Reliving Terrell Owens’ season with the Bills — and that key to the city (2024)

Terrell Owens often gets told that he has no friends in the league, that despite putting up Hall of Fame numbers and playing 15 NFL seasons for five different teams, no franchise accepts him as one of their own.

He didn’t feel that way when he walked onto New Era Field for Thurman Thomas’ jersey retirement at halftime of a Bills-Patriots game in 2018. He felt something he’d never felt before, something that took him aback. He’d spent only one year with the Bills in 2009, but when his name was called and he took the field, the ovation he got was louder than the one he received at his induction into the 49ers Hall of Fame.

“Dude, honestly it gets me a little choked up now just from taking myself back to that night,” Owens said by phone this week. “As soon as they recognized that I was in that stadium, just the response that I got, you would have thought that I spent my entire career there in Buffalo.”

That Owens played in Buffalo is a footnote in his eventful and prolific career. It’s almost unbelievable that one of the league’s most dangerous playmakers and controversial personalities ended up playing for the Bills in the middle of the most forgettable era in franchise history. Released by the Cowboys after a 1,000-yard, 10-touchdown season, Owens thought he would have options. He knew he could still play. But as it turned out, at age 35, his choices were limited.

“I think throughout the course of my career, especially toward the end, it didn’t really matter for me where I went,” Owens said. “I just wanted to go somewhere where someone wanted me. I wanted it to be somewhere I could go and feel welcomed and be productive on the field at the same time. I didn’t have a lot of options, but it didn’t really matter with me. I understood and I was very comfortable with my skill set even at that age.”

The Bills’ effort to sign Owens didn’t begin as a group effort. Late owner Ralph Wilson and former general manager Russ Brandon spearheaded the charge. Buddy Nix, who was a national scout at the time and had recruited Owens to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, was consulted but his opinion fell on deaf ears.

“I had nothing to do with it,” Nix said. “I was a national scout. They did call me at home. I remember standing out in front of my house and telling them, ‘I wouldn’t do that.’ But they did anyway. Listen, a lot of the decisions during that time were made just for what T.O. was signed for: a splash, for tickets, to be relevant.”

John Guy, the Bills’ former vice president of player personnel, wasn’t looped into the decision-making process. By the time he got involved, Wilson and Brandon had elected to pursue Owens.

“That was an upper, upper management decision,” Guy said. “It wasn’t my idea, but once the idea came up I was all in.”

Guy had a prior relationship with Owens’ representative at the time, Drew Rosenhaus. He also knew one of Owens’ coaches in Dallas. That helped him build a level of trust with the star receiver. It also secured him a spot with Brandon on the private plane the Bills used to pick Owens up in Florida. The return trip had a catered meal with lobsters, crabs and an assortment of other food. They never got to enjoy any of it.

“It was all laid out for a king,” Guy said. “But the flight was so bumpy you couldn’t enjoy it. He and Drew looked over and it was one of those things where you’re just gripping the arms of the seat. It was as bumpy a flight as I’ve ever been on on a private plane. It was scary.”

Guy at least had the experience of past flying lessons and trips on private planes. Owens wasn’t used to flying on such a small aircraft.

“That was a very scary and turbulent little ride in,” Owens said. “I was like, ‘Man, I hope this is not the end of my career. I’m trying to extend my career and this ride could very well end my career.’”

The plane made it, and Owens signed on the dotted line. It helped that the Bills offered $6.5 million, not a significant drop from the average annual salary on his Cowboys contract and more than any other team was offering. He knew he was walking into a less than ideal situation. The Bills were coming off a 7-9 season and had a trio of young quarterbacks in Trent Edwards, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Brian Brohm. Owens didn’t have many seasons left to give, but this offered him a unique chance to prove himself.

“That’s why it didn’t really bother me to go to Buffalo,” Owens said. “For me, it was a challenge to show that I can thrive under any circ*mstance, whatever the situation may be.”

Owens didn’t know it at the time, but that was the last significant contract he would sign. He signed a one-year, $2-million contract with the Bengals a year later and earned another million in incentives. But his recruitment to Buffalo was the last time he was courted like a big-ticket free agent.

Nix used to have a rule that it was better to move on from a player a year too early than a year too late.

“T.O. is a good example of a guy that got cut a year too late,” Nix said. “He was in Buffalo one year, but that was one year too many, in my opinion, because of what I saw on tape when he got to Buffalo.

