Terrell Owens has always been an island of sorts. His brash personality and self-absorption routinely alienated his teammates during an NFL career that teetered between terrific and toxic, leaving him to fend for himself.

Now, at 38 and out of football, he’s lonelier than ever, and running out of money. In a GQ profile, Owens comes across as wounded, broke and desperate. When people text him to ask where he is, he replies back: “I’m in hell.”

But is it his own fault? That’s the perennial debate on T.O., who had a heartbreaking childhood but continually pointed fingers at everyone but himself once he became an adult.

In the GQ story by Nancy Hass, Owens blames the media for not giving him a chance to rehab his injury, blames agent Drew Rosenhaus for not protecting him from a bad business arrangement, and — perhaps most surprisingly — blames a former team captain for his issues with former Philadelphia teammate Donovan McNabb.

Owens earned around $80 million during his NFL career, but has found himself in deep financial trouble, despite never spending lavishly. In the February edition of GQ, Owens admits to trusting the wrong people, who in turn cost him a lot of his fortune.

“It’s not a matter of having lived too large — he was never the type to stockpile Ferraris or build himself a compound; the flashiest car he ever drove was a Mercedes, and while he indeed racked up a few homes that cost as much as $4 million, the only crib he classifies as even mildly sick by pro-ball standards was the one he bought in Atlanta to live in during the Philly off-season.

The problem, he says, is that he’s by nature too trusting, loyal to a fault, despite everyone’s carping that he’s selfish. It’s the sad old stereotypical song of the up-from-nothing black athlete: He let other people take care of things.”

Owens said financial advisers recommended by Rosenhaus lost much of his money in highly leveraged ventures, then houses and apartments he thought he could rent out in a worst case scenario became dead weight in a housing market collapse (none of the properties is particularly excessive, but total a yearly mortgage of about $750,000), and $2 million was lost in an Alabama entertainment complex investment. That venture turned out to be illegal, and also claimed former Redskins running back Clinton Portis as a victim.

“I hate myself for letting this happen,” Owens told GQ. “I believed that they had my back when they said, ‘You take care of the football, and we’ll do the rest.’ And in the end, they just basically stole from me.”

Owens has also found himself friendless, thanks to a growing sense of distrust thanks to his many unfortunate dealings.

He never had many friends — teammates never called him to party, he says, wrongly assuming that he was “too big” to socialize — and now, “I don’t have no friends. I don’t want no friends. That’s how I feel.”

And on top of that, he’s battling in court with four women to whom he pays a total of $44,600 a month in child support for his four children, ages 5 to 12.

“If there’s anything I’m sorry about, it’s getting involved with all that.” He never actually dated any of the women, he says. One was a one-night stand, the others “repeat offenders.” Owens, who has never been married, concedes he is “not a very good judge of character.” Still, he “never suspected they were the types to do what they done in the past year.”

When money became tighter, Owens had to reduce the amount he paid to each of the women, and three of them sued him. A warrant was issued for his arrest when he didn’t show up for a court date with the mother of his oldest child, Tariq. Beyond that, the relationship he’s maintained with the mothers and his children is tenuous, at best.

Now he is in court with all four women, whom he lumps together like one big bloodsucking blob. None of them are being fair, he says: “They know I’m not working; they know the deal.” Although he never established regular visitation with any of the children through the courts, he says he sees the eldest three as much as he can when their mothers allow it. So bitter is his relationship with the mother of the youngest child, a son, that he has never met the boy.

As for McNabb, Owens stands by his decision not to mend fences with the former Eagles quarterback, whom Owens characterized as “tired” following the Eagles’ 24-21 loss to New England in Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005.

When given an apology written by the team’s media relations staff, Owens claims to have handed Eagles’ captain Jeremiah Trotter the mea culpa moments before he was to deliver it to reporters.

Owens tells GQ Trotter read through the statement and arrived at the portion regarding McNabb, who threw for 357 yards, but was picked off three times. Owens claims Trotter ripped off the bottom portion of the page and told Owens he didn’t owe McNabb a thing.

“This is the team leader we’re talking about,” Owens tells GQ. “He told me not to do it.”

Trotter calls Owens’ account inaccurate, telling the magazine he was the one insisting Owens apologize.

Once again, T.O. stands alone.

Owens’ career is defined as much by its theatrics than for its statistical body of work. His playing days ended last spring after his one-year, $2 million contract was not renewed by the Cincinnati, where Owens and Chad Ochocinco collectively proved to be more style than substance.

