Very seldom do I hear or see anything that leaves me speechless. Wednesday morning was one of those RARE occasions. While taking in my daily dose of ESPN the infamous Terrell Owens once again garnered headline status but not for what you think.
He didn’t tell the media his quarterback was gay, like in San Francisco, or tell his coaches not to speak to him unless spoken to, like in Philadelphia. Wednesday, the outlandish actions of Owens took a turn toward the bizarre.
The Associated Press reported that Tuesday, Owens attempted to commit suicide by taking an overdose of prescription painkillers that he received for his surgically repaired hand. Owens’ friend who tried to intervene said that Owens was ‘depressed.’
In a press conference later on in the day Owens denied the suicide attempt.
OK? let me get this straight. After all, I did just wake up. Depressed? Depressed! Now I realize that no one but Owens truly knows what goes on behind closed doors, but come on it can’t be that bad. The two worst things that recently happened to him were minor injuries. He pulled his hamstring in the pre-season and broke a finger last week against Washington. Football is Owens’ livelihood but surely those two events didn’t push him over the edge. Maybe he found a scratch on his new BMW or maybe he gets bad reception on his new 97-inch flat-screen high definition plasma TV. But really who knows the strife that these athletes must endure?
Owens recently signed an eight-figure contract. Let me be more specific, the man just made $25 million to play a game that he and I both love.
Depressed! He’s got 25 million reasons to take a deep breath, count to 10 and realize ‘hey it’s not as bad as it seems.’ Even if it is buy some Prozac and get it together, it’s not like he can’t afford it.
It’s well-documented that Owens grew up in poverty living with his grandmother in Chattanooga, so the man should be well-acquainted with depression, real depression. Even though he was raised around depression allow me to re-introduce him to this novel concept.
Depression comes from working your fingers to the bone only to have enough money to make a mortgage payment on a house that is falling apart at the seams and still going deeper and deeper in debt just to keep your head above water.
If it’s the constant media scrutiny that drove him to this brash decision, he can only blame himself. Owens should have thought about all his outlandish actions that brought on the media circus that he so candidly welcomes.
In most cases, and especially Tuesday night, Owens is his own worst enemy.
Even as I am writing this, new developments are coming in and I’m sure that this will not be the last we hear of this situation. I guess this is just the price that some pay for fame. What the @$#!.

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