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Former 49ers receiver Terrell Owens won’t be going to the Hall of Fame for his induction ceremony. Former 49ers quarterback Steve Young wants Owens to reconsider.

“It’s shocking,” Young said, via Cam Inman of the Bay Area News Group, “especially in context for what it feels like to be there and the guys that you surround yourself with and the meaning it has personally and just for the team and the respect of all the people that got you there. . . . The relationship with the Hall of Fame for him has been difficult, because they delayed his time getting in. I’m sure there’s resentment and scar tissue about it, but I beg him to reconsider.”

Young thinks that Owens could be creating a lasting scar.

“The damage to the relationship could be permanent,” Young said. “You don’t want that. So I beg him to reconsider because the longevity of all the people that want to respect him and that he should respect as well. Forget about, ‘I’m mad at the voters, I’m mad at the system.’ The damage that could be done by not going could overwhelm him over a period of time.”

But here’s the reality: Those who dislike Owens will always find a reason to justify their feelings. If he changes his mind and shows up, the critics will find a way to bash him for it. If he apologizes, they’ll find a way to say it wasn’t sufficiently genuine.

Regardless of who’s to blame, the relationship between Owens, the Hall of Fame, and the voters already has been permanently damaged. Nothing he says or does from this point forward will change it.

So he should just do whatever he thinks is right for him, and if anyone has a problem with that, it’s their problem.