Owens has clearly moved on.

Some decisions, he admits, may have been handled differently now. But at this point of his life, he’s not willing to look back.

“To say I regret anything would be a slap to my grandmother’s face,” Owens says, referring to the woman who raised him.

He concedes his only mistake in calling McNabb out was one of timing, admitting “I might not have said or done things at exactly the right moment.”

To this day, Owens remains confident bordering on cocksure, convinced — even with a medically repaired ACL — that he is capable of the jaw-dropping playmaking ability of his youth. It’s not his talent that keeps teams from calling, he insists, but instead a reputation cast onto him by the reporters he often held hostage.

“I think people change, but the media, they never allowed me to change,” Owens says. “They never allowed me to be a better person.”

Described in the GQ piece as a “caged cat” living in a spacious 1,800-square foot Los Angeles apartment, Owens remains on an island. He claims to be broke despite making at least $80 million during his playing days.

He says he’s never been diagnosed as clinically depressed but he’s been “real down.”

“I don’t have no friends — I don’t want no friends,” Owens says. “That’s how I feel.”

 

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Philadelphia morning show host Tarsha “Miss Jones” Jones was fired earlier this week from her position on Power 99 after a two year tenure.

According to Philly.com, Clear Channel Radio spokeswoman, Loraine Ballard Morrill, confirmed that Jones is “no longer an employee of Clear Channel Philadelphia.”

The radio personality’s departure from the station comes a week following a defamation lawsuit filed by a local businesswoman, Tracey Parson, who claimed that her Kiddie Kare day care business suffered from a tarnished reputation and resulted in death threats due to Jones’ repeated defamation of the company last month.

Apparently Parson was misidentified by callers and Jones during a segment of “Jonesy in the Morning” on Oct. 19 as a mother and “owner of a daycare center” who had beaten up teenage girls stemming from a confrontation earlier in the month, the lawsuit alleges. At approximately 8:37 a.m., Miss Jones received a tip from a caller that the mother’s name was “Tracey” and that she owned various “Kiddie Kare” day-care centers across Philadelphia.

“Wow. Tracey, it’s on and popping now. We’re not going to say the last name, but Tracey, that’s not a good look,” Jones allegedly replied.
The complaint also went on to claim that Parson received a threat from one person stating; “When I see a f—ing Kiddie Kare van, I’m gonna blow it the f— up.” The suit names Jones, Clear Channel Communications and Capstar Radio as defendants.

While the Queens, New York native and former Motown Records singer is no stranger to controversy, her dismissal adds on to her running list of walking papers. In July 2008, she was replaced on top-rated New York City hip-hop station Hot 97 by Los Angeles personality Big Boy, followed by being abruptly cut from the lineup of Philadelphia’s The Beat a month later.

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A high school basketball star was shot dead inside a Manhattan housing project Sunday in a slaying her family believes was a tragic case of mistaken identity.

Tayshana (Chicken) Murphy, 18, one of the top-rated basketball players in the country, was killed in Harlem’s Grant Houses around 4:10 a.m., police said.

She was trying to outrun a gunman in the fourth-floor hallway of her building, witnesses said.

“She was pleading for her life,” said friend Teka Taylor, 22. “She was saying, ‘No, please, I don’t have nothing to do with it.’”

Murphy had just started her senior year at Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers. Several colleges were actively recruiting her.

“She said, ‘Mom, I’m going to get you out of the projects,’ ” said Murphy’s mother, Tephanie Holston, whose shirt was stained with blood after she tried to save her daughter before emergency workers arrived. “She loved basketball, she lived and breathed basketball,” Holston said.

Witnesses believe Murphy, who was partying with friends from the project and was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, was mistaken for a boy from the group who had fought with young men from a nearby housing project.

She died at the scene after being chased into the building by her shooter.

Murphy’s mother kissed the body bag as it was loaded into a medical examiner van.

“No, no, no. I can’t believe this,” Murphy’s sister howled as she banged on the van with both her hands.
Murphy had a brush with violence last year, when she left Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School under threat of suspension after an altercation with a 15-year-old girl.

She transferred to St. Michael’s Academy in Manhattan, then started at Murry Bergtraum last September after St. Michael’s shut down.

