The Wacky World of Terrell Owens
Love him or hate him, Terrell Owens, the man famous enough to be known by his initials, creates news by just waking up in the morning, came back from a broken hand and helped lead Dallas to a 45-14 victory over the hapless Tennessee Titans Sunday in NFL action. After a week of controversy in which the big question was did T.O. try to kill himself or not, Owens drew all the attention for this game and overshadowed Terry Glenn with his 2 touchdown passes and Vince Young making his first start in the NFL. All in a day in the life of Terrell Owens.
A news report comes out Tuesday night saying Terrell Owens was taken to the hospital in Dallas and first word is that Owens tried to commit suicide by taking approximately 35 of his pain pills. Owen’s publicist Kim Etheridge called the police and insinuated that Owens might have taken too many pills and what should she do. The police asked him if he was trying to harm himself? He replied yes, so they took it as a suicide attempt and he was taken to the hospital where he stayed for 15 hours. The sports talk shows were in high gear speculating on every imaginable scenario as to whether he did try to kill himself, was he seeking attention or was it actually accidental. Fans, sports officials, medical professionals and anyone that simply had an opinion weighed in as to what they thought happened. This is a day in the life of Terrell Owens because everyone has something to say about T.O. whether it’s good or bad.
T.O. finally came out and explained what happened and in the end, what he said has made more sense than anything being said by others that earn a living writing on T.O.’s every move no matter how minor a detail it might be. T.O. claims he took too many of his pain pills as he mixed them up with his supplements and they made him groggy and just out of it. This is why he answered yes to the police when they asked him whether he tried to harm himself. Owens didn’t discuss his apparent problems with his fiancee and not being able to see his son as a cause for his being depressed and in fact, fired his longtime trainer, who did discuss his personal problems to the public. Owens felt that was his personal business and had no right to talk about that without his ok. The pills in question were supposedly put in another draw and his publicist wasn’t aware of this fact and acted on what she thought was trying to save his life.
The Dallas police were upset because Kim Etheridge seemed to blame them for the whole incident and they had representatives that responded by slamming Owens. Truth is, Owens was apologetic and thanking all those involved, not placing blame on anyone and came out above the whole situation and acting humble from this. Never once did he really point a finger, but stated his case and once again demonstrated why he’s such a polarizing individual. Owens never blamed anyone, but had personnel associated with police bashing him saying their men are 10 times better than he is.
Owens went back to practice and joked with his teammates and was teased like anyone would be when they make a spectacle of themselves in the press, be it rightly or wrongly. The discussion became whether Owens would actually play in the game or not Sunday against Tennessee. Coach Bill Parcells is always so close to the vest with any information that most people assumed T.O. would sit out this game and be ready for the big return to Philadelphia next week. It wasn’t until Saturday that Parcells decided to take T.O. to the game and still up in the air as to whether he would play. Tennessee was the perfect game to find out if Owens was trying to return too early or not. Owens maintains his body so magnificently that he seems to heal well from injuries where the normal person would take much longer to be ready.
T.O. stared and caught 5 passes for 88 yards against Tennessee and had a tough match-up with an aggressive 2nd year cornerback Pacman Jones. Owens said he knew Pacman would be aggressive and in fact heard the sidelines yelling to slap at his hand. Owens in the Dallas lineup makes the Cowboys a legitimate Super Bowl contender because having Terry Glenn at the other receiver position and good running backs is instant respect and fear from defenses knowing they have to plan for T.O. and Glenn, while dealing with a tough running game. Julius Jones proved the T.O. affect by running for 122 yards on 23 carries and Drew Bledsoe had a solid game with the Titans worrying about a star with a broken hand.
T.O. is such a larger than life figure that even some Titan fans were chanting T.O., T.O. Owens is such a dividing presence that while I was at church, a Dallas fan didn’t welcome me with a hello, he decided to let me know wherever T.O. is he’s causing a commotion and that Terry Glenn and Marvin Harrison are better players. He let me know Glenn has better statistics this year and I said “you mean over their whole careers” and he said”no, this season.” I offered that T.O. has barely played so far this year. He let me know he did this and that with a broken finger and I offered again a comment of doing it while playing in the NFL.
Terrell Owens clearly loves the attention he gets, but he also doesn’t ask for every minute of attention the media chooses to place on him. I think if Owens were to retire today, the press would be the most disappointed people in the world. Sports didn’t start and end with Terrell Owens, but he seems to be the easiest target to write an article about and get fans all sparked up and talking. This next week will probably be the biggest media crush ever for what appears to simply be a game for 1st place in the NFC East early in the season. That’s what T.O. brings and reporters can speculate all week on how T.O.’s return to Philadelphia will play out and will the NFL version of Shaq versus Kobe be as exciting and will Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens speak to each other before or after the game.
A day in the life of Terrell Owens can be as exciting as any reality show on television because Owens knows the cameras are always on him and he doesn’t have to pretend because it’s an every day thing to have everyone talking about him and wondering what’s he up to now. I don’t really think anything great will naturally happen, but the press needs something to talk about, so let the fireworks begin and guarantee all of us the Dallas versus Philadelphia game will be the national game next Sunday.
Shout it out and let us what you think of Terrell Owens and all this drama that hit us over the last week.
I think TO could be one of the best players of all times. I do wish over the years he would have been able to focus on football.
He is an amazing athlete in a somewhat screwed up world where the player is god.
Comment by CrimsonLight - Blogs — October 1, 2006 @ 8:40 pm