Terrell Owens

Terrell Owens has his own, peculiar brand of Attention Deficit Disorder. When he feels lacking in attention, he does something screwy. When he played for San Francisco, he called 49ers quarterback Jeff Garcia a homosexual. When he played in Philly, he fought openly with Donovan McNabb, before deciding the contract he signed wasn't fair. That doesn't count the look-at-me touchdown poses, or stomping on the star at Texas Stadium.
This time, T.O. tried to kill himself. No, wait. He didn't. He mixed too many painkillers with his vitamins and "got a little out of it,'' he said. When his publicist called the paramedics, the pill bottle was empty, and T.O. was downing the last two. They asked him if he was trying to harm himself. He said he was.
On Wednesday afternoon, Owens called a press conference to say it was all a big misunderstanding. "It's very unfortunate for it to go from an allergic reaction to a suicide attempt,'' he decided.
Yeah, hard to argue with that. And this:
Who cares?
I'm listening to ESPN Radio Wednesday afternoon. They treated this like it was the Kennedy assassination. Sports talkers suddenly became smart about depression and bipolar disorder. "Experts'' such as the unlistenable Michael Irvin were brought in to testify. Nothing else happened in sports Wednesday.
It's a little too cynical, even for me, to suggest Owens created this to re-enter the spotlight he so desperately needs. How does T.O. top himself now? OWENS ADMITS MOONWALK WAS FAKED. What gets me is the hype that surrounds everything this guy does. Now, it's a perfect storm: Self-absorbed player works for self-important football team covered by self-important World Wide Leader in Sports. Whatever Owens did or didn't do to himself, can we please tone down the coverage?
Live big. Rationally.