“I’m going to tell you now, the opinion around the league before I came back to Buffalo was that you go to Buffalo and get that year you probably didn’t deserve for that last contract. They were done, but Buffalo signed them. New England does that and sometimes can get them to play well. But Buffalo didn’t have a good run at that. T.O. was one of those.”

Nobody told that to fans who greeted him at the airport, or those who crowded around the steps of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery when he was given a key to the city of Buffalo as part of VH1’s production of “The T.O. Show.” Mayor Byron Brown made a point to note the key was contingent on Owens scoring 10 touchdowns and the Bills making the postseason.

“I think a lot of people, they respected me for what I had done in the league up until that point,” Owens said. “They didn’t expect a receiver of my caliber or my talent to even want to be in Buffalo.”

The questions became what Owens had left in the tank and what he would be able to contribute to a team with unproven quarterback play. Would he and Lee Evans form a formidable enough receiver duo to lift Edwards to stardom? Or would he cause issues in the locker rooms after drama seemed to follow him from San Francisco to Philadelphia to Dallas?

“I think people had an expectation of him and that it would be this wild, crazy circus of nonstop mania, and it was nothing like that at all,” Evans said.

“I think he brought some professionalism to our organization,” Guy added.

Guy recalled that during training camp Owens rented recliner chairs and TVs for injured players who had to be confined to the dorms. He was also constantly working. His practice habits were the stuff of legend throughout his career and didn’t fade when he was in Buffalo.

“That did a lot for me and my career,” Evans said. “Just watching how he worked in practice, how he prepared. It meant a lot to me. You just sit back and watch.”

Owens didn’t cause any memorable problems, either. He went a few weeks without talking to the media at the beginning of the season while off to a slow start, but he hardly did anything to live up to the malcontent label which had followed him throughout his career.

“He didn’t come in like a diva or anything like that,” Guy said. “He came in as a worker, went about his job, was on time. There was never a problem, never an incident. Never anything. He just came in to play.”

Owens was supposed to be the missing piece on the Bills’ offense, another receiver opposite the already productive Evans. As Brandon put it at Owens’ opening press conference, the Bills were adding “a playmaker in a playmaker’s league.”

“I don’t mind naming Russ Brandon,” Nix said. “Russ and I got along great. He recommended me there. But he was more PR and hype, and that’s just his background. I’m not meaning to slam him, but I think that’s how he went about being relevant. It sells tickets early, and then you get your ass beat and you’re starting over.”

The Bills started that season 1-4 and Owens had just 12 catches for 202 yards and a touchdown through five games. His streak of 185 games with at least one catch came to an end in Week 3. The Bills had hoped Owens’ presence would help Edwards, but he struggled out of the gate before suffering a concussion in Week 6. His play didn’t improve after his return and he was benched for the final seven games of the season in favor of Fitzpatrick. That’s when Owens started to look like the Owens people were hoping to see.

“If you look at my stats, they weren’t particularly good in the beginning of the season, but once I got with Ryan Fitzpatrick it was like ‘Fitz Magic,’” Owens said. “I’ve spoken very highly of Ryan. People ask me who is your favorite quarterback and people think I’m saying it was a joke but I’m like, ‘Yo, Ryan is one of the better quarterbacks that I played with.’ I say that honestly because of how smart he is. Maybe it has something to do with that Harvard education. He was smart enough to know this is a veteran guy that can still go. Let me put the ball in his hands and let’s go to work.”

In Fitzpatrick’s first game taking over for Edwards, Owens had his best game as a Bill. He caught nine passes for 197 and a 98-yard touchdown. No receiver as old as Owens had ever put up that many receiving yards in a game until Owens had 222 yards a year later (Bills receiver James Lofton had a 220-yard game when he was a few months younger than Owens was in 2009).

Owens can still vividly recall that 98-yard catch against the Jaguars. The tendency in that situation is to run. But Fitzpatrick and Owens saw the same coverage. A safety cheated up. Owens peaked out of the corner of his facemask toward his quarterback, who was making a check.

“I didn’t even budge,” Owens said. “I already knew what time it was. I knew what he was doing.”

