Terrell Owens

Terrell Owens has once again been named to a Hall of Fame.

This time, he'll be in attendance for his induction.

The 49ers announced Wednesday that Owens will be the 28th member of the Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. Hall of Fame.

49ers CEO Jed York reflected on Owens' time with the organization:

"Over the course of eight seasons, the 49ers Faithful were fortunate to have front row seats to watch Terrell Owens develop into one of the most prolific wide receivers in the history of the NFL. Not only was Terrell one of the most physically gifted athletes to ever play the game, but he was also one of the most competitive. We are so very proud and honored to induct Terrell into the Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. San Francisco 49ers Hall of Fame, where he will take his place among the all-time greats in our team’s history."

Owens, 45, spent his first eight NFL seasons with the 49ers. He earned four Pro Bowl nods and three All-Pro selections before being traded to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Upon hearing the news, Owens had this to say:

"I am so humbled to be mentioned with the likes and greats of Joe Montana, Steve Young, Jerry Rice and many others that have represented the San Francisco 49ers organization. I wouldn’t be who I am and have accomplished what I did, number one, without God and without the push of my teammates and coaches, especially Coach Larry Kirksey and Coach George Stewart. The Bay Area is where I began my career, and I will forever be indebted to the 49ers and recognized as one of the 49ers greats. I am honored to be inducted in the 49ers Hall of Fame as this is a special moment with a special group of individuals. Thank you, again, to the 49ers organization and 49ers Faithful."

Owens owns the team record for receptions in a game, hauling in 20 passes for 283 yards against the Chicago Bears during the 2000 season. 

Opened in 2009, the 49ers Hall of Fame inducted 17 members in its inaugural class and has regularly honored the greatest players in franchise history. Owens is the first inductee since Tom Rathman in 2017.

Owens was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame last year. However, he was displeased with not being voted in during his first two years of eligibility and chose to skip the induction ceremony. He held his own ceremony at his alma mater, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. 

BR Video

The season finale of Simms & Lefkoe: The Show is here.

Simms and Lefkoe are joined by Derwin James, Terrell Owens and Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson.

Watch Simms & Lefkoe: The Show every Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET. 

Although the Pro Bowl wideout remains a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers (for now), it appears Antonio Brown is doing his homework on the San Francisco 49ers.

First, Brown FaceTimed with Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice. Now, it appears as though he has been in communication with Terrell Owens as well.

Owens was a guest on the PFT PM podcast on Friday and revealed that he has chatted with Brown about the Steelers star's career. As a result, Owens believes he has a good grasp of the situation—and he thinks the disgruntled wideout wants out of Pittsburgh, h/t Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio:

"I've talked with Antonio Brown throughout the course of year. And I've kind of known some of what has been going on. He's leaned on me for advice, as somewhat of a mentor, so to speak. ...I think with him, I think it's a fresh start to go elsewhere and part ways with the organization and with some of the things than he and Ben have been confronted with."

Owens added:

"He wants to move on. ... I don't like how Ben [Roethlisberger] has kind of thrown him under the bus in certain instances. ... I think Ben owes him a lot more respect than he has given him. ... I mean even from the standpoint of him saying he didn't know anything about a blowup [at practice prior to Week 17] when he was part of the blowup."

CBSSports.com's Jason La Canfora reported earlier this month that Brown has requested a trade. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin subsequently denied that a formal request had been made, per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Ed Bouchette.

And while Brown himself has yet to officially go on the record and say he wants out, momentum continues to build as people like Owens speak on his behalf.

Owens did not give an official list of Brown's preferred landing spots, but he did mention something that should get 49ers fans excited.

"I talked to him on a couple of occasions, and I’m not here to air anybody’s messages or ... conversations, but he's asked me how the Bay Area was on several occasions," Owens said, per Florio.

Of course, this is just the latest in the AB-to-49ers rumors. Brown raised some eyebrows with a little back-and-forth with San Francisco tight end George Kittle earlier this month:

He also started following the 49ers on Instagram around that time. Then, on Friday, he made an Instagram post that featured him in a San Francisco uniform.

Stay tuned, as this saga is far from over.

BR Video

The 21st episode of Simms & Lefkoe: The Show is here. Simms and Lefkoe are joined by Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco.

Watch Simms & Lefkoe: The Show every Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.

One year after being voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Terrell Owens is still bitter about having had to wait for his enshrinement. 

Appearing on Laugh Out Loud and Kevin Hart's Cold as Balls series (h/t TMZ Sports), Owens spoke about why he didn't get into the Hall of Fame until his third year of eligibility. 

"That c-word...character, which a lot of the voters kinda added to the mix of the criteria of inducting guys," Owens said. "It should be about your body of work and your accomplishments."

Owens wasn't the first Hall of Famer who had to wait multiple years before being elected. Charles Haley, who is one of only two players in NFL history to win five Super Bowls, was a finalist for six straight years before finally being voted in as part of the 2015 class. 

Other notable wide receivers who weren't voted into the Hall of Fame on their first ballot include Michael Irvin (third year), Cris Carter (sixth year) and Art Monk (eighth year). 

After being forced to wait three years for his induction, Owens had his revenge on the Hall of Fame's Board of Trustees by hosting his own induction ceremony at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. 

Shortly after the Dallas Cowboys' season ended with a 30-22 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Saturday night, Hall of Fame receiver Terrell Owens called for a coaching change via Twitter:

Jason Garrett has been the Cowboys head coach for eight full seasons after he began as an interim coach in 2010. He's been with the organization since 2007, coaching Owens as the offensive coordinator in 2007-08.

