Terrell Owens was not voted into the Hall of Fame for a second straight year, and once again he seems particularly irritated that Cris Carter is in and he isn’t.
When Owens was snubbed last year, he unloaded on Carter for criticizing him and accused the Minnesota Vikings legend of having “begged his way into the Hall of Fame.” Now seemingly even angrier, T.O. once again compared himself to Carter in an interview with Mike Francesa on WFAN this week.
“Even you think about guys that have gone and really tried to attack my character and called me a flawed candidate, a guy like Cris Carter — trust me, I’m better than Cris Carter,” Owens said, as transcribed by CBS New York. “I’ll tell him that. He knows that I’m not a fan of him.
“He wants me to wait because he had to wait. I did more with less. I was better than Cris Carter. So he shouldn’t mention anything about anybody, especially me, about being a flawed candidate when here’s a guy who got released, flunked three drug tests from Philly — cocaine and alcohol addiction — and then there was somewhere down the road he’s telling guys to ask somebody to be a fall guy. What kind of character is that?”
The “fall guy” remark was in reference to some controversial advice Carter gave incoming NFL rookies a couple of years ago, which he later apologized for.
No one is arguing that Owens’ numbers are not Hall of Fame-worthy. He ranks second in the NFL all time in receiving yards with 15,934, third in touchdowns with 153 and eighth in receptions with 1,078. Those who did not vote for Owens feel his reputation for being a bad teammate and a locker room nuisance are enough to keep him out of Canton for now. Based on that, you can understand why T.O. wants to call attention to someone like Carter, who had off-field issues early in his career.
At this point, Owens should let it go. He’s going to get into the Hall eventually, so there’s no need to make outlandish claims like this.
