Terrell Owens focuses on acting while knee heals

ATLANTA (AP) - While Terrell Owens waits for an NFL team to contact him, the 15-year veteran wide receiver has focused his attention toward an acting career.

Owens, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament and had surgery in early April, filmed an episode of the USA sitcom “Necessary Roughness” on Wednesday at the Georgia Dome. He said his knee is a couple months away from being completely healed and though no team has contacted him, he still expects to play this season.

“I’m still not 100 percent to be able to go to a team and contribute,” Owens told The Associated Press. “When I get to the point to where I’m comfortable and able to run around, I’ll feel like those calls should be coming.”

Owens, 37, said he is not worried about skeptics who wonder if can still be a major NFL contributor. He said he is capable of making plays on the field, pointing out the 983 yards and nine touchdowns he had with the Cincinnati Bengals last season.

Owens also said the league’s 4 1/2-month lockout helped him. He said after his surgery four months ago, he didn’t feel pressured to rush his rehab because there were no offseason training activities being held.

“It worked out for me,” he said. “I don’t see where there was a disadvantage considering nobody was doing anything at the time. There was a lot of downtime. But that’s for anybody who was nursing an injury. It allowed us that time with no pressure.”

If a team doesn’t come calling anytime soon, Owens said he can spend more time honing his acting skills. He has spent numerous of hours in acting class, learning how to complete a dialogue without stumbling over his lines.

Liz Kruger, the executive producer and creator of “Necessary Roughness,” said Owens has the potential to become a good actor and is eager to learn.

“He has the personality,” Kruger said. “It’s a charisma you can’t learn.”

On the sitcom, Owens will play the role of an All-Pro defensive back on the show’s season finale, which airs Sept. 14. He said he wants to continue to build his brand as an actor, so he can make a seamless transition once he does decide to stop playing football.

Owens, who doesn’t shy away from the camera on the football field, had to overcome the fear of performing as an actor.

“Sometimes you can get stage fright when you have all those lines,” said Owens, who also has his own reality show “The T.O. Show,” which premiered on VH1 earlier this week. “I had one moment sort of like that a few years ago. … I had rehearsed but when the guy said action, I kind of fumbled my words and my lines. It takes a while to get comfortable.”

Owens doesn’t expect to become an Oscar-winning actor like his friends Jamie Foxx or Denzel Washington. He does think he can become a respectable actor and wants to continue to hone his skills and build his portfolio.

“The more repetitions I get and the more I’m exposed with the surroundings, I get better,” he said. “It’s just like the football field. This is only another notch, another step in the direction of where I want to go.”

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Online:

https://www.usanetwork.com/series/necessaryroughness

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Follow Jonathan Landrum Jr. on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/mrlandrum31