T.O. adds bizarre chapter

PHILADELPHIA – The strange and troubling sideshow that rolls along with Terrell Owens wherever the brassy all-pro wide receiver travels took its most bizarre turn yet on Wednesday.

In an afternoon news conference at the Dallas Cowboys’ training facility in Irving, Texas, Owens contradicted a Dallas police report that initially said he had attempted suicide the previous night.

He insisted the groggy, incoherent behavior that prompted his publicist to telephone 911 was the result of an allergic reaction to painkillers and vitamin supplements.

“I was kind of out of it,” Owens said. “I can barely even remember the doctors, much less the police officers asking me questions.”

The man who ignited cluster bombs of controversy in previous stints with the Eagles and San Francisco 49ers apologized to his teammates for this latest distraction, and vowed to play Sunday against the Tennessee Titans.

Owens worked out with the Cowboys on Wednesday after his release from Baylor University Medical Center, where he spent the night.

“Terrell has 25 million reasons why he should be alive,” Kim Etheredge, his publicist, told reporters in rebutting the suicide report.

She was referring to the dollar amount of the three-year contract he signed with Dallas in March, four months after the Eagles, by then weary of his erratic and disruptive behavior, finally cut ties with the player who helped them reach Super Bowl XXXIX.

Eagles spokesman Derek Boyko said the team would have no comment on the situation.

According to Etheredge, who was with Owens in the Cowboys superstar’s Commerce Street residence Tuesday night, she became concerned by her client’s unresponsiveness, especially after she found an empty bottle of hydrocodone, the generic form of Vicodin he had been taking to ease the pain in his broken finger. She made the 911 call sometime before 8 p.m. Dallas time.

Owens explained that he had removed the three dozen or so pills from the bottle and placed them in a drawer. According to police, a prescription for 40 pills had been filled on Sept. 18.

He had taken two or three, he said, after returning home from a Cowboys practice because of persistent pain in his hand. He had surgery on the fracture last week.

Wearing a blue practice jersey, his eyes somewhat puffy, Owens told reporters he also took some of the vitamin supplements he regularly ingests and lay down on a training table. Beyond that, he said, he does not remember much about the night.

Rescue workers who responded to the emergency call took Owens to the nearby hospital. He denied speculation that his stomach had been pumped there.

“This is sad,” Etheredge said. “Terrell had a reaction to different pills, and just to state he was trying to commit suicide, it was unfair. … I feel they take advantage of Terrell. Had this been someone else, this may not have happened.”

Etheredge said she never told police that Owens had been depressed, as the initial report indicated, and had no idea why the report also claimed he had informed authorities that he intended to harm itself.

“I wasn’t coherent, as they probably thought I was,” Owens said. “A number of people were asking me questions.”

Various news organizations filed requests for the 911 tape of Etheredge’s call, which was expected to be released late Wednesday night.

Dallas police held an earlier news conference in which they refused to confirm or deny the initial report on the incident, which had been obtained by a Fort Worth TV station.

When, several hours later, police officially released the document, much of its earlier content had been blacked out. Deleted were such phrases as “attempting suicide by prescription pain medication” and “drug overdose,” as well as a description of Owens’ having two pills pried from his mouth.

This latest incident again brought Owens’ psychological state into question. The Cowboys said background checks before they signed the receiver turned up no red flags.

All this comes less than two weeks before Owens is scheduled to return to Philadelphia for a much-anticipated, nationally televised game with the Eagles on Oct. 8.

Cowboys coach Bill Parcells, who deflected all questions about the receiver, did say that he thought the 32-year-old wideout’s recuperation “was going OK.”

Parcells cut off his Wednesday news conference after only nine minutes when all but one of the queries concerned Owens – who’s been a distraction.

Owens sat out most of the Cowboys’ training camp, and three of their four preseason games, with a hamstring injury. He was late for practice during his recovery and was fined. Owens laughed it off, saying he overslept.

During the Cowboys’ victory over the Redskins on Sept. 17, Owens broke the bone leading to his right ring finger. A day later, doctors screwed in a plate so the bone could heal without fear of further damage. Parcells noted last week that the pain medicine made Owens ill.

Former Cowboys star Deion Sanders was with Owens at his home before he went to team headquarters Wednesday.

“From my understanding, looking at him in the eye as a man and as a big brother, I said, `Be straight up with me.’ He seems to be OK,” Sanders told the NFL Network.

This was the latest chapter in the controversy-checkered career of the talented wide receiver.