While many are quibbling over whether or not Terrell Owens should be in the Hall of Fame, one person who thinks the divisive wide receiver “absolutely” should be in Canton is Donovan McNabb.
McNabb was Owens’ teammate on the Philadelphia Eagles for a season and a half in 2004 and 2005. T.O. caught 20 touchdown passes in 21 games from McNabb, and the two seemed like an unstoppable duo in 2004 when the squad went 13-3. Things imploded the following season, which ended in injury for McNabb and Owens essentially being kicked off the team. He was constantly making negative remarks about McNabb in the media, but that isn’t stopping Donovan from supporting T.O. as a Hall of Famer.
“The thing about Terrell is, on the field, outstanding talent. Probably one of the best receivers that I played with in the pro ranks. He’s one of the best to have ever done it, and will he be a Hall of Famer? Absolutely,” McNabb said in a recent interview with “Tiki and Tierney” on CBS Sports Radio.
One of the arguments against Owens is that he made teams worse because he was so divisive. McNabb says otherwise and believes Owens “absolutely” made the Eagles better.
“Absolutely… I went out and got T.O. and I talked to Andy and (said), ‘Hey, we need to get this guy.’ Because we needed something to get us over the hump on offense. Every top quarterback in the league always had a No. 1 receiver that teams had to focus on. I didn’t have that. T.O. gave us that extra oomph that we needed on offense to become that passing attack that would be more of a problem for defensive coordinators to try to stop,” McNabb told the CBS Sports hosts.
So what exactly did Owens do that caused so many problems in the locker room?
“Andy (Reid) was a very disciplined guy. He wanted things structured… but people (began) to follow Terrell, and Terrell knew that. Terrell had these guys (thinking) this is the way to do it, when, no, that’s not how we did it in Philly. We’re going to do it the way it’s supposed to be done. People felt some type of way on Terrell’s side, just like (some) people (were) on my side.”
That’s McNabb essentially acknowledging the split within the locker room, but he still won’t let that keep him from saying Owens is a Hall of Famer. Someone should share McNabb’s comments with Skip Bayless and see if that changes his opinion.
