Well it has happened again. The recent sports news everywhere is again focused again on a man that catches footballs for living named Terrell Owens aka “TO.”

Here are some examples of the latest story regarding a controversial potential suicide attempt:

 Terrell Owens incident report by Associated Press
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2605356

Owens refutes report, says he didn't attempt suicide by ESPN News Services. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2604395

Sympathy runs deep for T.O. as players, fans react by Associated Press. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2605409

 Owens: There was no suicide attempt by Associated Press http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/6006094

In T.O. Land, every moment is a melodrama by Pat Forde -ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=2605437

 The story started when a police report was leaked early Wednesday morning that TO had attempted suicide by overdosing on pain killers. On Tuesday night, Owens was at his home with his publicist Kim Etheredge. Out of concern for Owens, Etheredge called 911 for assistance. The police report stated that Etheredge stated Owens was “depressed” and a attempted “suicide” had occurred. TO was then rushed to the hospital for treatment for his unresponsivenes. This started the “TO centric” media frenzy ride.

On Wednesday, the Dallas Police department held a news conference stating that they did not understand how this Police report made it to media. They also stated that there were no further investigations under way regarding Owens as he did not commit a crime in the state of Texas where suicide is not illegal. The police refused to answer questions from the media and stated that the media should ask the Owens camp or the medical personnel to receive answers for their outstanding questions. As far as the Dallas police were concerned this was a medical issue not a criminal matter.

From the Owens camp later in the day, Etheredge denied stating to the medical personnel that Owens was “depressed”. Owens held a news conference later in the day stating the incidence was not a suicide attempt but was merely a reaction to the mixture of pain killers and organic supplements. Owens stated that Etheredge made an inaccurate assumption regarding the circumstances when she saw an empty bottle of pain killers and TO in a “non-responsive” state. He appeared to be good spirits and did not look like a person that is depressed and/or attempted to commit suicide at his afternoon news conference.

No matter which side of the story you may believe, it contains elements that will keep TO in the news for while. There are many unanswered questions on both sides of the fence on this one. For example, why would the author of an official police document mention that Etheredge stated TO was “depressed” and later Etheredge and Owns deny that they stated this? Was this the police trying to make story or the Owens camp covering their tracks? It  appears by the Dallas Police news conference that they were doing some track covering them selves.

The fact remains that Owens stomach was not pumped in the hospital which seems to be first course of action to treat a person that consumed thirty-plus pain pills. Assuming that this incident was blown out of preportion and Owens did not commit suicide, it would be easy to dismiss this story for any NFL player other than TO based on his history. It appears that there are dedicated media people following TO’s every move to be the first one to break the latest story in the TO saga. I believe at the least the Dallas Cowboy organization should have their multi-million dollar investment tested by a psychologist to make sure that Owens is really OK mentally.

Is it easy to blame to media for jumping the gun on this and other stories? At one level, this appears to be the case. At another level, this type of thing focuses on our society in general. The media is really feeding the public what they want and what sells advertising. We live in a fast paced “get it now” society where the public does not have time/desire to look deeper into a story more than a 30 sec media player download, iPod Pod Cast, quick internet story(like this one), or 2 minute broadcast on the nightly news. We need to just get the point and not look into the details.

This reminds me of the Brett Favre stories recently where the focus is on whether Brett Favre should have retired or be traded. When the Packers lose, the story comes to the fore front. When they win like last Sunday, the story dies. When you look deeper into this, the fate of the Green Bay Packers success does not lie in the hands of Brett Favre. NFL football is still a team sport. It takes a team to win championships not individuals. The Green Bay Packers are the youngest team in the NFL. With youth and inexperience, as in life, mistakes will be made.

The key to the success of the Green Bay Packers is how quickly the young players come up to speed and gel as a team and does not rely solely on the shoulders of Brett Favre. I realize that following every Packer loss, the question of Brett Favre’s decision to come back one more year will arise as the media is just giving us what we want - the latest “30 sec sound-bit” to keep our lives interesting and make us feel informed.