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Owens’ latest adventure for Riders

Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Chris Jones might be the most fascinating person in the Canadian Football League.
Christopher Lee
Humboldt Journal Reporter

Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Chris Jones might be the most fascinating person in the Canadian Football League.

Jones, the ultimate march-to-the-beat-of-his-own-drum coach, made the latest interesting move in a long list of them since becoming Riders head coach when the third-year Riders head coach visited National Football League hall of famer Terrell Owens.

Owens and Jones met up on Aug. 5 where the 51-year-old head coach hosted a private workout for the former NFL receiver.

Owens, 44, worked out for Jones one day after being inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.

The Riders worked out a NFL Hall of Famer, sounds great right?

Wrong.

Owens has not played professional football in the NFL since 2010.

The 44-year-old has been off the football field professionally for nearly a decade and he wants to jump in and play again?

Apparently.

And right on schedule Chris Jones comes along and works him out.

This is the same coach who earlier this year worked out Johnny Manziel, while the current Montreal Alouettes quarterback was property of another team.

Now to be fair to Jones it does not sound like there was much of an appetite on his end to sign the 44-year-old.

He did mention after the workout that he thought Owens needed to get into “football shape.”

So while it currently does not look like Owens will be a Roughrider anytime soon, I would not be surprised to see Jones bring him in.

Aside from Owens being a former NFLer, which if Trent Richardson and Johnny Manziel are any indication is a big deal to Jones, the pair also have indirect history together.

Owens and Jones met on Aug. 5 at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, which just so happens to be the alma mater of not only Jones, but of Owens too.

Owens becomes the latest quasi-retired wide receiver to look to the CFL to continue his career, joining Chad Johnson, another divisive NFL talent, who in 2014 played for the Alouettes.

Johnson’s career ended abruptly in the CFL after the failing to report to the Als for mandatory training camp in 2015.

Will Owens’ CFL career fizzle out similar to Johnson’s?

Time will tell.

But if we have learned anything over the past two plus seasons, it’s to expect the unexpected with Chris Jones.