While Garrett has fared well in the regular season (77-59), his lack of playoff success is a legitimate argument against him. After the divisional-round loss, the coach is just 2-3 in his postseason career.

The Cowboys haven't reached the NFC Championship Game since they won the Super Bowl in the 1995 season, and the last road playoff win came three years earlier.

However, it doesn't seem like owner Jerry Jones will consider Owens' words when he makes a decision about Garrett's future. The 52-year-old coach is under contract through the 2019 season but is likely to sign a new extension this offseason, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.    

Football fans craving pigskin in the spring will have their answer thanks to a number of former NFL players.

Former NFL running back Ricky Williams announced Thursday on ESPN's Outside the Lines that he is one of the founders of the Freedom Football League, per Field Yates of ESPN. Williams is joined by fellow founders Terrell Owens, Simeon Rice and Mike Alstott, among others.

The league will play during the spring as to avoid competing against the NFL and collegiate football in the fall.

According to ESPN.com, there will be 10 teams when the league starts—the San Diego Warriors, Oklahoma City Power, Portland Progress, Texas Revolution, Ohio Players, Florida Strong, Birmingham Kings, St. Louis Independence, Connecticut Underground and Oakland Panthers—with the chance for eventual expansion if it succeeds.

Williams said there are 50 former players already on board among the nearly 100 stakeholders.

"The purpose of this league ... is about community and the development of players," Williams said on Outside the Lines. "... In thinking about creating this league, I wanted to create a league that I could have stayed in and been comfortable and really thrived."

He also said the league will look to encourage its players to take stands on social and "hot-button" issues, which is notable considering Colin Kaepernick filed a collusion grievance against the NFL in October 2017.

Kaepernick has been unable to sign with a team since he made headlines for protesting racial inequality and police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem.

The inclusion of Owens and Williams, among the other players, lends the league a note of credibility.

Owens is a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest wide receivers in the history of the game, while Williams won a Heisman Trophy with the Texas Longhorns and reached the Pro Bowl at the NFL level.

Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald passed 2018 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Terrell Owens on Sunday to become the second all-time leading receiver in NFL history during the Cards' Week 10 game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. The Cardinals announced his achievement on Twitter:

Fitzgerald exceeded Owens' total of 15,934 receiving yards on a fourth-quarter reception. He now only trails San Francisco 49ers legend Jerry Rice (22,895 yards).

The 35-year-old Minnesota native has been one of the league's most consistent, productive players since Arizona selected him out of the University of Pittsburgh with the third overall pick in the 2004 draft.

Fitzgerald has earned 11 Pro Bowl selections, led the NFL in receptions twice and was named first-team All-Pro in 2008. He's done all that while providing leadership both in the Cardinals locker room and in the community.

The latter led to him winning the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award in 2016.

It's unlikely Fitzgerald will come close to catching Rice for the top spot. Although his production has remained strong in recent years, including three straight seasons with at least 1,000 yards entering 2018, he's already discussed his potential retirement and has not been immune from the teamwide struggles this year.

In June, he told Darren Urban of the team's official website he tries to focus solely on making it through the season at hand.

"I'm just trying to get to February in one piece," Fitzgerald said. "I don't buy green bananas."

Fitzgerald has never possessed much of an attitude, so he's probably underrated from a historical perspective, but his numbers speak for themselves. He's a surefire Hall of Famer, almost certainly on the first ballot, despite so far not capturing a Super Bowl title.

Passing Owens is merely another accolade on an already-stacked resume.

Tennessee Titans safety Kevin Byard reportedly could be fined after celebrating on AT&T Stadium's midfield star during the Titans' 28-14 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night.

According to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, the NFL is reviewing the incident since stomping on a team logo is an act that can be penalized under the player policy.

Byard celebrated on the star after intercepting Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott in the end zone during the first quarter of Monday's game:

Wide receiver Terrell Owens did virtually the same thing in 2000 while playing for the San Francisco 49ers.

Several of Byard's teammates joined him on the star before Cowboys cornerback Byron Jones broke up the celebration.

Byard told reporters he expected to get hit hard, much like T.O. was when he performed the celebration a second time during the game 18 years earlier: "I was actually expecting somebody to knock my head off. Then we just started dancing. I was like, if we get to the 50, if we get enough guys to the 50, we are just going to start dancing on the star."

Jones made it clear that he wasn't a fan of the move: "There's no reason for them to disrespect the star like that. You can have fun out there. I understand celebrate, but you overstep the boundaries when you go on the star."

Tennessee head coach Mike Vrabel told reporters he wasn't a fan of it either:

"That's not what we want as an organization. That's not what I want as a head coach. I want our guys to play as hard as they possibly can, for each other, between the whistles, as physical, as aggressive, as clean as they possibly can. I get that there's things that cross the line between whistles. Once the whistle blows, celebrate with a teammate. Find somebody else in a Titans uniform. Find a coach. Celebrate with them. But we don't need to do that. That's not what we want to do. I talked to Kevin this morning. I'll talk to the team again tomorrow. That goes for a lot of guys. That's not what I want. If that's what they want, then we see it very differently."

Byard's interception was a momentum-changing play since the Cowboys were leading 7-0 and driving for another score at the time.

Following the interception, Tennessee drove 80 yards on 15 plays and tied the score on a one-yard touchdown run by Derrick Henry.

Dallas fell to 3-5 in the loss, while the Titans are now 4-4 and trail the Houston Texans by 1.5 games for the AFC South lead.