The decision by Terrell Owens to rebuff the Pro Football Hall of Fame's invitation is not sitting well with Cris Carter. The former Vikings great has been among the most vocal in criticizing Owens after he announced Thursday that he would not attend the enshrinement ceremony in Canton, Ohio.
Carter and Owens have been in each other's crosshairs for some time now. Owens believed he should have been voted into the Hall in his first year of eligibility, 2016. Carter, who had to wait five years, challenged TO's readiness for the honor.
And now, upon Owens' decision, Carter, enshrined in 2013, pounced again.
In a five-minute lecture on Fox Sports, Carter expressed further dismay over the snub by Owens.
"I felt a lot like TO when I wasn't let in, let alone the first year, but the first several years," Carter said. "But realizing there's a process to everything in life…
Good news is never late, so those five years that I waited, all those things and all those bad memories that I had, they were immediately washed away. And then I was invited to be on the greatest team ever assembled."
Carter conceded that Owens' play warranted a first-year vote in. But it was his attitude that stood in the way, Carter said.
"You can control what kind of teammate you're going to be. … Anybody can be a good teammate and part of the reason why TO was not in the Hall -- he should have been on the first ballot -- was because people said he was a bad teammate," Carter said.
Carter's former Vikings teammate, Randy Moss, will receive his gold jacket on Aug. 4, becoming the 14th Viking in the Hall of Fame.
Carter said Owens is "robbing" his longtime supporters of an opportunity to share the moment with him and be credited publicly for their influence on his life and career.
"At the Hall, we're going to be OK, the members who are in the Hall, over 310 members, we wanted to invite TO in to embrace him," Carter said. "In his decision he's denied a lot of people who were significant in in his life memories that they won't be able to get back. There will be no other enshrinement because next year it will be about next year's class."