Murphy was ecstatic to be returning to the court this fall after being sidelined last year with a knee injury. “She wanted in the worst way to play,” said Ed Grezinsky, her coach at Bergtraum. “She definitely would have been the leader of the team.”

She never lost sight of her dream of becoming a WNBA star. “That’s my goal,” she told the Daily News last year. “I want to be great.”

Police are investigating the killing. No arrests have been made.

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Apparently it wasn’t just fashion bloggers who weren’t keen on the look. PETA had its issues with Rihanna’s outfit as well.

The Daily Mail reports that the ostrich feathers that covered the entire top have angered PETA activists, as the feathers might have been collected in a cruel or harmful way — possibly while the animal was still alive.

A PETA spokesperson spoke to the Daily Star about Rihanna’s offense, taking this interesting tack: “We keep hoping that Rihanna, a victim of violence herself, will learn to open her heart and start empathising with the suffering of others.”

Apparently Rihanna is quite the repeat offender — PETA called out the star for wearing “foxes, cows and reptiles,” who’s appeared in all sorts of fur over years (although we wonder if items like this crazy hat were faux or real).

Guess Riri won’t be the next celeb stripping down for the animal rights organizations, which loves its celebrities and models. Christy Turlington, Christina Applegate, Alicia Silverstone and dozens more have posed in PETA’s “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” ads. Designer Stella McCartney has also been a huge fashion advocate of the cause.

Maybe Stella can send some new tops Rihanna’s way…

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Assuming that this success is driven by genes rather than environment, there is a rather obvious inference to make – black people are naturally better sprinters than white people. Indeed, it is an inference that seems obligatory, barring considerations of political correctness.
Logically flawed

But here’s the thing. This inference is not merely false – it is logically flawed. And it has big implications not merely for athletics, but for the entire issue of race relations in the 21st Century.

To see how, let us examine success not in the sprints but in distance running, for this is also dominated by black athletes. Kenya has won an astonishing 63 medals at the Olympic Games in races of 800m and above, 21 of them gold, since 1968. Little wonder that one commentator once described distance running as “a Kenyan monopoly”.

But it turns out that it is not Kenya as a whole that usually wins these medals, but individuals from a tiny region in the Rift Valley called Nandi. As one writer put it: “Most of Kenya’s runners call Nandi home.”
Florence Griffith Joyner Florence Griffith-Joyner was hugely successful – but generalisations tell us little

Seen in this context, the notion that black people are naturally superior distance runners seems bizarre. Far from being a “black” phenomenon, or even a Kenyan phenomenon, distance running is actually a Nandi phenomenon. Or, to put it another way, “black” distance running success is focused on the tiniest of pinpricks on the map of Africa, with the vast majority of the continent underrepresented.

The same analysis applies to the sprints, where success is focused on Jamaicans and African-Americans. Africa, as a continent, has almost no success at all. Not even West Africans win much.

The combined forces of Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, the Republic of Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Togo, Niger, Benin, Mali, the Gambia, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Gabon, Senegal, Congo and Angola have not won a single sprinting medal at the Olympics or World Championships.

The fallacy, then, is simple. Just because some black people are good at something does not imply that black people in general will be good at it.

Labelled box

Imagine a similar argument using the Central African Bambuti, a black tribe more commonly known as Pygmies. With an average height of 4ft we could assert that the Bambuti are naturally better at walking under low doors. Would it be legitimate to extrapolate that black people in general have a natural advantage at walking under low doors?

Our tendency to generalise rests on a deeper fallacy – the idea that “black” refers to a genetic type. We put people of dark skin in a box labelled black and assume that a trait shared by some is shared by all.

The truth is rather different. There is far more genetic variation within racial groups (around 85%) than there is between racial groups (just 15%). Indeed, surface appearance is often a highly misleading way of assessing the genetic distance between populations.

This evidence demonstrates how absurd it is to engage in racial generalisations – how crazy it is to witness a tiny group of black people winning at, say, the 10,000m and to infer that all people who share the same skin colour share an aptitude for 10,000m running.

But our subconscious assumptions about race have more than merely sporting implications.

Consider an experiment in 2003 by Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan, two American economists. They drafted 5,000 CVs and placed archetypal “black” names such as Tyrone or Latoya on half of them and “white” names such as Brendan or Alison on the other half. They then divided the white CVs into high and low quality and did the same with the black CVs.

