Welcome to Something for Nothing

It looks like Cowboys crazy receiver Terrell Owens has created a new way to get attention. He’s reportedly tried to overdose on prescription pain medications in a suicide attempt.

Here’s what ESPN reported about it:

Flamboyant Dallas Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens attempted suicide by overdosing on prescription pain medication Tuesday, even putting two more pills into his mouth after a friend intervened, according to an internal police report obtained by The Associated Press.

Owens left the hospital late Wednesday morning, giving reporters a “thumbs up” but making no comment as he was driven away in an SUV.

Publicist Kim Etheridge said in various interviews Wednesday with Dallas-area media that the police have gotten the story wrong. She said she was with Owens, who was having trouble because he’d mixed his pain pills with supplements. She said she called for help because he was becoming unresponsive.

Fox sports offered pretty much the same info on TO, but I found this part interesting:

“This is a high-profile person. We looked into it and we determined it is not a criminal offense,” Watson said. “This a medical type of situation that occurred.”

Watson and fire department spokesman Joel Lavender cited privacy laws for the lack of information they could provide. Lavender said more details could come from the 911 call. The Associated Press filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to get the contents of the call.

“Let’s just look at the tape, review the tape,” Lavender said. “I’ll give you an honest answer once I know something.”

At the police news conference, Watson released a version of the police narrative with certain sections blacked out. The full report was obtained by several news outlets and reported first by WFAA. The AP received the full version from WFAA.

The friend, who is not identified in the report, “noticed that (his) prescription pain medication was empty and observed (Owens) putting two pills in his mouth,” the police report said. The friend attempted to pry them out with her fingers, then was told by Owens that before this incident he’d taken only five of the 40 pain pills in the bottle he’d emptied.

According to the police report, Dallas Fire and Rescue was called regarding someone “attempting suicide by prescription pain medication.” Officers arrived to find Owens being stabilized by ambulance workers, who then took him to Baylor University Medical Center.

From the ESPN report on Terrell Owens it looks like he’s back to his old self:

Owens was seen laughing and joking on the practice field Tuesday morning. He chatted briefly with reporters in the locker room in the afternoon and seemed fine. A 2-inch scar on the top of his hand was puffy but not wrapped, and he said the swelling was doing down.

While in the locker room, he took a pill from a white paper bag and looked at another medicine bottle that was in the bag. He also called a business partner about a towel-wrap venture they’re starting and joked to TV cameras that he wasn’t talking until Wednesday and it was only Tuesday.

“My little boy knows better than that,” he said, laughing, as he plopped onto a sofa in the middle of the locker room.

Looks like the Cowboys are really glad they brought TO into the organization. I guess TO prescribes to the any media is good media. Even if it means you have to attempt suicide.

Ever since I moved here to Vegas I have learned a very interesting thing about Vegas. People here LOVE boxing. Now, I’m not just talking about occassionally seeing boxing for fun. I’m not talking about people who like to watch boxing during the olympics(that’s me). People here love watching it. At first I thought that maybe people just liked it because it was a major part of the economy. However, as I thought about it more that doesn’t make too much sense. People are actually paying loads of money to see these games either live or on pay per view.

If you watch the local news, the sports section is pretty much a time to talk about boxing. UNLV gets a little time, but boxing is the only professional sport in Las Vegas. However, I don’ think this is really why people love boxing. I think the reason people love boxing so much is because of the gambling associated with it. Boxing is a gambler’s paradise. The outcome is somewhat unknown and often at the end no one is knocked down so you get the adrenaline rush of seeing who the judges picked as winner.

Now don’t get me wrong. I appreciate getting a nice pair of boxing gloves and hitting some people too. I’m even down with putting on some boxing gloves and smacking a bag around. Their’s a certaing level of excitement and a certain peace that is found after exerting your energy smacking something(or someone) around. However, I just don’t see why people are addicted to watching 2 people enjoy themselves.

Maybe it’s the free alcohol and limousine if you’re a high roller.

ESPN just reported that a Jockey got a one-day ban for Head-butting a horse. Here’s the digg of the story. Here’s the original story from ESPN.

I’m amazed that a jockey would do this. However, when you see him get thrown off the horse you have to be a little sympathetic.

I don’t think there are many things prettier than seeing the beautiful American flag flying down the streets of Paris as another American wins the Tour de France. I’ve been watching a lot of the Tour de France and it has been very exciting to watch this year.

