During his three seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tom Brady rallied the troops and brought some of his old friends with him on his trip down south. Guys like tight end Rob Gronkowski and wide receiver Antonio Brown quickly joined Brady in Tampa to help him win his seventh and final Super Bowl in 2020. One guy who didn't get the call, though, was Terrell Owens, and he's still upset about it to this day.
Despite the fact that he hasn't played in the NFL since 2010, Owens has said several times in retirement that he's wanted to make an NFL comeback. Apparently, his biggest push came in 2021 after Brown went off the rails, but his efforts to reach Brady came up short. While nobody knows how serious his comeback attempt was, Owens took aim at Brady for ignoring him during his time on the Buccaneers.
“Tom Brady ignored me. 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 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.” – Terrell Owens, ProFootballTalk
Should Tom Brady have taken Terrell Owens' comeback attempt seriously?
Making a comeback attempt in any professional sport is always difficult, but at the time, Owens was about to turn 48 years old, meaning it would have been an unprecedented return. Unretiring in your late 30s is hard enough, but doing so in your late 40s has literally never been done before, so you can't totally blame Brady for not taking him 100 percent seriously.
Still, after Brown's outburst, the Buccaneers offense was missing a secondary playmaker, and Owens has stayed in remarkable shape in his post-playing career. He certainly wouldn't have been producing at the same level from earlier in his career, but could he have helped out in specific situations like he mentioned above, especially with a legend like Brady throwing him the ball?
It certainly would have been tough for Owens to prove he was still in NFL shape, but Brady wouldn't have had much to lose to give Owens a shot and see what he had left in the tank. Of course, Brady wasn't the general manager of the Buccaneers, so he can't totally be blamed for this, but it is worth noting that many of his friends ended up in Tampa Bay as previously mentioned.
Given how the Bucs 2021 season played out, maybe they should have taken Owens' comeback attempt seriously. Instead, they pushed on without Brown before falling in the playoffs. It's an interesting what-if scenario, but chances are it wouldn't have led to a drastic change in Tampa Bay's fortunes.
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