A few weeks later the offers came rolling in from employers, and guess what? The “black” candidates were 50% less likely to be invited to interview. Employers were using skin colour as a marker for employment potential, despite the fact that the candidates’ CVs were identical.

But that’s not all. The researchers also found that although high-quality “white” candidates were preferred to low-quality “white” candidates, the relative quality of “black” CVs made no difference whatsoever.

It was as if employers saw three categories – high-quality white, low-quality white and black candidates. To put it another way, the subliminal assumption that causes us to think that black people are all the same has powerful real-world consequences.

For many economists, this assumption, which gets under the radar of our conscious thought, explains why black people still lag behind white people in economic development more than four decades after the introduction of race-relations legislation.

Recognising that we have these biases is a good place to start in trying to combat them. And a good way of tracking progress is to watch a 100m final and see whether we fall into the trap, when seeing eight contestants with black skin, of inferring that black people are naturally better sprinters.

Matthew Syed is the author of Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice

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“Because of the trial, the timing of this tribute to our brother would be too difficult for me,” Janet Jackson said in a statement.

Jackson’s mother Katherine and his sister LaToya have backed plans for the “Michael Forever Tribute” concert in Wales on October8. But the event is opposed by brothers Randy and Jermaine and some fans are unhappy with the organization of the event.

Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green and Smokey Robinson are due to headline the concert. Janet Jackson was not scheduled to perform and her representatives said she had issued the statement in response to media queries about her presence.

The concert will take place in the middle of the high-profile trial in Los Angeles of the “Thriller” singer’s physician, Dr. Conrad Murray. Murray is accused of giving Jackson a lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol and failing to monitor him properly, leading to his death in June 2009.

Randy and Jermaine Jackson, along with several Michael Jackson fan clubs have also said the timing of the tribute is inappropriate given the trial. Opening statements are expected to begin on September 27 and the trial is likely to last 4-6 weeks.

Conrad Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and faces a four year prison term if convicted.

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This includes the following:

“As we pulled up to the Fontainebleau, a bright-orange parking cone was blocking the entrance. Not accustomed to waiting, apparently, she lowered the car’s window and shouted, ‘Move that cone. I’m Lindsay Lohan.’ And it was done.” Lindsay reportedly drank wine while she discussed her sobriety, and was “constantly looking for drama, whether it was
picking a fight with her younger sister…or freaking out over a lost pair of Zanotti heels.”    She said she “took ballet until she was 19 and was indignant that she was not considered for the movie Black Swan.”

“Monday morning was supposed to be check-out time, but Lindsay and her posse refused to leave…It was like watching the lights come on at a nightclub after-hours—not pretty.” Tisk, tisk, gurl!
We’re not even going to waste our time getting upset about her petulent, childlike behavior, because we doubt it will ever
change and it’s honestly just not worth the headache, but once again, let us remind you, gurl – you can talk about how you’ve changed and try to bullshiz the world as much as you’d like…but actions ALWAYS speak louder than words!

Have fun trying to book another photoshoot with them!

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with his baby mama, Alexis. Why is this news you ask? Well I’m curious because Ciara recently confirmed that she and Stoudemire

were a couple when they were photographed leaving the Met Gala’s after party at the Standard Ho
http://hellobeautiful.com/gossip-news/sweet-sweetback/amare-stoudemire-baby-mama-alexis/tel’s Boom Boom Room in May.

Interesting…But you know how it goes, the baby mama will always be in the picture.

Is it me or does Alexis look like Keri Hilson?

Amar’e was also linked to everyone’s favorite groupie Amber Rose.

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Over the weekend the 39-year-old funnyman was reportedly arrested following a run-in with a tractor driver.

According to TMZ, law enforcement officials stated that a man, who was doing landscaping on the Palmdale, California home where Williams

was staying, suffered facial injuries stemming from an attack in which three women approached his tractor and began throwing rocks at him

on Saturday afternoon.196
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The unidentified man then proceeded to call his wife, who attempted to pick her husband up from the California residence, before Williams

pulled up in an SUV which blocked the couples exit. The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department arrived on the scene shortly after and arrested

the three women for assault with a deadly weapon and Williams with intimidating a witness. His bail was set at $50,000 and he was released

later that night.

Upon his release, the ‘Friday After Next’ star took to his Twitter account to share his thoughts on people who find themselves caught up in

the law. “If you admit to crimes on social networks or post evidence #youdumbashell,” he wrote.

