Owens on Owens

After 14 years of being misunderstood by teammates, fans and the general public, Terrell Owens sits down and opens up to the one person who knows him best—himself.

By: Laurence Bass

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Anxious production assistants line the corridor leading to the green rooms of the Wendy Williams Show. Every five minutes, one is told by a producer to ensure that the scheduled guests are prepared for their ten-minute interview with the nationally syndicated, self-proclaimed “Queen of All Media”. Mike Epps has transformed his green room into a Tuesday morning stand-up routine equipped with the heightened laughter from his entourage. Tenadra Howard runs her cue-carded introduction for Wendy and rehearses the blood-curdling scream that made her one of the mutilated victims in the demented thriller SAW VI. Amidst this juxtaposition of comedy and carnage, a producer quietly interrogates one of the assistants in front of the door of the last green room.

The conversation has nothing to do with the cornucopia of tropical fruit on the coffee table, the gift bag teeming with high-end novelties or the accompanying handwritten thank you note from Williams. It has everything to do with who is not in the room enjoying these spoils. The dialogue becomes louder and then takes a dramatic pause when the television in that very room shows that the Wendy Williams Show is being recorded in front of a live studio audience. Finally, after muttering some choice words to herself and her watch, the producer verbalizes what everyone backstage is wondering—“Where’s T.O.?”

The highly anticipated arrival of Terrell Owens occurs just as Williams divulges her opinion of Lady Gaga’s “artistic genius” and Susan Boyle’s need for moisturizer. Though he is nearly 45 minutes late, due to Manhattan morning traffic, Owens casually waltzes through the air of tension looming backstage. There is no sign of his bodyguard Pablo guiding Owens through a sea of fans or his publicists Monique and Kita inspecting and deflecting every pair of mascara-brushed eyelashes batted at their client. He is alone. Carrying only his Blackberry and donning that multi-million dollar smile. He has time for a quick preview of questions from the producers followed by a very comedic greeting from the neighboring Epps.