The NFL’s second best wide receiver is still is not in the Hall of Fame

At their annual awards ceremony, the NFL recently announced the next seven people that will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame later this summer. Among the 2017 class are former players Terrell Davis, LaDainian Tomlinson, Kurt Warner, and current Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

Despite accumulating the second most career receiving yards and the third most career receiving touchdowns in the league’s history, former NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens was left wondering why his name was not among those chosen for the Hall of Fame this year.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know what was going on in the former wide receiver’s head when he found out the unfortunate news? Luckily, Owens took to social media to do just that.

HOF is a total joke. Honestly, doesn’t mean anything to me to get in beyond this point. https://t.co/wJJ8vVSp9d

— Terrell Owens (@terrellowens) February 5, 2017

This was the second year in a row in which the receiver was named a finalist for the Hall of Fame but was not chosen as an inductee. He might have shrugged his shoulders about not being selected in 2016, but he was not about to keep quiet about it happening for the second straight year.

But is his anger warranted?

Yes, he does have the statistics to legitimize his Hall of Fame credibility, but perhaps Owens needs to look at the path to enshrinement that those in his position have taken before him.

It took six nominations for former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Cris Carter to get selected to the Hall, three nominations for former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin, nine nominations for former Buffalo Bills wide receiver Andre Reed, and six nominations for former Oakland Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown.

For some reason, the people who do the voting each year obviously do not place much value on the numbers put up by some of the best pass catchers over the past few decades. Reed was asked in 2015 about why he thinks it takes wide receivers longer to get enshrined than most positions.

“You’re only as good as the offense your coordinator is running. The game has changed a lot over the years and it’s now a passing league and more guys are catching more balls. One thousand catches means a lot, but it’s not really a deciding factor on whether a guy is a Hall of Famer or not.

Yes, you gotta have the numbers. But were you a team player? Were you a leader in the locker room? Were you good with the media? There are all of these other factors that need to get looked at.”

– Andre Reed, Hall of Fame wide receiver

Those last few points Reed makes about being a team player and interacting well with the media are likely what has prevented Owens from getting a Hall of Fame induction so far. He and some others may not like to admit it, but in today’s day and age where the accessibility level is at a skyscraper-like height, more is used to determined a player’s enshrinement than just the numbers they put up out on the football field.

Will Owens ever get inducted? Of course he will.

But for a player that once shouted, “I love me some me,” to the NFL cameras on the sideline, he has to realize that the admiration for his own self greatly outweighs the amount given to him by those who decide on the Hall of Fame inductees.