Former NFL star receiver Terrell “T.O.” Owens was reportedly rushed to a Los Angeles area hospital last Thursday night after a possible pill overdose.
Reportedly, an unknown person called 911 from the apartment to report a possible overdose. Paramedics arrived and transported T.O. to an area hospital. Police investigators spoke to Owens later that night.
Once a record-breaking wide receiver, T.O. was hospitalized back in 2006 for a similar incident. Despite a police report that suggested he intentionally ingested 35 Vicodin tablets during a suicide attempt, Owens insisted it was not an overdose.
He later denied that doctors had to pump his stomach and said he was not depressed.
“The rumor of me taking 35 pills, I think, is absurd. I don’t think I would be here if I had taken 35 pills,” he said in 2006.
Some say, this behavior not only appears to be a trend for Owens, it appears to mark a trend for athletes who have been out of the game even for a short period of time.
How often have we heard of an athlete getting into trouble, one way or another, after football? When an athlete loses football, he seems to lose his livelihood and security blanket all in one.
Owens, 37, who has been attempting to come back to the NFL after going unsigned in the offseason, hasn’t exactly had the most pleasant time off. He has been involved in a paternity battle with Melanie Paige Smith after missing $5,000 in child support payments. In addition to those troubles, his financial adviser allegedly misappropriated funds and took advantage of him.
Who knows if Owens will ever find an NFL team to give him a shot, but given that several needy teams didn’t approach him in the offseason, and the latest news, we may very well have seen the last of Terrell Owens.
There has been no comment from Terrell Owens or his publicists since the news broke on TMZ.
For a six-time Pro Bowler who was one of the most electric receivers in the game, T.O. doesn’t even seem like a professional football player anymore, instead he seems more like a man who finds it hard to accept that his glory days are behind him.
At this point Terrell Owens’ main source of income is his reality show on VH1, hopefully he can hang on to that.
