T.O.: Addicted To Attention?
CBS News Chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian covered tne NFL for CBS Sports from 1998-2006. We asked him to weigh in on the news yesterday about Terrell Owens. - Ed.
"I think we all should just thank God that T.O. is all right," I said.
Suffice to say the punch line hit home. As I said that evening, not to make light of what is normally a very serious matter, but the latest chapter in the "As T.O. Turns" soap opera would register a helluva lot higher in my mind had Terrell Owens not long ago exhausted my supply of personal sympathy.
We've all heard of A.D.A. and A.A.D.D. Frankly, I think Owens suffers from A.A.D. — Acute Attention Disorder. To me, he's pathologically incapable of being out of the limelight for more than a just few days before some deep, dark need kicks in and T.O. creates some new drama in his life, planting himself firmly in the eye of yet another media storm. Sucking attention, like oxygen, as a living, breathing life form.
We can talk all we want about discrepancies in the so-called "attempted suicide" as laid out in the Dallas police report, and events as they unfolded according to Owens and his publicist.
Now it's all just a big mix-up, a colossal misunderstanding — T.O. wasn't trying to kill himself by swallowing (fill-in-the-blank number) hydrocodone pills; no, he was just in a haze when he responded "yes" to a question of whether he wanted to harm himself, suffering nothing more than an allergic reaction to the mix of pain medication and nutritional supplements for a fractured right ring finger. (Note to self: Whenever you get in trouble, always refer back to use of said supplements).
In fact, as the beaming wide receiver told a packed press conference, "I'm not depressed by any means. I'm happy to be here."
Actually, I'm the one who's depressed. Especially after reading what Owens reportedly said to Deion Sanders after the man once known as "Prime Time" rushed to Owens's side in the wake of a 911 call. And I quote: "Prime, why is it always me?"
Well, you knucklehead, because if one takes even a cursory look at a six-year track record low-lighted by one increasing cry for attention after another — the midfield celebration on the Cowboys star logo, end-zone grandstanding and riding a stationary bike geared up like Lance Armstrong spring immediately to mind — nothing comes as a real shock here.
Yet here we are following Owens around like lemmings once again: wall-to-wall cable coverage featuring minute-by-minute timelines and enough gasbag speculation to cure an energy crisis.
I don't know if T.O. is depressed, crazy or both. Only he knows, deep down, whether or not he really wanted to end it all. But as his publicist said: "Terrell has 25 million reasons why he should be alive," alluding, of course, to his contract with the Cowboys.
Leaving the saner among us searching … for an open window and a ledge.