The Real T.O. Story - Has He Really Left Philadelphia???
Terrell Owens is back in the news and like everything that has ever surrounded him there is the usual suspicion, especially by Philadelphia fans who still have a bad taste lingering from the 2005 debacle.
This time his story may, I say may, represent something else that we might all pay attention to.
No one will ever know the truth about what happened to him at his Dallas condo, but the episode offers two separate visions of American life today.
The first is the rush to judgment by police departments whenever it involves a celebrity. Dallas police reported that he took 35 painkillers. Doctors say that would have killed him. Police departments need to be careful in the way they release information, especially since no crime was involved, and the government now guarantees privacy on personal medical records.
The second area involves the high level of mistrust by the public when it comes to the so-called “high and mightyâ€, the actors and sports stars and TV people who are idolized by millions. In reality, they are just people who screw up like the rest of us. But we hold them to a different standard. Therefore, many citizens of this community assumed the worst without ever giving him the benefit of the doubt.
The most widespread assumptions: that he did try to kill himself, or that he set this all up to get attention.
This reporter doesn’t see it that way. If he did try to harm himself, he would have still been in the hospital and not out on a practice field. If he was seeking attention then he certainly picked the most dangerous way to do it.
No question that T.O. has learned all the ways to get our attention. He does it well.
But the real T.O. problem is not his. It is ours. The man who caused havoc for the Eagles is now with another team, far away from Philadelphia.
But is he?
The fact is that Eagles fans and everybody else around here wants to know as much about T.O. as they can get. Never a day passes without some mention of him. His bout in Dallas was a big local and national story with stations breaking into soap operas to tell it.
T.O. is an adventure. Maybe we see some of our own erratic behavior in him. Perhaps we savor the drama he brings.
They say he’s long gone from Philadelphia. I say that it will be some time until the people of this community tire of their obsession with this extraordinary, flawed and talented troublemaker.
T.O. is a Cowboy. And he is still taking us for a ride.
Even though I don’t buy a word of anything that he says, I do agree that he was wronged by the police report being released that claimed it was a suicide attempt. In all reality, this whole thing is nobody’s business. But he falls under the exception, he’s a celebrity so it is everybody’s business unfortunately.
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