Did Terrell Owens Attempt Suicide?

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There was no clue of an impending problem for Owens Tuesday. He was out catching some balls with fellow teammates, even laughing and joking with reporters. Parcells said he was unsure whether Owens would return Sunday to play the Tennessee Titans; Owens is still listed as "questionable" on the team injury report. The Cowboys' in-house Web columnist Mickey Spagnola says that Owens suffered a reaction to pain medication prescribed Sept. 18 when he underwent surgery for a fracture of his fourth metacarpal. According to Spagnola, Parcells knew Owens was having troubles with the pills; the coach had sent Owens home from practice a few days after surgery because of what Parcells called a bad reaction.

Police on Wednesday said there was no crime, refused to comment on reports of a possible suicide attempt, and said the matter had been dropped — although they may try to find the person who leaked a 911 report stating that a Dallas Fire and Rescue team had been called out at 7:51 p.m. Tuesday for an "attempted suicide" by a 32-year-old who had "ingested an unknown large quantity of Rx pain medication." Police arrived to find Owens, who was not named in the report, being put in an ambulance headed to nearby Baylor Medical Center. He was released Wednesday and the hospital refused to comment, citing privacy laws.

Etheredge — who told reporters she was there with Owens — provided the other details to officials, according to the leaked report obtained by WFAA-TV. Owens' rep told police that she noticed his pain medication bottle was empty while he was "putting 2 pills in his mouth" so she "attempted to put her fingers" in his mouth "to retrieve the pills." Owens had received the prescription — for 40 pills — after surgery on Sept. 18, but had taken only 5 to date, she told police. Owens, interviewed by police as he was in the ambulance, told them he had taken the remainder of his medication and said "yes" when asked if he was attempting to harm himself, according to the report.

The incident, as portrayed in the leaked police report, is a peek into the life of one of the NFL's most gifted, yet most troubled, players on the field. He is the Dennis Rodman of the sport, a great athlete, a winner with an outrageous personality. Owens began a stellar career with the San Francisco 49ers, standing out as a star on a team that had begun to lose the luster of the Joe Montana Super Bowl years. Owens was known for his outsize behavior, including pulling a felt pen from his sock to sign a football after catching a touchdown pass or reaching for a cell phone.

He wore out his welcome in San Francisco — while a 49er he once stomped on the star at midfield in Texas Stadium — and was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles. There his great play was again tempered by public lashings of his quarterback and criticizing his coaches. He made amends by playing while injured in the Super Bowl, but followed that up with a contract dispute with the Eagles, in part fueled by his equally outrageous agent Drew Rosenhouse. Things soured in Philly so much that he was then traded to the Cowboys. Things started fine there, but Owens missed most of the preseason with a hamstring injury, then broke a finger in the one game he has played in. He was capitalizing fine on his celebrity, putting out a second book T.O. in July to update his first tome, Catch This! Going Deep with the NFL's Sharpest Weapon.