By MJD
If you get mowed down by a Honda Civic, you'd be extremely lucky to have Terrell Owens nearby. You might think that he'd just stand there, do some shirtless sit-ups while you bled to death, insinuate that you're gay, and then demand to know why you don't throw footballs to him more often.
Not the case, as it turns out. Sam Alipour, a writer for ESPN's Page 2, found out the hard way that Owens is a kind-hearted fellow. After the ESPYs were taped on Wednesday night, Alipour was hit by a car. When he came to, here's what he saw:
Terrell Owens was standing over me. I'm told he was the first do-gooder on the scene of the accident. That he helped me to my feet and off the street to safe ground. That he didn't leave my side. It seems the mercurial Dallas Cowboys receiver is my hero. But my hero looks scared, and this scares me.
"Wow, you all right, man?" Owens kept asking me, but in a manner that would suggest there is no possible way that I, in fact, could be all right. "Don't move. Just sit there. Breathe. Don't move."
It's now that I noticed the car's jacked windshield, which sports a hole the size of, well, my upper torso.
Yikes, I did that?
"That was crazy. Crazy," Owens confirmed. "You all right, man?
I'm fine, nothing to worry about, but Owens is so concerned, so kind, and I'm so touched by this -- we hardly know each other -- that I think my lip is quivering. There's a good chance I could break down like T.O. at that news conference. (It's just not fair. That's my receiver, man.)
Alipour wasn't seriously hurt, and Owens didn't stick around to be thanked or acknowledged.
But thanks go out to him here, just for being a solid guy. He deserves all the positive image rehabilitation that comes with being a good samaritan after a nearby car vs. pedestrian incident.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdo ... =nfl,94984
OK. I know T.O. takes a lot of grief from Redskins fans, myself included. And I'd love to pawn this off as "Well, of course he helped the guy. It was another one of those ESPN writers that is stuck to his backside." But, I can't. I've seen far too many people who do walk right past accident scenes, not only without helping, but either gawking or playing "phone-a-friend" to describe the carnage. "Dude got jacked up", as though that were the only thing that made a person's day worth living.
So, I suppose I'll have to cut Terrell Owens more slack as a human being than I really ever thought I would, or even than I would like to. I think I'd have liked it better if I could still think of him as a self-absorbed jerk.
