1. Terrell Owens played college football for the Chattanooga Mocs and was selected in the third round of the 1996 NFL draft by the San Francisco 49ers.
92 Facts About Terrell Owens
1. 2.
Terrell Owens was a member of the team for seven seasons until he was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles in 2004.
3.
Terrell Owens later played for the Allen Wranglers of the Indoor Football League in 2012 and last played professionally with Fan Controlled Football in 2022.
4.
Terrell Owens was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018.
5.
Terrell Owens grew up with three other siblings and was raised by his mother and grandmother.
6.
Terrell Owens enjoyed watching football, especially his favorite player, Jerry Rice.
7.
Terrell Owens attended Benjamin Russell High School, where he participated in football, baseball, track, and basketball.
8.
Terrell Owens did not start on his high school football team until his junior year, when one of his teammates missed a game due to illness.
9.
Terrell Owens caught 38 passes for 724 yards and eight touchdowns during his sophomore year, and 34 passes for 357 yards and three touchdowns during his junior year.
10.
Terrell Owens previously held the single-season receptions record at Chattanooga until it was broken in 2007 by Alonzo Nix.
11.
Terrell Owens participated in the Senior Bowl, a college all-star game played by college seniors, in preparation for the NFL Draft.
12.
Terrell Owens played his first professional game against the New Orleans Saints, playing on special teams.
13.
Terrell Owens caught his first two passes against the Carolina Panthers in Week 4 on September 22,1996, for a total of six yards.
14.
Terrell Owens finished his rookie season with 35 receptions for 520 yards and four touchdowns.
15.
Terrell Owens helped the 49ers win 13 games that season, finishing with 936 receiving yards and eight touchdowns.
16.
Terrell Owens scored his first postseason touchdown in a Divisional Round win over the Minnesota Vikings.
17.
In 1999, Terrell Owens's production dropped after injury to Steve Young and Jeff Garcia was named the starting quarterback.
18.
Terrell Owens finished the season with 60 catches for 754 yards and four touchdowns.
19.
Terrell Owens finished the year with 97 receptions for 1,451 yards and thirteen touchdowns.
20.
Terrell Owens had another strong season in 2001, finishing with 93 receptions for 1,412 yards and 16 touchdowns.
21.
In 2003, Terrell Owens finished the season with 80 receptions for 1,102 yards and nine touchdowns.
22.
The National Football League Players Association and Terrell Owens disputed this assertion, contending that the deadline referred to by the 49ers was not the applicable deadline.
23.
On March 4,2004, San Francisco, believing it still held Terrell Owens' rights, attempted to trade Terrell Owens to the Baltimore Ravens for a second-round pick in the 2004 draft.
24.
However, Terrell Owens challenged the 49ers' right to make the deal.
25.
On December 19,2004, Terrell Owens sustained a severely sprained ankle and a fractured fibula when Dallas Cowboys safety Roy Williams took him down with a horse-collar tackle; Williams' horse-collars resulted in injuries to several NFL players, and the horse-collar tackle was later prohibited.
26.
Terrell Owens' injury required surgery, including insertion of a screw into his leg, and Eagles trainer Rick Burkholder stated that he would miss the rest of the season, with only an outside chance of playing in the Super Bowl if the Eagles advanced.
27.
Terrell Owens started in the game and had nine receptions for 122 yards, but the Eagles lost to the New England Patriots.
28.
Terrell Owens made $9 million in 2004, and was slated to make $4.5 million in 2005.
29.
Terrell Owens threatened to hold out of training camp until a deal was reached, but reported to camp on time.
30.
However, the contract was heavily back-loaded, and while outlets like Sports Illustrated touted the $49 million figure to mock Terrell Owens for wanting more, the money guaranteed to him was under the annual average for a top-tier wide receiver.
31.
An apology was drafted by Rosenhaus, but Terrell Owens balked at reading a specific apology to McNabb, and crossed that part of the statement out.
32.
