T.O.: ‘There was no suicide attempt’

Terrell Owens was again the center of a news storm Wednesday, a day that was bizarre even by the unusual standards set by his previous antics.

The controversy-generating wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys was released from a hospital after an overnight stay and denied an account in a Dallas police report that he had tried to kill himself by overdosing on prescription pain medication.

“There was no suicide attempt,” Owens said at an afternoon news conference at the Cowboys’ training facility in Irving, Texas.

Owens rejoined the Cowboys after being released from the Baylor University Medical Center. He gave a thumbs-up sign before leaving the hospital grounds in a sport-utility vehicle and said he even caught some passes from Cowboys quarterbacks Drew Bledsoe and Tony Romo after arriving at the team’s Valley Ranch headquarters.

Owens, 32, said he suffered an allergic reaction at his home Tuesday night after taking hydrocodone, a generic form of the painkiller Vicodin, and nutritional supplements. He said he thinks he is capable of participating in the Cowboys’ practice today and playing Sunday in Nashville against the Tennessee Titans.

Owens’ statements capped a day that began with the publication of a police incident report that said he had attempted to commit suicide by consuming as many as 35 painkillers.

The police report said that officers were dispatched at 7:51 p.m. Central time Tuesday “on a call by Dallas Fire and Rescue regarding (a person) attempting suicide by prescription pain medication.” According to the report, the officers arrived and found Owens “being stabilized” by a paramedic in an ambulance, then proceeded with him to the hospital. At the hospital, according to the police report, the officers interviewed a female companion of Owens – identified Wednesday as Kim Etheredge, Owens’ publicist – and she told them that Owens had said he was “depressed.”

Dallas Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens listens to a question at a news conference. Wednesday, he denied a report that he attempted suicide Tuesday night after taking a painkiller and nutritional supplements.

Etheredge, who was not named in the police report, said she had noticed that Owens’ container of pain relief medication was empty and that she saw him putting two pills in his mouth, the report said. She “attempted to put her fingers in (Owens’) mouth to retrieve the pills,” it said.

She told police that the prescription for 40 pills had been filled on Sept. 18 and Owens had taken only five pills before Tuesday, the report said.

When Owens was asked at the hospital if he had taken the remainder of the 40-pill prescription, he said, “Yes,” the police report said. When he was asked if he was attempting to harm himself, according to the report, he said, “Yes.”

An unedited version of the police report was obtained early Wednesday by WFAA-TV in Dallas and posted on its Web site. Police later released a redacted version that blacked out Etheredge’s and Owens’ comments.

Within hours of the first reports of an attempted suicide, Owens was released from the hospital and returned to the Cowboys’ training facility.

Owens, who broke his right ring finger in a game against the Washington Redskins 11 days ago, said at his news conference that he took only two to three pain pills along with some nutritional supplements. His hand was hurting, he said, and a doctor had treated him at his house Tuesday.

He said he didn’t have his stomach pumped at the hospital and called the notion that he had taken 35 pain pills “absurd.”

Said Owens, “I don’t think I would be here had I taken 35 pills.”

Owens said that Etheredge called the police from his home because he was “non-responsive” and that she had seen the empty bottle. The other pain pills had been taken from the bottle and placed in a drawer, Owens said.

He said he answered officers’ questions at the hospital the way he did because he wasn’t aware of what he was being asked. “I really wasn’t as coherent as they probably thought I was,” Owens said. He added later: “I was kind of out of it. I can barely remember the doctors, much less the police officers that were asking me questions.”

Owens said he’s “not depressed by any means,” and called it “very unfortunate for the reports to go from an allergic reaction to an attempted suicide.”

Etheredge appeared with Owens at his news conference and denied making the statements that were attributed to her in the police report. She denied telling police that Owens was depressed and said she didn’t attempt to take any pills out of his mouth, although she added that she could not recall all of the details from Tuesday night.

“Terrell has 25 million reasons why he should be alive,” Etheredge said, referring to Owens’ three-year, $25 million contract with the Cowboys.

Etheredge said she did not regret making the 911 call. “I’m happy that I’m sitting here before you guys, sitting with Terrell, because I made that call,” she said. “He had an allergic reaction. Anything could have happened.”

After Etheredge’s remarks at the news conference, Owens returned to the podium to thank the police officers, paramedics and hospital staff members involved in the case.

Cowboys Coach Bill Parcells said at a news conference earlier in the afternoon that he didn’t know the details of the incident. “It’s apparently an unfortunate set of circumstances, and I’d rather be clear on what they are before I comment on the future,” Parcells said. “I really would. … When I find out what the hell is going on, you’ll know.”

Parcells said he wasn’t sure of Owens’ playing status or when the two would speak. After being asked a series of questions by reporters about Owens and saying repeatedly that he didn’t know enough details to comment at length, Parcells cut off the questioning and left.

During a brief morning news conference, a spokesman for the Dallas police department refused to confirm that Owens had attempted suicide. “We’ve determined that at this time, this is not a criminal offense,” said the spokesman, Lt. Rick Watson, who indicated that what he could say publicly was limited by privacy laws. “This is a medical type of situation, the incident that occurred.”

Lt. Joel Lavender, a spokesman for the fire department, declined to comment directly on the case but said it “absolutely” would be part of protocol for police to be summoned to a suicide attempt. He said that paramedics arrived on location less than three minutes after being summoned, and got Owens to the hospital less than one minute after completing their evaluation at his home.

“We went to a medical emergency, found the patient, treated the patient and transported the patient,” Lavender said.

The day after breaking his finger, Owens underwent surgery in which a metal plate and three screws inserted. Before Tuesday’s developments, the Cowboys had been hopeful that he would practice yesterday and perhaps play Sunday. The Cowboys had a bye week last week.

Owens said Wednesday, “I feel very capable of going out there and playing on Sunday.”

That would fit with Owens’ history. He recovered from a ankle surgery in time to play in the Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles. They cut him in March after a turbulent 2005 season in which the team suspended him for four games without pay, then deactivated him for the final five games of the season. The Cowboys are scheduled to play the Eagles in Philadelphia on Oct. 8.

Released by the Eagles, he signed with the Cowboys in the offseason. He was sidelined for most of training camp and the preseason by a sore hamstring muscle, drawing attention to himself even when he rode an exercise bike (wearing a “Tour de Oxnard” T-shirt) on the sideline, but was in the Cowboys’ lineup for the regular-season opener. He has nine catches for 99 yards and one touchdown in two games.