Terrell Owens in the uniform he wore most often
Owens has a Career AV [1]I am using perceived AV throughout this post, which assigns 100% credit to a player’s best season, 95% credit to his second best season, 90% to his third best, and so on. of 119. That was split as follows (any discrepancies due to rounding):
- 74 points of AV, or 62% of his career AV, came with the 49ers;
- 28 points of AV, or 24%, came with the Cowboys;
- 11 points of AV, or 9%, came with the Eagles;
- 4 points of AV, or 3%, came with the Bengals; and
- 3 points of AV, or 3%, came with the Bills.
It is pretty rare for a player to make the Hall of Fame and lace up for five different teams, although there are already two wide receivers in Canton who can make that claim. But we’ll get to that at the end of this post.
Where Does Having “Just” 62% of Your Career AV With One Team Rank?
There are 20 Hall of Famers who failed to eclipse 62% of their career AV with one team, including guys like Marshall Faulk, Reggie White, and Deion Sanders. A number of players, including 2017 selection Kurt Warner, barely eclipsed 50% with one team, with Curley Culp and Eric Dickerson the two lowest players at 51%.
| Player | Main Team | Tm AV | Car AV | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Curley Culp | oti | 39 | 76 | 51.3% |
| Eric Dickerson | ram | 47 | 91 | 51.4% |
| John Riggins | was | 47 | 91 | 51.6% |
| Gary Zimmerman | den | 52 | 100 | 51.8% |
| Bob Brown | phi | 41 | 77 | 53% |
| Paul Warfield | cle | 57 | 106 | 53.8% |
| Kurt Warner | ram | 52 | 96 | 54.8% |
| Ted Hendricks | rai | 61 | 107 | 56.5% |
| Ollie Matson | ram | 10 | 17 | 56.9% |
| Deion Sanders | dal | 67 | 117 | 57% |
| Mike Haynes | nwe | 60 | 105 | 57.4% |
| Willie Roaf | nor | 62 | 108 | 57.7% |
| Hugh McElhenny | min | 12 | 20 | 58.3% |
| Sam Huff | nyg | 36 | 62 | 58.4% |
| Nick Buoniconti | nwe | 60 | 102 | 58.9% |
| Reggie White | phi | 93 | 157 | 59% |
| Fran Tarkenton | min | 88 | 149 | 59.1% |
| Joe DeLamielleure | buf | 52 | 87 | 60% |
| Marshall Faulk | ram | 81 | 133 | 61% |
| Charles Haley | sfo | 51 | 83 | 61.8% |
A quick detour….
Owens “only” had about 24% of his career AV come with his second-most productive team, which isn’t notable. But for trivia purposes, here are the players who had 40% of their career AV come from their second team:
| Player | 2nd team | Tm AV | Car AV | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Riggins | nyj | 44 | 91 | 48.4% |
| Gary Zimmerman | min | 48 | 100 | 48.2% |
| Curley Culp | kan | 36 | 76 | 47.8% |
| Paul Warfield | mia | 49 | 106 | 46.2% |
| Eric Dickerson | clt | 41 | 91 | 44.7% |
| Ollie Matson | phi | 7 | 17 | 43.1% |
| Mike Haynes | rai | 45 | 105 | 42.6% |
| Willie Roaf | kan | 45 | 108 | 42.3% |
| Sam Huff | was | 26 | 62 | 41.6% |
| Nick Buoniconti | mia | 42 | 102 | 41.1% |
| Fran Tarkenton | nyg | 61 | 149 | 40.9% |
| Kurt Warner | crd | 38 | 96 | 40% |
| Joe DeLamielleure | cle | 35 | 87 | 40% |
| Reggie White | gnb | 62 | 157 | 39.7% |
Three Teams of Note
Here is where things get interesting. Owens had 9% of his career AV come with a third team, which is not a small amount. But there are five Hall of Famers with more:
| Player | 3rd Team | Tm AV | Car AV | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bob Brown | rai | 16 | 77 | 20.9% |
| Hugh McElhenny | nyg | 3 | 20 | 13.6% |
| Ted Hendricks | gnb | 11 | 107 | 10.3% |
| Warren Moon | sea | 11 | 119 | 9.6% |
| Deion Sanders | sfo | 11 | 117 | 9.5% |
Sanders is a good comparison for Owens, as Deion also had a “mercenary-like” quality to his play. But what about Bob Brown? The talented right tackle forced his way out of Philadelphia, though he did it without doing situps in his driveway. After two All-Pro years with the Rams, Brown was traded to the Raiders for RT Harry Schuh and CB Kent McCloughan. Brown made the Pro Bowl in 1971, as part of a team that rostered 5 future Hall of Fame offensive linemen.
Four Teams
A few players have made contributions to four teams: Tommy McDonald, Hugh McElhenny, and Deion Sanders all had at least 4% of their career AV come from their fourth franchise, while Owens had 3% of his AV come from there. But more notably…
Five Teams?
Terrell Owens spent 8 years with the 49ers, 3 years with the Cowboys, 2 years with the Eagles, 1 year with Cincinnati, and 1 year with Buffalo. He would be the 4th Hall of Famer.
Deion Sanders spent 5 years with the Falcons, 5 years with the Cowboys, 2 years with the Ravens, 1 years with the 49ers, and 1 year with the Redskins.
Tommy McDonald spent 7 years with the Eagles to start his career; that was followed by 1 year with the Cowboys, 2 years with the Rams, and 1 nondescript season with each of the Falcons and Browns.
James Lofton spent the first 9 years of his career with the Packers, before spending 2 years with the Raiders, 4 years with the Bills, and then a cup of coffee with both the Eagles and Rams.
References
| ↑1 | I am using perceived AV throughout this post, which assigns 100% credit to a player’s best season, 95% credit to his second best season, 90% to his third best, and so on. |
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