Posted on 09/27/2006 7:36:05 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
Controversial Dallas Player Tells Authorities He Overdosed On Painkillers
(CBS News) DALLAS Controversial Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens has told police he tried to kill himself by overdosing on pain medication, even putting two more pills into his mouth after a friend intervened.
A Dallas police report released Wednesday morning said Owens told his friend "that he was depressed."
The friend, who is not identified in the report, "noticed that (his) prescription pain medication was empty and observed (Owens) putting two pills in his mouth," the police report said.
The friend attempted to pry them out with her fingers, then was told by Owens that before this incident he'd taken only five of the 40 pain pills in the bottle he'd emptied. Owens was asked by rescue workers "if he was attempting to harm himself, at which time (he) stated, `Yes.'"
CBS affiliate KTVT in Dallas-Fort Worth and other local media had reported that Owens had been taken to Baylor Medical Center Tuesday night, possibly for an allergic reaction to pain medication he is taking for his broken hand.
According to the Dallas Police Department incident report, Owens told police he took more than 30 pills in a suicide attempt.
Sources tell KTVT that Owens was taken to Baylor Hospital by Dallas Fire Rescue and that emergency room doctors attempted to induce vomiting.
Baylor Hospital officials continue to deny Owens received treatment. However, federal privacy laws allow people to block their name from being released.
"This is not serious," Owens' publicist Kim Etheridge had said in Wednesday's online edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Two weeks ago Owens broke his hand during a football game against the Washington Redskins.
Earlier Tuesday, Parcells said he expected Owens to rejoin his teammates at practice Wednesday and would start Sunday in Tennessee if he proves he can play.
"It's just, can he withstand the pain of catching the ball?" Parcells said. "When he can stand it, he can play."
The Cowboys had a bye last weekend, so Owens has yet to miss a game because of this injury. He's repeatedly said he'll play Oct. 8, when he gets to face his former team, the Eagles, in Philadelphia.
Owens chatted briefly with reporters in the locker room Tuesday afternoon and seemed fine.
Owens, one of the league's top receivers during his 11-year NFL career, is best known for wild stunts on the field and other publicity-seeking antics off it.
When the Cowboys signed him to a $25 million, three-year deal in March, they said their background checks indicated no red flags. In fact, team consultant Calvin Hill — who mostly deals with troubled players — said during training camp that his department was not involved with Owens because he didn't have a history of those kinds of problems.
Dallas police officials said they were planning a news conference, but did not immediately release a time. A hospital spokeswoman said early Wednesday there was no patient registered as Terrell Owens, although federal privacy laws allow people to block their name from being released.
Owens' publicist and agent, and the Cowboys, did not return repeated calls from The Associated Press. No teammates or Cowboys officials were seen entering the hospital late Tuesday night.
Yeah, those are terrible things- worthy of him dying. Get a grip.
Me! Me! Me!
Having watched Owens during the season he played in Philly, I have come to the conclusion that he doesn't have that many playing years left. He's so emotionally insecure that he won't be able to handle it when his athletic skills begin to decline. He could never be a #2 receiver. I figure he would then pick up the antics to a level where he'd essentially get himself black-balled by the league (which he very nearly did after his stint here).
Not one iota. :)
I wish T.O. well and he has my prayer for a speedy recovery. Hopefully he will get - and accept - the help he really needs. Clearly, he has some issues that need resolved.
Well, there are only so many Don Maynards, Art Monks and Jerry Rices in this world. Not everyone can be one, and T.O. is not immune to that universal truth, either. In that regard, I agree with you vis-a-vis deteriorating skills.
However, there's nothing set in stone that says that someone, if they want it bad enough, can't modify their game so that if they aren't effective in one aspect,they can't be so in another, if the argument is that Owens is not a #1 or 2 receiver. Whether Owens can evolve his game from "deep threat" to "possession" receiver is open to question, but his evident skills are not. I think he could easily make the adjustment if he were motivated to do so, and his ego would let him make that adjustment.
Perhaps that is the root of his problem: that he "needs" to be "The Man", and he obviously isn't in Dallas. He certainly wasn't in Philly.
I could tell... :)
True, suicide is a bad thing, but especially so when it is a young person. They see things in an overly dramatic way.
The 19 yo kid down the street shot himself to death because some things were not going his way. His dog had run away. They found the dog the day after the kid killed himself.
Things aren't usually as bad as they seem at the time.
Have Helen Thomas do a pole dance for him.
The idea was to interrupt the suicide-in-progress, not accelerate it.
Did you know that Robert Altman's son Michael wrote those lyrics when he was 14 years old???
Not true. Art Bell said that he had a mouth full of pills, but then after thinking about it, decided not to commit suicide.
What little I know about Art Bell tells me that he's got a few screws loose.
But,apart from that,I worked in the ER of a very large hospital for 20 years.I may not know much,but I know a bit about Emergency Medicine.
Women,when the attempt suicide (with or without "success"),almost always use pills.The same is true of homosexual males.
Hetero males are far,*far* more likely to use violent means...as I suggested earlier.
Feel free to believe what you wish,but I've "been there,done that" (but only as a spectator).
Wow, I feel sorry for Owens if this is true? Suicide is no answer! He really needs to talk to someone, like Deon Sanders, perhaps? Is Reggie White still alive, he would a good man to talk with? Man!
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