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Passionate Terrell Owens Still Miffed At Lack Of Hall Of Fame Nod, Attack On His Character

Terrell Owens with Spiegel & Parkins

(CBS) Legendary NFL receiver Terrell Owens has again sounded off on the voting process that excluded him from the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Owens -- who ranks second in career receiving yards, third in touchdowns and eighth in receptions -- wasn't voted into the Hall of Fame earlier this month in his second year on the ballot, with voters primarily citing his character as a teammate.

On Wednesday, Owens joined the Spiegel & Parkins Show on 670 The Score, discussing his candidacy and the accusations that have followed it.

"People have attacked my character," Owens said. "It's not about me going into the Hall of Fame. That's not really my gripe. It's when people have gone behind closed doors and people are whispering that I'm a horrible teammate, I'm a terrible teammate. That's what really gets me, because my character is at stake and everybody is listening to all these people say these negative things."

Owens finished his 15-year NFL career with 1,078 receptions for 15,934 receiving yards and 153 touchdowns. He ranks among the top receivers in football all time, but criticism to his persona as a teammate have prevailed in the Hall of Fame voting.

Among the critics of Owens is Hall of Fame receiver Cris Carter, to whom Owens' numbers are comparable. Owens has taken great offense to what he perceives as unfair criticism from Carter in the past.

Carter is currently an analyst for Fox Sports 1 after holding the same job with ESPN for years.

"Come on, this guy," Owens said of Carter. "Cocaine sniffer, alcohol addiction. Dude, like I said in the last interview before, when you live in a glass house, don't throw stones. Come on, man. This is ridiculous. Don't call me a flawed candidate when you got to look yourself in the mirror and really look at your transgressions. Don't try to point out mine because you had to wait. Now you're throwing all these disparaging comments out because you had to wait, and now you want me to wait. Dude, come on, man, that's not cool.

"And he calls himself a Christian? Man, come on, I can dig up a lot of dirt and throw it out there, but I'm not going to do that. I've said what I had to say.

"It's not like we have to be friends. Again, if he sees me, don't even speak to me. Go the opposite way, because that's not how I operate, that's not how I was raised. At the end of the day, I don't need him to validate anything I got going on. You look at my stats, you look at his stats. It is what it is. We' re on two different planets in my eyes."

Owens played on five different teams during his 15-year career, including four in his final six seasons. He was out of football at the age of 37 after recording 72 receptions, 983 yards and nine touchdowns with the Bengals in 2010.

Owens couldn't say whether he would even attend his induction in Canton should that day come.

"It's not about the fact that I'm not in the Hall of Fame," he said. "It is what it is at this point. For me, I've lost the respect of what the Hall of Fame is supposed to be about -- especially the criteria of so many years, guys have been nominated and inducted. When it comes to me, it seems like they're moving the needle every time so I won't get inducted."

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