Terrell Owens made his case on the field.
By the numbers, Owens was one of the most dominant receivers in NFL history, with his career numbers ranking among the game’s all-time best.
And even though Owens wasn’t regarded as an easy teammate to deal with, former 49ers’ quarterback Jeff Garcia thinks Owens deserves his moment in Canton, Ohio.
“He’s (Owens) a Hall of Famer. No doubt,” Garcia told Tom Tolbert and John Lund on the Tolbert & Lund show on Tuesday afternoon.
Owens was eligible to be voted into the Hall of Fame for the first time this year, but he didn’t garner the necessary support from Hall of Fame voters to enter on the first ballot.
Despite trailing only Jerry Rice in career receiving yards, and only Rice and Randy Moss in career receiving touchdowns, Owens does not have an easy path to enshrinement. On Tuesday, Garcia was asked if Owens’ reputation as a tough teammate to deal with had anything to do with his Hall of Fame status, and here’s how Owens’ old quarterback responded.
“It might have something to do with why he’s not in it yet,” Garcia said. “But it’s just a matter of time and I don’t think that they can continue to hold that against him. The guy was a productive player, highly productive player on the field, one of the top two, three in many of the statistics that rank the wide receiver position so there’s no reason that he doesn’t get in within this next year or two. It’s just a matter of time. They’re making him squirm a little bit. He’s going to get there.”
Owens wasn’t the only player Garcia stumped for on Tuesday afternoon. He also gave an impassioned case for former Raiders head coach Tom Flores, who succeeded John Madden in Oakland. Flores won a title with Kansas City as a player, with the Raiders as an assistant coach, and then won two as a head coach.
“When you talk about Hall of Fame, and I’ve brought this up before, Tom Flores is a guy who deserves to be in the Hall of Fame and a guy that has been overlooked for many years,” Garcia said. “And we’re talking about a guy that was a captain. A guy who led that Oakland Raiders team to two Super Bowls. He was a player for one, an assistant coach for another, the guy has multiple rings, can cover an entire hand, why isn’t he in the Hall of Fame? That’s one of those questions. We need to get the Latinos represented in the Hall of Fame, man.”
To listen to Garcia’s interview on Tolbert and Lund, click the podcast link below. To hear Garcia’s comments on Owens and Flores, listen to the second half of the interview.