Terrell Owens is one of the greatest wide receivers in NFL history, but he didn’t make a whole lot of friends along the way.
One of T.O.’s more notable feuds is with former quarterback and teammate Donovan McNabb, who actually was a good friend of Owens’ when the wideout joined the Philadelphia Eagles in 2004. That didn’t last very long, though, and eventually, the two didn’t speak to each other.
It’s been assumed T.O.’s many criticisms of McNabb were the reason for the falling out, but Owens told Skip Bayless on FOX Sports 1’s “Undisputed” the origin of the feud actually came from something the quarterback said.
“There was a game, I can’t remember if it was … we were playing the Giants or the Browns or whatever the case may be, but throughout the course of practice, there were designed, specific plays for myself,” Owens said. “Ran it over and over. Knew it was going to work in the game. Ran that play to a T. Open, wide open. I didn’t get the ball. I could hear my teammates from the sideline, ‘Why didn’t he throw the ball?’
“So I go back to the huddle and I was like, ‘Dude, I was open.’ And you know what his response was to me? ‘Shut the F up.’ That was disrespectful. I’ve never disrespected any of my teammates to that degree. And I didn’t make a stink about it on the field, I let it ride. I didn’t argue about it, I said ‘cool.’ But I went in the locker room and addressed him after the game, man-to-man. Knowing the things that had happened in San Francisco, I didn’t want that to happen in Philly.”
Bayless and co-host Shannon Sharpe grilled Owens, and he insisted he always “tried to be the better person.” But true or not, it wouldn’t be a surprise if McNabb himself chimed in soon.
Thumbnail photo via Kelley L Cox/USA TODAY Sports Images
