Does Terrell Owens belong in the NFL Hall of Fame?

... while I cringe, yes

The process of election to professional sports hall of fames is shaky on many levels, and this year's NFL class reflects that problem.

First, let me say that I disliked Terrell Owens (TO) as a player. He was obnoxious, selfish, crude, and rude. However, when I try to see if a person belongs in a Hall of Fame, I look at the numbers.

The numbers

Here is what I discovered with Owens. He recorded 15,934 receiving yards in his career, which makes him second to the legendary Jerry Rice, an NFL Hall of Famer. In all, he had nine seasons in which he had more than 1,000 yards in receptions.

Owens had 1,078 receptions in his 15-year career, which is eighth in NFL history. Those resulted in 153 touchdowns, third in the NFL among wide receivers.

Owens made the Pro Bowl six times and was first-team All-Pro five times.

In a Super Bowl game with the Philadelphia Eagles, Owens, still recovering from a broken leg, caught nine passes for 122 yards.

In short, he has Hall of Fame numbers.

Just like Pete Rose.

Rationale for not voting

The first complaint about this is the makeup of the committee making these selections. First, it is made up of all media members, most of whom never played professional or college football -- or may have never played football at all.

My recommendation for improving that is to make it up mostly of former professional players and coaches. First, 1/3 of it should be former Hall of Fame members. Another 1/3 should be former coaches and players. The final 1/3 could be media.

In reality none on the selection committee have played professionally except for two committee members: Dan Fouts and James Lofton, who are also media members as well as members of the NFL Hall of Fame.

The rest of them probably never played football based on their intelligence. For instance, the brilliant sports editor of the Buffalo News said that he voted against Owens because the receiver did not stick long enough with the San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, and Dallas Cowboys.

Vic Carucci said that, but if he had done any research, he would have realized that Owens played for the 49ers for eight years. How much sense does that make?

Fouts, unfortunately, claims that Owens was not a good teammate. “I think his actions on and off the field, on the sidelines, in the locker room, and the fact he played for so many teams and was such a great player, the question that comes back to me is if he was such a great player, why did so many of those teams get rid of him?" he asked.

The first problem is that Philadelphia did not get rid of them. He left of his own volition in a contract dispute.

The second problem with it is that Dallas coach at the time, Bill Parcells, said this about Owens, while acknowledging that he was not the coach's favorite player, "He certainly was highly productive. He was highly productive and did some very remarkable things on the field. He also came with some other things that you had to deal with. And sometimes they weren’t always pleasant for some of the places that he was. But that being said, it’s a production business and he did produce at an extremely high level.”

Owens' coach with the 49ers, Steve Mariucci, also believes that he belongs in the HF. "He's got the numbers and the career that says he should be in," Mariucci said prior to this year's voting. "I thought he might get in last year. Some voters didn't think that way, I guess. They seemed to want to make him wait. I think he's waited long enough. Let's go. He should be in."

Another person who disagreed with the committee's decision is a current executive who was also a player in the NFL. "And perhaps this is the lawyer in me who craves precedent, but the exclusion of Terrell Owens for his 'team disruption' pushes Hall of Fame voting down a very slippery slope," Mark Murphy, president and CEO Green Bay Packers, said. "Going forward, what will be the proper mix of performance and off-field drama necessary for induction? What will be the determining factor differentiating merely diva-like behavor and team disruption?"

Conclusion

So, to repeat, I do not like T.O., never have and never will. However, he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame based on his numbers. He is one of the best receivers in NFL history, and that is what should be the decisive factor in this voting.

And, change the composition of that selection committee. They are the real problem here.