The oldest wide receiver to suit up for an NFL game also happened to be arguably the greatest. Jerry Rice not only appeared on the field at 42 years old but played one of nine 17-game seasons in the game's history, logging six appearances for the Raiders before a trade sent him to Seattle for 11 more. Only Emmanuel Sanders and a handful of others have ever done that.
But I digress. The focus here is less on playing 17 games and more on the fact that Rice was 42 years old at the time, which shows just how incredibly durable he was. The wide receiver position typically isn't one that sees players last for that long — even today's pinnacle of endurance and consistency, Larry Fitzgerald, is only entering his age-38 season, if he even does return for another campaign.
So when 47-year-old Terrell Owens not only suggested that he could still play a useful role for an NFL team but went so far as to say that there was an "interesting situation" between him and an impressed NFL team owner, it obviously raised some eyebrows. He explained what it would take for him to come back on the gridiron in a playing capacity on the "Green Light with Chris Long" podcast.
"Just an opportunity to show that, number one, I'm in condition, I'm capable of playing — I've said it all along," Owens said. "I haven't actively sought out to play, but an interesting situation came up some months ago with the owner of a team, and I'm not going to disclose anything but he looked at me and just saw... what kind of shape I was in. He goes, 'Man, you look like you can still play,' and I'm like, yes, I've always said I can still play."
Owens went on to explain that he never retired despite his last game coming in 2010 with the Bengals and his most recent deal with an NFL team — a one-year, $925,000 signing with the Seahawks in 2012 — fell through without much luck. That certainly doesn't mean he's retired, though, and he still feels as though he has a lot to offer.
"...All I need to do is just come in and show you whatever you need to see from me route-running-wise, shape-wise," Owens said. "Outside of that, you look at certain situations. Obviously, you know that I'm older, so you put me in the right situation, and I think with a team that could use, number one, someone of my veteran leadership. I can teach and groom a team with some young budding stars.
"You think about certain situations during the course of the game... you think about third down situations and you think about the red zone, those are situations and areas where I know I would obviously be advantageous. You think about the red zone, that's 20 to 30 yards... I can run routes in my sleep in 20 or 30 yards."
Running red zone routes in your sleep is the type of confidence you need to make a comeback in the NFL at age 47 — on top of some other insanely high confidence levels — and there's no shortage of confidence or work ethic in the case of Owens.
"Oh, no doubt," Owens said of whether or not he could succeed in the red zone. "I mean, I've been running routes and training and doing some stuff, just to kind of activate a lot of these things that hadn't been activated in a while. But yeah, I've been running on the track, getting myself in shape, doing things that kind of fine tune some things, getting my feet under me.
"I'm hoping this podcast, this interview can go viral..."
T.O. also likened himself to another former — err, free agent — wide receiver looking to make a splashy return to the league and make a difference for a team in need.
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"I would echo the same sentiments of Chad," Owens said. "I know Chad obviously could play. We know that Chad, obviously, his career got cut short from some personal reasons, but prior to that, the guy could play. And I think now, I think he could still play today as well as I can."
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