Terrell Owens returned to the field during the Cowboys' 2006 season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
33.
Terrell Owens had a plate screwed into the finger, and returned to play the team's next game against the Tennessee Titans, where he accounted for 88 receiving yards.
34.
The doctors recommended season-ending surgery, but Terrell Owens elected to risk permanent damage to his finger and decided to wait until the end of the season to repair the damage.
35.
Terrell Owens led the league in regular season with 13 touchdown receptions.
36.
Also with this win, the Cowboys clinched a playoff berth for the second consecutive season, making this the third time Terrell Owens would participate in back-to-back postseasons.
37.
Terrell Owens was one of the starting wide receivers to represent the NFC in the Pro Bowl along with Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald.
38.
Terrell Owens was leading the league in receiving yards and was second in receiving touchdowns at the time.
39.
Terrell Owens returned for the divisional playoff game against the Giants, where he caught four passes for 49 yards and a touchdown.
40.
Terrell Owens later said that Jones had assured him that he would be remaining with the team and that he was blindsided by his release.
41.
Terrell Owens debuted with two catches for 45 yards in the game.
42.
However, the following week, Terrell Owens was held without a catch against the New Orleans Saints, ending a 185-game streak of consecutive games with a catch that was the longest streak among active players at the time.
43.
Terrell Owens became the oldest player to have a touchdown reception of more than 76 yards.
44.
Terrell Owens finished his lone season with Buffalo with 55 catches for 829 yards and 5 receiving touchdowns, and rushed 6 times for 54 yards and a touchdown.
45.
On July 27,2010, Terrell Owens signed a one-year contract with the Cincinnati Bengals.
46.
Terrell Owens joined Carson Palmer and Chad Johnson, both of whom lobbied for the Bengals to sign Owens.
47.
Terrell Owens was ranked 91st by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2011.
48.
Terrell Owens still managed to lead all Bengals' receivers with receptions, yards, and touchdowns for the season.
49.
Terrell Owens suffered a torn ACL during the 2011 offseason and underwent surgery in April 2011.
50.
On January 18,2012, Terrell Owens announced via Twitter that he had accepted the Wranglers' offer and joined their ownership group, with an official press conference to follow the following week.
51.
Terrell Owens's statistics were: eight games played; 35 catches; 420 yards; 52.5 yards per game; 12 yards per catch; 45 longest catch; and ten touchdowns.
52.
The Wranglers' co-owners stated Terrell Owens was released for showing a lack of effort both on and off the field.
53.
On January 13,2015, in an interview with Sports Illustrated Now, Terrell Owens stated that he had not retired and that, after a hiatus, he had trained with numerous NFL players during the 2014 NFL season and the offseason.
54.
Terrell Owens did not state when he planned to return to the NFL.
55.
On June 28,2017, Terrell Owens played as team captain for Team Terrell Owens in the inaugural game for the newly formed American Flag Football League.
56.
On March 31,2022, Terrell Owens signed with Fan Controlled Football.
57.
On May 11,2022, Terrell Owens was traded to the Knights of Degen in a three-team, four-player trade.
58.
On December 28,2022, it was announced that Terrell Owens was in contact with the Dallas Cowboys, as well as other teams, regarding a possible NFL return.
59.
In September 2011, Terrell Owens was sued by Melanie Paige Smith III, the mother of his daughter, for failure to pay child support, but the case was settled prior to trial.
60.
Terrell Owens insisted that the reason for the missed child support payments was due to his wages decreasing in the NFL and Smith was aware of his circumstances.
61.
Terrell Owens's son, Terique, is a wide receiver for Owens' old team, the San Francisco 49ers, and was signed by them after previously going undrafted in the 2024 NFL draft.
62.
Terrell Owens said he was paying some $45,000 per month in child support at one time.
63.
Terrell Owens was raised as a Christian by his grandmother and has been baptized.
64.
On October 16,2023, Terrell Owens was hit by a car in Calabasas, California, after being in an argument following a pick-up basketball game.