Although Williams may have tried to make light of Saturday’s incident, his growing rap sheet is no laughing matter.

In November 2009, Williams made headlines for an alleged burglary in which he was accused of taking nearly $4,000 worth of jewelry and

collectible coins from a suburban Atlanta home. Just a few days after that, a 17-year-old claimed Williams held him and “threatened” to

beat him up if he left a Newman, Ga. estate where Williams was staying at the time.

That same month The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the comedian was kicked out of his rented penthouse suite in Atlanta’s Four

Seasons hotel, due to employees complaining that he was causing a disturbance among other guests.

“I haven’t been here 72 hours and I’m being kicked out of the Four Seasons even though I paid up front and in cash,” he said at the time

during a press conference. “I don’t understand. I’m at the point now where I’m standing out here with millions of dollars in movies and TV

specials sold, and most of them done right here in Atlanta. And to be ceremoniously dismissed at a hotel is sad.”

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See I really hate to cry racism in a situation like this, because I truly DO NOT think a hispanic woman who choses to adopt a black child would have any level of racist tendencies, especially towards a baby. So explain to me how you can easily raise 5 latin children , but cannot handle a tiny black baby ? Was she not prepared for the cultural shock of raising a black child in a hispanic family? Maybe she isn’t strong enough to handle the stares and the double takes she may be getting from her community.. Or maybe she just realized she was in over her head..either way, I am very disgusted by her openly adding blame to the BABY for her issue with it!

What makes me even angrier is that there are many women (white of course) who “admire” her honesty and don’t think she is wrong to do this..I wonder if they would feel the same way if the baby was white, and after 18 months she gave the baby back and blamed it for not bonding with her. I think this is very suspect and maybe she just wanted to be like Angelina Jolie too much and figured out you can’t fake love for a black child. I can tell you Angelina loves her kids, you can see it on her face , but this woman is weak, and that child is better off without her sorry butt. Read the story and watch the video ….

The “Today” show on NBC did a shocking segment on Anita Tedaldi, “a woman who adopted a child and then gave him up 18 months later.” Tedaldi is a writer who originally told this story on The New York Times’ Motherlode blog.

She and her husband have five biological children and decided that they wanted more. After going through the approval process, she was able to adopt a baby who was found by the side of a road. Despite her pre-adoption belief that she would “be able to parent this little boy the same way I had done with my biological daughters,” she terminated the adoption after 18 months.

Because she couldn’t bond with him, she said.

Asked by Matt Lauer what this means, Tedaldi was somewhat vague and did manage to blame the baby. “It went both ways,” she said in the interview. “The child, D., wasn’t connecting with us.”

What on earth is she talking about? Without giving us particulars, we’re left to wonder what went on in that house for a year-and-a-half? Was Baby D. not a hugger? Did he not smile? What does it mean exactly that an infant is not bonding with his mother?

Lauer really missed the boat by not pressing this question. And Tedaldi, but averting a direct explanation, only adds to the frustration and creates more questions.

Writing about the story, “Today” correspondent Natalie Morales thinks that we shouldn’t be too quick to judge the woman. Many commenters on the “Today” show Web site agree.

But what no one is saying is that ultimately this story is about the one thing that it shouldn’t be about — Anita Tedaldi. One of the not-discussed-enough aspects of the mommy blogosphere is how often it becomes All About Mom. This story is a classic case of that.

Not only did Tedaldi give back a baby she had decided to adopt, she actually says that the baby shares some of the responsibility for this lack of bonding. Is it possible that it’s just damn hard to raise a baby when you already have a house full of children? And that Tedaldi didn’t realize this until the child arrived?

Explain it to us, lady. What happened?

Ironically, Tedaldi used to feel the same way we did, and wrote a column for Military.com called “We Can’t Trade In Our Children or Husbands” back in January 2008. (Military.com has pulled the piece, but the Adoption Talk blog has some of the text.) Now that she has had this experience, she feels differently

Hey, no harm no foul, right?

But there is harm. There is a baby involved here.

In the original Times blog, Tedaldi wrote that she “wasn’t connecting with [the baby] on the visceral level I experienced with my biological daughters.”

Perhaps that was part of the problem? She wanted to duplicate her parenting experience with her older kids frame-for-frame. We have no way of knowing unless we hear details.

Many are praising this mom for her honesty. We can’t help but wonder how much of the story she decided not to share with the world.

What do you think?

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