Jaguars cornerback Tyron Brackenridge was playing off coverage, so Fitzpatrick had to hang in the pocket. Owens sprinted by Brackenridge, and Fitzpatrick lofted a deep pass 40 yards in the air. Owens snagged it and handled the rest himself.

“I guarantee you 100 percent, if that would have been Trent at the quarterback position, that play would have never got called,” Owens said. “That just comes from experience and having the courage and understanding and trust that we were on the same page.”

Four of Owens’ five touchdowns that season came after Fitzpatrick took over permanently, but the team went 3-4 in those games and finished 6-10. He ended the season with 829 yards and five touchdowns, his lowest outputs since his 1999 season in San Francisco. Considering the circ*mstances, though, those numbers weren’t half bad. He’s one of only 11 players to record more than 800 receiving yards in a season after turning 36.

Owens didn’t get his 10 touchdowns and the Bills didn’t get to the postseason, but Brown never did demand he return the key to the city.

“People ask me about that key all the time,” Owens said. “All I know is I haven’t seen it in a while but it’s in storage somewhere. I’m sure one of these days I’m going to have to go through my storage and I’m going to find that key, and when I do I’m going to post it with a big smile on my face. Anyone that wants a key to the city, you’re going to have to break my legs and arms to get it.”

For Owens, the key is a reminder of a city that embraced him, even if just for one season. The labels and misconceptions that followed him throughout his career — the same ones that delayed his selection into the Pro Football Hall of Fame — didn’t exist in Orchard Park.

“I think that the whole deal about him is that I think that even he’s been misinterpreted,” Guy said. “I think that if you go back and you research everything he said, he’s never really been wrong about anything he stood up for or took a stance or he really hasn’t. He may have gone against the grain. I think the guy has just been a stand-up guy and he had standards and he lived by those standards. I respect people that have standards and don’t compromise. Coming to Buffalo, I felt he grew.”

If ever there was a combustible situation, an excuse for Owens to lash out, the 2009 Bills were it. Injuries on the offensive line and a revolving door at quarterback made wins and production hard to come by. But Owens didn’t cause a scene.

“It’s disheartening that people throughout the course of my career have created these narratives about me,” Owens said. “I don’t sit here saying I was a perfect person, but I definitely am not the bad person that they have portrayed me to be, and honestly some people still see me that way.”

Owens actually wanted to play at least another season in Buffalo. The way he finished the year with Fitzpatrick gave him a spark. He thought he could still play and enjoyed being in the receiver room with Evans, Stevie Johnson and Josh Reed. The Bills had fired Dick Jauron midseason, with Chan Gailey taking over as head coach. Nix was promoted to general manager.

“T.O. was done,” Nix said. “I knew he was done. He knew he was done. When I became GM, I moved on from him. I called him and told him we were going to go a different route. He wasn’t happy about it.”

Owens wasn’t quite done as it turned out. The following season, he put up even better numbers in Cincinnati, catching 72 passes for 983 yards and nine touchdowns.

“Honestly, I wish I could have played another year or two (in Buffalo),” Owens said. “Unfortunately, I think Chan Gailey who had some Dallas Cowboy ties, I think he may have spoken to some guys over there and he didn’t bring me back in, which is very, very unfortunate. It sucks because … you assess my skill set and my talent, there’s no way you can say I didn’t still have the skill set to play at a high level.”

Owens still thinks he has that skill set. As he talked about what the current Bills team has going for it, he slipped in that he wouldn’t mind playing a few snaps.

“They have a great coach in Sean (McDermott) there,” Owens said. “He was in Philly when I was there. Honestly if I could have or he would have entertained it, I would have loved to come back and tried to get a few snaps here and there because he’s one of those guys that knew me. I don’t know what he really thinks of me as a person, but as a player he saw what I brought to the team what I did in Philly. You think about what I could bring to the table in third-down situations or the red zone, I definitely would have been a value, been an asset.”

The Bills won’t be adding Owens to the fold any time soon, but he said the team does have plans to bring him back to lead the charge before a home game. He hopes the reception is similar to the last time he was in Orchard Park. The connection he feels to the area is something he never expected.

“If they get to the Super Bowl, I’m going to be rooting for them like I played my entire career there,” Owens said. “That’s how bad I know that city needs a championship. It may lift a gray cloud off that city if they win a Super Bowl. I hope I’m living long enough to see it happen.”

(Top photo: Marc Serota / Getty Images)