What Is Terrell Owens’ Net Worth After Losing Almost $80 Million?

Terrell Owens was, at one point, the mercurial but marketable star of the NFL. A Hall of Famer, Owens’s talent on the football field at wide receiver made him one of the most talked-about players in terms of ability.

Unfortunately, his antics off the field and toward his teams also got the wrong kind of publicity. Years removed from the NFL, Owens has a different battle. The man who made millions in professional football lost most of it through a series of bad financial moves. 

Terrell Owens takes the field 

While Owens was one of the best college players at Tenn-Chattanooga in the ’90s, it isn’t mainly known as a football powerhouse. Several NFL players have gone from the school to the biggest league in football, but none have the impact that Terrell Owens had in the NFL. His wasn’t a surefire success in the NFL, but in the third round, he was selected by the San Francisco 49ers. 

Owens got to play alongside an aging Steve Young as the 49ers were winding down their glory years. While the wide receiver was initially a secondary option on the offense, he showed promise from the get-go and became a valuable member of their rotation.

After two years of relative obscurity, Owens started making noise in 1998 thanks to a 1,000-yard season despite coming off the bench for six games. By 1999, however, he was the team’s permanent starter. 

Owens becomes a star

Owens had an underwhelming year in 1999 after making it into the starting lineup, but in 2000, he showed the league that he was not just an NFL player but a bonafide superstar. Next to quarterback Jeff Garcia, Owens went from project receiver to All-Pro talent, garnering his first of five selections to the team. He continued that success for two more years.

After a rough ending with the team, Owens spent two years in Philadelphia, where he and Donovan McNabb led the Eagles to a loss in the Super Bowl.

Once again, however, Owens burnt a bridge with the team and was shipped off to Dallas in 2006. In 2007, he once again showed himself to be an All-Pro Talent, but in the three ensuing years with Dallas, Buffalo, and Cincinnati, the league grew tired of Owens, and he was forced into retirement at 37. 

The Terrell Owens conundrum

Despite his mercurial nature, Owens’s passion-driven brand of brash statements and a willingness to call out those who he felt needed to be called out made him a favorite among fans.

Caught in between negative headlines about his treatment of quarterbacks, coaches, and other teammates, were endearing moments of raw emotion. Owens, in many ways, cooked his goose.

As the money flowed in, Owens began to spend it on all the luxuries that he could get his hands on. From busts of his face to houses, family expenses, and trips around the world, Owens was living high, but that joy came with a cost. 

The man whose legal team once touted his money as an argument against his reported attempted suicide got reckless with his funds, according to ESPN.

Despite making almost $80 million throughout his career without any endorsement deals, he is now worth a small fraction of that with no chance of a comeback in his mid-forties. 

What is Terrell Owens’s net worth?

Owens is worth a meager $500,000 in retirement, according to Celebrity Net Worth. He stays afloat with television appearances, video game covers, and other endeavors, but his days as a millionaire are likely behind him.

Owens is just another story of a man who had it all and lost it. Despite this, he currently appears willing to acknowledge his mistakes and teach a future generation not to make the same mistakes he did both on and off the field. 

All stats courtesy of Pro Football Reference