When Tom Brady came to the Bucs, it seemed like everybody wanted to play with him in Tampa Bay. Stars of the game such as Antonio Brown, Leonard Fournette, LeSean McCoy and Brady’s, good friend Rob Gronkowski, all arrived in Tampa to win a Super Bowl.
A season later, other big names like Le’Veon Bell and Richard Sherman wanted Brady as a teammate. As it turns out, Terrell Owens wanted to play with Brady in Tampa Bay.
The Bucs did sign an aging Pro Bowl wide receiver, but that was Julio Jones in 2022 – not Owens the year prior.
Owens, a Hall of Famer, was willing to come out of retirement and join the Bucs during the 2021 season. A 2018 Hall Of Fame inductee, wide receiver Terrell Owens was on the Bubba Dub Show where spoke about wanting to join the Bucs in 2021 to play for the Bucs.
Owens, also known as “T.O.” was on board, but apparently in his opinion, Brady was not.
T.O. Felt Disrespected By Tom Brady
“Tom Brady ignored me,” Terrell Owens said. “The year that AB went crazy, they just needed somebody to fill some holes with AB leaving at the receiver position. I reached out to him through Randy (Moss) and some other people, just to come in and play third down and red zone situations. This dude ignored me. It just shows you the lack of respect there, but then when they get in front of you they want to act like they respect you.”
The 2021 Tampa Bay season was in fact a wild one. Tom Brady and the Bucs won a franchise-record 13 regular season games that year, winning the NFC South division for the first time since Brady joined Tampa. In Week 17 on the road against the New York Jets, Antonio Brown subsequently got up and quit on the team and went into the locker room with just over three minutes to go in the third quarter.
Following an argument with head coach Bruce Arians, Brown threw off his shoulder pads and helmet and started throwing his shirt into the crowd as he gave the peace sign to fans while in the end zone and ran off. After the game, Arians said Brown is no longer a Buccaneer and was essentially kicked off the team. Tampa Bay did rally to come back and win in the final seconds of the game by a score of 28-24.
It was a shocking moment in NFL history and also the put the team in a hole personnel-wise. Two weeks prior, wide receiver Chris Godwin suffered a season-ending torn ACL after a hit from a Saints player over the middle. After Brown’s departure, Tampa Bay was down two of its top three receivers. What didn’t help either was then right tackle Tristan Wirfs was injured in the first round of the playoffs against Philadelphia and could not play in the divisional round when the Bucs fell to the Rams, 30-27.
Could Terrell Owens Have Helped The Bucs?
At the time of the Rams game, the supporting cast of receivers after Mike Evans was Scotty Miller and Tyler Johnson. Owens spent 15 years in the NFL in his Hall of Fame career playing for the 49ers, Eagles, Cowboys, Bills and Bengals. He is considered one of the greatest wide receivers to play the game, despite some controversial moments in his career. Owens continued to be consistently productive throughout his career, even producing 983 receiving yards and nine touchdowns in his final season in 2010.
Owens was 37 years old when he last played in the regular season. Throughout the years he continued to stay in shape and would occasionally post videos of his workouts, showing he could still play.
He also tweeted at the Bucs shortly after Brown departed the field, making them aware he’d be ready for the postseason.
— Terrell Owens (@terrellowens) January 2, 2022
If Owens would have truly made a comeback in 2021, he would have be 48. Tom Brady was 44 at the time of that playoff loss.
Returning after a decade off would have been unprecedented in the NFL. There’s no telling how productive or effective Owens could possibly be at that age, and odds are it would be difficult for him. But he did say on the Bubba Dub Show it would have been for third down and red zone situations. Considering the Bucs were so thin at receiver, should the team have considered it? Even just a workout could have determined if Owens could have helped or not.
To say Brady disrespected him sounds like a bit of a stretch. Owens may have taken it personally, but given that Brady was gearing up for the postseason, it’s tough to say that he was really giving much attention to a player that was retired for over a decade when he was focused on the season.
There’s an argument to be made that the Bucs’ 2021 team on paper was better than the 2020 squad that won Super Bowl LV. The team had more chemistry after playing together and figuring how they play best on offense and defense. Unfortunately, injuries and Brown’s antics sunk their ship and the Bucs had an earlier playoff exit than expected. There’s a good chance if the Bucs had beaten the Rams, they would have gone on to defeat the 49ers the next week and would have had a very favorable matchup against the Bengals in the Super Bowl.
Who’s to say how much Owens may have helped the Bucs? In this case it’s just a matter of what could have been.
This article first appeared on Pewter Report and was syndicated with permission.
