didn't "make" wide receivers like Terrell Owens in the past, but they're certainly trying to make them now.

Conclusion

Terrell Owens was a nuisance. He feuded with teammates and opponents, quarterbacks and coaches, but when he was playing football he was one of the best the game has ever seen.

He never won a Super Bowl (at least not yet), and he may have damaged his team's chances in the past, but the one time he was there it certainly wasn't on him (Donovan...).

Owens will never be considered a great teammate, he was simply too self-absorbed for that to work.

But when you look at the list of wide receivers currently in the Hall of Fame, all 21 of them of from the "modern era," how could we not consider Terrell Owens for a place among them? 

Even Cris Carter, arguably the best receiver not in the Hall of Fame yet, doesn't deserve to be placed in front of Owens.

In an era where wide receiver play has become so important, even with hundreds of players playing the position, Terrell Owens is the best of them, the first of the new generation.

His numbers, his antics, his attitudes and his personalities, all of them deserve a place in Canton with the best the NFL ever had to offer.