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September 27, 2006

The morning buzz

Hey all --

There's a lot of buzz in the media workroom this morning about the news that Terrell Owens may have tried to committ suicide last night by ingesting a large number of prescription pain pills.

Have to say though that most of the people in here (cynical media types all) think it's just another cry for attention from the wide receiver given that it seems his publicist was in his house with him when he did it and called 911 about 15 minutes after he reportedly took the pills. Another writer is saying this will turn the public sentiment on TO from disgust to sympathy as everyone thinks, "Oh he has problems, he's not just a jerk."

But no matter why he did it, if he did indeed do it, it's sad and a clear sign that Terrell needs a lot of help. A lot of times we look at athletes -- especially one as physically sculpted as TO -- and assume that their life off the field is as perfect as the bodies they work so hard on.

That's not always the case.

Especially in the NFL, where you *must* perform or your livelihood can be taken away from you. Think about how people have been around here the last few weeks, saying Tom Brady should just "suck it up" and get over Deion not being here. Would you be saying the same thing if his father passed away or if he had depression? Terrell Owens grew up in extremely difficult circumstances, circumstances that fortunately many of us won't have to deal with and the scars from those events don't just go away because you're pulling in eight figures.

shalise

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 11:05 AM | Permalink