65.
On November 15,2004, Terrell Owens, wearing a Philadelphia Eagles uniform, appeared with television actress Nicollette Sheridan in an introductory skit which opened that evening's Monday Night Football telecast, in which Terrell Owens and the Eagles played the Cowboys at Texas Stadium.
66.
Some media outlets in Dallas reported on the morning of September 27,2006, that Terrell Owens had tried to kill himself by intentionally ingesting an overdose of hydrocodone, a pain medication.
67.
Terrell Owens' publicist refuted the report, stating that Terrell Owens had suffered an allergic reaction to the medication combined with a dietary supplement.
68.
At a news conference after his release, Terrell Owens denied having made a suicide attempt, stating that he expected to join the team for practice the next morning.
69.
The press conference took place after Terrell Owens had run routes and caught passes with the Cowboys at the team's practice facility in Valley Ranch.
70.
The pain medication Terrell Owens had ingested had been prescribed to him for a broken finger he had suffered in a Week2 victory against the Washington Redskins.
71.
Bill Parcells had noted in a press conference a few days before the incident that the medication Terrell Owens had been taking had made him sick, and he had been prescribed a milder pain killer.
72.
Game officials and reporters were unaware of the incident and Terrell Owens was not asked about it until his post-game interview with the NFL Network, when he confirmed it.
73.
When made aware that Hall was saying Terrell Owens did it deliberately, Terrell Owens said that it was an accident that occurred while they were in each other's face, talking trash.
74.
Terrell Owens was not voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first two years of eligibility, despite being statistically ranked near the top of every NFL receiving category.
75.
Terrell Owens subsequently caused controversy in his induction by skipping the official celebration in Canton, Ohio, and instead choosing to host his own celebration in McKenzie Arena on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, his alma mater.
76.
Terrell Owens is the only inductee of the hall to skip his induction and instead host a separate induction ceremony.
77.
Terrell Owens rapped in a single titled "I'm Back", available for download on his website.
78.
Outside of his football career, Terrell Owens appeared in various commercials, television shows, and films.
79.
Terrell Owens appeared in an episode of Punk'd, starring Ashton Kutcher, which is based on his November 19,2005, suspension.
80.
Terrell Owens appeared in the NBA All-Star celebrity game again in 2009 scoring 17 points including two alley-oops, to secure his second consecutive MVP award.
81.
In June 2009, Terrell Owens starred in ABC's reincarnation of Superstars, a sports competition show from the 70s where celebrities are paired with professional athletes.
82.
On May 8,2012, Terrell Owens appeared on Dr Phil with the mothers of three of his children to discuss relationships.
83.
In 2013, NBC Sports reported that Terrell Owens has become a model.
84.
In 2015, Terrell Owens participated in The Celebrity Apprentice 7, finishing in 12th place.
85.
On September 5,2017, Terrell Owens was announced as one of the celebrities set to compete on season 25 of Dancing with the Stars.
86.
Terrell Owens was partnered with professional dancer Cheryl Burke and was the eighth contestant eliminated.
87.
In 2017, Terrell Owens competed on the special for the MTV reality series The Challenge titled Champs vs Stars.
88.
In May 2018, it was announced that Terrell Owens would be featured on the cover of the "Hall of Fame" edition of Madden NFL 19.
89.
An avid bowler, Terrell Owens has twice won Chris Paul's CP3 PBA Celebrity Invitational, an annual televised event in which celebrities and PBA Tour professionals team up to benefit the Chris Paul Family Foundation.
90.
Terrell Owens won in 2016 with Pete Weber, and again in 2021 with AJ Johnson.
91.
Terrell Owens has won the Celebrity Clash at this event twice, in 2018 and 2021.
92.
In September 2013, Terrell Owens launched a podcast on the Sideshow Network with co-hosts comedian Alonzo Bodden and former-Survivor contestant and podcast host, Rob Cesternino.