Floyd Landis deserved the win after dominating the final mountain stage of the Tour de France and also winning the time trial. There isn’t anything flashy about Floyd, but there is something nice about his quiet method of winning. Except for his enormous falling out of 8 minutes he had the Tour de France in his control the entire time. Floyd will be remember for one of the greatest rides of Tour de France history. It was outstanding.

It’s always interesting to compare Floyd Landis to Lance Armstrong at this point. I don’t think it is a fair comparison since they are such different riders on very different teams. However, they were both champions that Americans can be proud of.

I think it is also really interesting to read about Floyd’s background being raised in a Mennonite town. I think ESPN did a good job on covering this part of Floyd’s story.

Now we’ll just have to see if Floyd Landis can recover from hip surgery and return to the tour. Not to mention if Team Discovery and Lance Armstrong really will sign Floyd away from Team Phonak.

I’ve loved watching the Tour de France these past couple weeks. I think it has been a very exciting and interesting race. I loved when Lance just dominated all those other European riders, but it just wasn’t nearly as interesting to watch. This year was much better.

Unfortunately, on the last mountain stage I had a meeting I had to attend and so I taped it. However, when I got home I got caught up doing something and never got to see it. How mad did that make me? To add insult to injury I went out of town the next day and so I didn’t see what happened in the time trial either.

This all sucks because it’s like watching 3 1/2 quarters of a basketball or football game and then not being able to see the end. Not to mention when I go to OLN’s Tour de France website of course the results are plastered across their main page. It’s not OLN’s fault, because ESPN did the same. However, I don’t understand why they can’t hide the result and give you a warning that if you click on that link then you are going to know what happened. It pisses me off.

So, now I know Floyd Landis should win the Tour de France. That’s cool, but it would have been better to watch the action.

The real solution here would be to have on demand and streaming coverage of the Tour de France so that I could have watched it at work or anytime that I wanted to watch it. I know that OLN plays it throughout the day, but they need to expand their coverage and start streaming the stages of the tour. I’m even fine if they don’t start the streaming until after they are done playing the stage on OLN. Just give me the streaming media I want so I don’t have to be pissed and not want to watch the Tour next year.

Regardless, Congratulations Floyd. It will be very nice to see another American on the podium in France.

Living in Las Vegas about the only sports news we get is anything to do with UNLV. Therefore the only sports news to announce this week was about Marcus Banks signing with the Phoenix Suns. It is a really interesting choice for Banks who hasn’t played much in Minnesota, but looked good when they did play him. The problem is that he could have gone to a number of teams and gotten the starting job. However, he was fine with going to Phoenix and playing second fiddle to Steve Nash.

If you think about this for a second it really is a no brainer for Marcus Banks.

First, who wouldn’t want to learn from the best point guard still playing in the league Steve Nash?

Second, between the always impressive Shawn Marion and Amare Stoudemire returning to the lineup I think I could play guard for the Suns.

Third, look what playing on the suns did for so many other mediocre, but skilled players.

Fourth, the Suns have a real serious shot at winning the NBA championships. I don’t care what role you will play on a team, if that team wins a championship you are going to be super happy. He’s set for life and so now he wants to win championships.

Finally, he’s getting paid $21 million to do all of the above.

I think that many in vegas will pick up some Suns tickets and take the quick hour flight to Phoenix to catch a game.

Google Video is showing a highlight of the World Cup and specifically Italy’s win over France.

I am definitely biased to Italy since I lived there for 2 years, but even more important is that I have nothing good to say about France. I can’t believe Zidane would be so stupid. I’m so happy for Italy since the past couple World Cups have been the worst for Italy.

Forza Italia!!

I posted previously about a map tracking the Tour de France live. Google has now teamed up with the official Tour de France website to show the Tour de France on google earth.

They describe the experience perfectly:

Be sure to try out the tilt feature to see the truly daunting magnitude of all of those climbs where riders are battling it out in this year’s wide-open race. “Beyond Category” climbs? No thanks — we’ll stick to the flats and leave those verticals to the pros!

I actually like the climbs. At least on google earth.

Maybe I’m just a sports addict, but I really love the Tour de France. I may even venture to say I like it more now that Lance is gone than I liked it when he was there and winning. I think Americans like the underdog story and I’m no exception. I guess we do also like the domination story, but not nearly as much as the underdog.

I found a cool google mashup for watching the Tour de France and the cyclists on it. Not a bad idea to watch the cyclists on a map. The real question will be how often it is updated. Plus, this map will suck until they get into the mountains and the field is spread out across the course. Until then it is just one large pack and isn’t too meaningful.