Pro Football Hall of Famer Terrell Owens is claiming he acted in self-defense after a video showed him punch a man in a CVS Pharmacy parking lot over the weekend.
The footage, which was initially shared by TMZ Sports, showed a physical altercation between Owens and another man in Inglewood on Saturday (November 26).
Owens said he was first approached by a person who identified himself as a fan of the San Francisco 49ers, one of his former NFL teams, and they exchanged pleasantries before a second individual came up and threatened the 49ers fan, which resulted in all three men stepping outside of the store.
"The guy I ended up fighting, he was basically threatening a guy, a fan of mine that was in the store," Owens said via NBC News on Monday (November 28).
"When we walked out, he approached the both of us, and I was trying to prevent this guy from jumping on the fan. I tried to defuse or de-escalate the situation. He was persistent and wanting to beat the guy up. I didn't want to see that happen."
Owens said he and a CVS employee -- who also went outside as the incident escalated -- had initially thought they'd calmed the scene by keeping the second customer away from the first.
"Then he swung on me when he thought I wasn't paying attention," Owens said of the missing punch attempt via NBC News. "At that point I went into ready defense mode. Not only for myself, but for the other individual, as well."
The man that Owens punched didn't call police after the incident, according to TMZ Sports.
"He was eyeing the guy the entire time," Owens said of the incident. "He said the guy said something to him. But the fan was on the phone when I was talking to him. When he spoke to me, he was on the phone. So maybe he mistook the guy saying something to him, but I don't know."
Owens, who recently participated in the Fan Controlled Football league, ranks third all-time among NFL receivers in career receptions (15,934) and touchdowns (153), as well as eighth in career receptions (1,078).
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