T.O., DAY TWO

The DMN has an exclusive. Owens’ trainer, James “Buddy” Primm, says he believes the suicide report is false. Problem is, he offers compelling evidence not to believe him.

Let’s jump.

Primm had Owens taking 30 supplements a day, had him using a laser device to help his broken finger heal, had him sticking his hand into a breadbox-like machine that helps dissolve scar tissue. This last machine, which is not named or described outside its magic breadbox-like proportions, “makes you sleepy,” Primm says. Add in some pain pills and, voila, you’re loopy. But not suicidal, Primm states.

Okay, maybe. But there’s another side to this story, one Primm willingly offers. T.O. has a son and Monday was his birthday. The boy lives in California and T.O. was apparently quite distraught he could not visit him. (If you know the T.O. story, you know that T.O., as a lad, was neglected by his mother and alcoholic grandmother and had a father who lived across the street with a second family. The cruel part: T.O. didn’t know his dad was his dad until he was 12. The crueler part: he found out after developing a crush on the girl next door, a girl named Felicia. Her father, L.C. Russell, approached the young T.O. one day and, according to a 2005 profile in Philadelphia Magazine (link here for you Nexis subscribers), told Owens, “You can’t be liking that girl. She’s your sister.” Yeah. Harsh. So family’s a big deal to T.O.)

On top of that, Monday was also the day T.O.’s fiancee broke off the engagement. The DMN doesn’t list her name but according to a piece last year in the Philadelphia Inquirer, it is Felisha Terrell. She’s very hot (and for a full gauge of hotness, please run the slideshow). And I’d be upset too if she decided to end things. But suicidal? Well, I don’t know. T.O. has a persecution complex, and his lackeys do their best to feed it: witness Kim Etheredge yesterday saying if it were anyone else, this “allergic reaction” wouldn’t have necessitated a press conference. T.O. says he still struggles with the demons from his childhood and both the 49ers and Eagles told ESPN the Magazine to pray for the man that does not stroke T.O.’s ego, for T.O. will grow sullen and angry in his presence. Does that place him at risk to himself? I still don’t know but yesterday, on ESPN and in the Philadelphia Inquirer, word spread that the Eagles asked T.O. to seek counseling during his tenure there.

But even here the Eagles have not confirmed the report. So all we have in all of this are opaque truths. And opaqe truths makes me sleepy.

Even without a magic breadbox machine.