The Quadrangle

Issue date: 10/11/06 Section: Sports

Terrell Owens always finds a way to create publicity for himself. This time the police say he tried to commit suicide.

Terrell Owens, known for his off-field antics, has done it again. This time instead of sit-ups in the drive way, he decided to allegedly kill himself by popping pain-killers like he was a mother giving birth to triplets.

Well, it is a classic story of "he said; she said." The story pans out that rescue workers appeared at Owens' home in response to a 911 call made by Kim Etheredge, Owens' publiscist on Tuesday, September 25, around 8 p.m.

Owens stated that his publicist called 911 because of unresponsiveness as Etheredge uncovered an empty bottle of pain-killers that Owens had been taking. Owens said that the empty bottle was there because the rest of the pills were in a drawer, but Etheredge, fearing for her clients life, dialed 911.

Owens blamed an allergic reaction caused by the medicine he is taking for his injured right hand; however, the story changed by Wednesday morning from an allergic reaction to a suicide attempt.

The reasons for this are several. A police report blacked out several phrases, such as attempting suicide by prescription pain medication, and a drug overdose. The report also blacked out details surrounding Etheredge trying to pry two pills from Owens' mouth and details surrounding Owens' response of "yes" to when rescue workers asked if he was going to harm himself.

Owens allegedly consumed 35 pills, and the pills have still not been recovered. The official statement made by the Dallas police concluded that the matter was out of their hands because no illegal action had taken place. Their official statement cited none of the phrases.

The press conference Wednesday told everyone that "Terrell was just being Terrell". After a practice session of running routes with Drew Bledsoe, he walked in, grinning from ear to ear, and just denied everything out right. He blamed that some extra pills he took, combined with some nutritional supplements made him feel groggy and unresponsive.

Then Owens dodged the incident with the rescue workers by saying, "I can barely even remember the doctors, much less the police officers asking me questions." Etheredge also denied the reports of her taking pills out of Owens' mouth, and expressed concern on why this incident had been such a big deal.

Continued...

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