Shannon Sharpe: Tear Down Hall of Fame if Terrell Owens Not Inducted

One of football’s most troubled players is on the sidelines and without a team, but despite his troubled history former Bengals wide receiver Terrell Williams should qualify for induction into the Hall of Fame. In fact, one player says that the Hall of Fame should be shut down if Owens doesn’t make it in.

On the January 3 episode of “Undisputed,” Hall of Famer and former Denver Broncos Shannon Sharpe jumped to Owens’ support, saying the Hall of Fame shouldn’t even exist if Owens isn’t allowed to become a part of it, as Fox Sports reported.

Sharpe insisted that Owens’ playing record should more than qualify him for induction into the Hall of Fame.

“When you crunch his numbers, when you look at what he did on the field, there is no question…. If T.O. is not a Hall of Famer, they need to tear the building down,” Sharpe said.

The former Bronco also claimed that he’s talked to other members of the Hall of Fame and they’ve agreed that Owens deserves induction.

But another Hall of Famer, Gary Meyers, recently noted that Owens’ “disruptive” history is really the thing that has barred him from the honor.

“The bottom line on T.O. is he was so disruptive,” Myers said on the Dan Patrick Show. “With (Lawrence Taylor), you don’t count the off-the-field stuff. That’s a mandate from the Hall of Fame — it’s only what you’ve done on the field. The argument that was made in the room, and I agreed with this, is what T.O. did in the locker room is a part.”

Owens has developed a nasty reputation as an ungrateful player with a mouth that won’t quit. There was also a suicide scare back in 2006 when he was found unresponsive after an overdose on the painkiller hydrocodone. Owens and his publicist both called the incident an allergic reaction not a suicide attempt, but many doubt the characterization.

But of his opinion over Owens, one wonders if Shannon Sharpe would also feel that off-field activities should similarly be ignored for former Boston Red Sox player Curt Schilling’s chances of making the baseball Hall of Fame?

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.