Terrell Owens has found himself dealing with an unusual problem away from football. The Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver and former San Francisco 49ers star recently took to social media to call out Delta Air Lines over an incident involving one of his personal belongings after a flight.
The incident involved Delta Flight DL1143 from Houston to Los Angeles, where Owens says he realized shortly after leaving the aircraft that he had left his bag behind. Delta Air Lines, a major U.S. carrier with a market cap of about $52.24 billion, was directly tagged in Owens’ post, in which he accused a member of the flight’s cleaning crew of taking the bag.
“@Delta Someone from the cleaning crew of this flight DL1143 STOLE my bag. Yes, “stole”, because I had a couple police officers who went to the plane to retrieve it where I left it, and all of a sudden no one saw anything, which is a lie. The bag was directly under the seat in front of me. It was less than 10 minutes when I realized I didn’t have my bag.😡😡” Owens wrote on X.
Delta’s own baggage guidance tells passengers who leave an item on an aircraft to report it through the airline’s lost-item system, with the company saying it will try to locate and return the property.
But per Owens, his situation goes beyond a routine lost-and-found case. So far, though, there is no public police finding, surveillance footage, or other independent evidence identifying a Delta cleaning-crew employee as the person who took it. Delta also has not publicly confirmed Owens’ allegation in the information currently available.
The incident is nevertheless notable because it comes only months after Owens publicly accused a longtime manager of stealing money from him. In May, Owens said he had cut ties with Heather Mesalam, whom he said had handled his business affairs for more than 15 years. Owens alleged that Mesalam had increased her monthly management fee from $1,300 to $1,500 without his knowledge or approval, which he characterized as theft.
“A PERSON CAN ONLY TAKE SO MUCH! Growing up, my grandmama said there’s 2 people she can’t stand…A LIAR and a THIEF… When you’re managing someone’s affairs and getting paid to do it, you have to be accountable for it!”
Owens has also spoken more broadly about losing control of his finances during and after his NFL career. In an August interview with Front Office Sports, he said, “I trusted those individuals to manage my financials, and that’s where things took a dive.”
The Hall of Fame receiver earned nearly $80 million during his 15-year NFL career, according to Front Office Sports, but has previously said he discovered that much of the money he thought he had was gone.
Better known as “T.O.”, the former wide receiver spent eight seasons with the San Francisco 49ers after they drafted him in the third round in 1996. One of Owens’ biggest moments in San Francisco came in the 1998 playoffs, when he caught the game-winning touchdown against the Green Bay Packers in what became known as “The Catch II.”
He left the 49ers after eight seasons and later played for the Eagles, Cowboys, Bills and Bengals. By the time he retired, Owens had 1,078 catches, 15,934 receiving yards and 153 touchdowns, numbers that eventually landed him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018.
For now, Owens’ account is the only public explanation of what happened to the bag. His accusation against the cleaning crew remains unverified, leaving the next question for Delta or law enforcement: what happened to the bag between the moment Owens left it on the plane and the moment officers went looking for it?

