Owens And The Hall

So, Terrell Owens thinks that he should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This past year was his first year of eligibility. He didn't make it. Marvin Harrison did. It was Harrison's third year of eligibility. Owens has used every opportunity given him to bitch about this apparent injustice. This was his most recent comment.

"When it comes to what the Hall of Fame is all about in terms of the criteria to get in, it should purely be based on stats."

First of all, Owens doesn't have a clue about what the Pro Football Hall of Fame is all about. Second of all, the stats don't really separate Owens like he thinks that they do. Harrison has often been the target of these rants because he got in this year and Owens didn't. Here's a statistical comparison of the two in the usual receiving standards of receptions, yards, and touchdowns.

Terrell Owens in 219 career games:

1,078 receptions
15,934 yards
153 TDs

Marvin Harrison in 190 career games:

1,102 receptions
14,580 yards
128 TDs

While the raw numbers give Owens a slight edge the per game averages mostly favor Harrison:

Owens
4.9 receptions/game
72.8 yards/game
0.70 TDs/game

Harrison
5.8 receptions/game
76.7 yards/game
0.67 TDs/game

Owens often points out that Harrison caught passes from Peyton Manning for all but two of his 13 years in the league. There's always something. Owens caught passes from Steve Young, Jeff Garcia, Donovan McNabb, and Tony Romo. Young is honored in Canton. Garcia won't be but he did start his time with Owens by playing well enough to earn three straight Pro Bowl nods. McNabb and Romo were two of the better quarterbacks in the league while Owens was playing with them. He might not have been catching passes from Manning but he certainly wasn't hindered by the quarterbacks that were throwing to him.

The statistic that really needs to be talked about when it comes to the NFL career of Terrell Owens is the drops. He had way too many of them. Far too many drops for a receiver that considers himself a slam-dunk Hall of Famer. Owens had terrible hands. Nearly every throw was a challenge for him. In my book, the drops should keep him out of the Hall of Fame. How can a receiver, especially a supposed Hall of Fame receiver, be so bad at the one thing that he's supposed to do so well. Unfortunately, Terrell Owens will make into the Hall of Fame. It could very well be next year. He had one of the worst pair of hands in the league while he was playing. He'll have by far the worst pair of hands of any of the receivers in Canton. That's quite an honor.

The funny thing about Owens' bitching now is that last summer he said that making the Hall of Fame wasn't all that important to him. He knew the quality of the NFL career that he had and he didn't need any outside validation of it. He's sure talking differently now. Anyone that's paid attention to the election process that there's been a line of deserving receivers outside the Hall of Fame. Every receiver not named Jerry Rice has had to wait. Harrison's wait of three years was actually pretty short. Cris Carter and Tim Brown had to wait six years. Art Monk and Andre Reed waited even longer. Isaac Bruce and Tory Holt are waiting now. Hines Ward too. Mac Speedie has been waiting about 60 years but that one is a whole other story. Randy Moss is coming up pretty soon. I'd put all of those receivers in before I'd even consider Owens but that's just me. The Hall of Fame isn't, and shouldn't be, just about statistics. There's a line of receivers and Owens has to shut up and get in that line. Despite the excessive drops, Owens will probably leap over Holt, Bruce, and Ward next year. And that's the real shame in all of this.