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Terrell Owens has never been shy about speaking his mind, and we can add a new entry to the lengthy list of controversial statements he’s made over the years thanks to a Scorching Hot Take concerning his attempt to stage an NFL comeback during Tom Brady’s last season with the Buccaneers.
In 2010, Terrell Owens played his 15th and final NFL season as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals. He attempted to find a new home in the league after recovering from an ACL tear he suffered in the offseason, but a dearth of suitors forced him to settle for the Indoor Football League.
While the Seahawks gave him a shot at training camp in 2012, he was released before the regular season got underway, which marked the start of a journey that saw him play flag football professionally, flirt with the CFL, and join Johnny Manziel in the now-defunct Fan Controlled Football league.
In 2022, Owens attempted to stage a comeback at the age of 49 by reaching out to two of his former teams (the 49ers and Cowboys), but for some reason, neither of them were scrambling to sign a guy who hadn’t played in the league for 12 years and would’ve unseated George Blanda as the oldest player in NFL history if he’d gotten the chance to suit up.
During a recent appearance on The Bubba Dub Show, Owens revealed that transpired a year after he tried to come out of his unofficial retirement by reaching out to Tom Brady when the Buccaneers found themselves dealing with a depleted wide receiver corps at the end of the 2021 campaign after Antonio Brown quit in the middle of a game and Chris Godwin injured his knee.
However, the QB (who was 44 years old at the time) apparently declined to respond—a snub that did not sit well with T.O. based on what he had to say:
“I reached out to him through Randy [Moss] and a couple of other people, just to come in and play third down and red zone situations.
This dude really ignored me…It just shows you the lack of respect, but when they get in front of you, they want to act like they respect you.
I’m a Hall of Famer now. You’ve seen what I’ve done on the football field. It shows you what arrogance comes into play…Tom Brady could’ve made that happen.”
I can’t blame Owens for thinking highly of himself, but I don’t think Brady deserves much (if any) of the blame here.