Ex-Cowboys WR Terrell Owens is still catching touchdowns at 48 years old

Hall of Fame wide receiver Terrell Owens was 32 years old when he started playing with the Dallas Cowboys. Aside from medical marvels like Tom Brady, that’s not very young for a football player. In his 47 games with Dallas from 2006 to 2008, Owens collected 235 receptions for 3,587 yards and 38 touchdowns. He also earned both Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro nods in 2007.

In his impressively lengthy 15-year NFL career, Owens earned himself 6 Pro Bowl nominations and made the Hall of Fame All-2000s Team. He still ranks third on the league’s all-time list for receivers with 15,934 receiving yards and 153 touchdowns. Now, 14 years after donning a Cowboys uniform, Owens is still catching touchdowns, just in a much different capacity.

The 48-year-old recently joined the Fan Controlled Football league, which is essentially a real-life simulation of the Madden video games by allowing fans to help pick plays in the game. It’s a 7-on-7 indoor football league played on a 50-yard field. There is no kicking of any kind (punts, kickoffs, extra points, etc), so after touchdowns teams have the option to do a one-on-one play with a receiver and cornerback or a two-point conversion from the 10-yard line. All games are played in a 1,500-seat arena in Pullman Yards in Atlanta. Players are encouraged to display their personalities (hence a reason Owens was a great choice for the league) and get bonuses for touchdown celebrations.

The coolest part is that, like Madden, fans call the plays. FCF has a league-wide playbook and coaches can input eligible plays before the games. Before each play, an algorithm decides which play would be the best for the particular situation after fans vote on a bunch of running and pass play options. Another cool element? The ceremonial coin toss is no more. The decision is made in a battle of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

In the first game of the second season, Owens scored a touchdown off a pass from Zappers quarterback Johnny Manziel on the last play of the game. You can see the grab below.

Ex-Cowboys WR Terrell Owens catches touchdown from Johnny Manziel in Fan Controlled Football League debut

Owens’ team had a 1st and 10 play with three seconds left in the game. Manziel threw a toss-up to the end zone and Owens, sandwiched between two defenders, lept up and caught the touchdown. Sadly, the Zappers were already too far behind to win, but the contested grab was incredibly impressive considering Owens is two years away from being 50.  It was also the former Cowboys receiver’s first catch of the game.

The Hall of Famer is clearly a stellar athlete, but his involvement in this league is even more remarkable given he hasn’t played professional football since 2010. Here’s what Owens had to say in his post-game interview.

"“I felt alright. I mean, obviously a little rusty, just got to get a little timing with some of the quarterbacks. But other than that, it’s football, you know what I mean? Obviously, I think we wanted to get the win, but we came up short on that end. Hey, we got seven more games. So, always a lot of room for improvement.”"