Hi. My name is The Fan’s Attic and I’m a Terrell Owens fan.

I’ve been sitting on this post for a while now but I recently had a little online discussion with Mr. Irrelevant regarding the best WRs of this generation and I thought I should post it after that. First, though, here is a little recap of what brought this about.

Mr. Irrelevant argued that Marvin Harrison and Torry Holt are the best and he excluded Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, Chad Johnson, and Steve Smith because they are either inconsistent or have had brief careers. I disagreed and said that Owens (and probably Moss) should be included in any discussion about the best WRs of this generation based on their stats and he responded. See here. Mister Irrelevant gave additional reasons for their exclusion: being bad teammates, missing games and having “clunker” seasons in their careers.

My brief (and probably inadequate) response to his rebuttal: Owens has produced 5 Pro Bowl seasons since 2000 (the year he really stopped being second fiddle to Jerry Rice) and if the Philadelphia situation had played out differently he would have had another one in 2005. Holt, Harrison, and Moss have 4, 7 and 7 respectively. So, there isn’t really a statistical clunker for Owens save last season’s debacle since early in his career. Over the course of his career Owens has missed 18 games, 9 of which came from the suspension last year, compared to 6, 2 and 3 for Harrison, Holt and Moss. By far the most but he is by far the most physical of these receivers and that has to play into the injury situation. And, as far as bad teammates go, I can’t really argue that because he obviously isn’t one of the best but at least he has a passion for the game.

So, that leads me to my explanation of why I am a Terrell Owens fan.

Quite simply, I love the way Owens plays football. I’ll admit his off-field antics are distracting but I don’t care about that. I like players who play with passion, make big plays, and will do the dirty work. Owens does this; he catches the ball, he is a deep threat, scores touchdowns, goes across the middle and is a good blocker for a wide receiver. Quite simply, he is the most complete receiver in the game and is the prototype for many of the receivers these days: big, fast and athletic.

Moreover, he has an extreme passion to win and you can see this in his sideline antics. He just wants to win. He is a big-play receiver and getting the ball to him will most likely only help you win. I admire this trait in him because I think at this point in many of the NFL players’ careers they don’t have the same desire as Owens.

Finally, the guy is tough as nails. Remember his recovery from a broken ankle to play in the Super Bowl? How about the fact that he is playing with a plate in his hand right now? He didn’t miss a game with a broken finger (thanks to the bye week). He just wants to be on the field and make plays. I can hang with that.

Now, I have admitted that I like Terrell Owens and there aren’t many of us in existence but I am ok with it.