Teams can't deal with players' psychological issues

	Terrell Owens has had problems ever since he entered the NFL. US Presswire
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The NFL never has had much luck in dealing with players with psychological or, to make it stronger, with psychiatric problems. Then again, the NFL is not in the medical health business. It's in the image business, and when, say, a Barret Robbins or a Dimitrius Underwood or an Alonzo Spellman ... or in this case, a Terrell Owens ... comes along, the league is fairly helpless.

We're still gathering facts about T.O.'s latest. A genuine suicide attempt, a call for help, a complete misunderstanding? Owens denies trying to kill himself, but who knows what really happened? One thing is clear and has been for quite a while: There are major psychiatric issues with this man, and no one quite knows how to deal with them.

I wrote this last year, when T.O. was stirring things up with the Eagles, concerning his contract. A team official told me the whole matter could have been worked out quietly if T.O. hadn't raised such a fuss about it. "If he would have come in quietly, without all this commotion, we could have come to an agreement. We were prepared to. We didn't feel his demand was unreasonable, given the way he came back from his injury last year and the great Super Bowl he had. But when a guy puts a gun to your head, you're only creating more problems if you cave in."

But that wasn't, and isn't, T.O.'s way. Status quo drives him wild. It's as if he can't stand peace and stability. He has to be doing something to create a stir, make waves, get people fired up -- arranging stunts to capture the attention of the press one moment, shutting them down and telling them, "I'm not talking," the next. He is driven. His mood swings are extreme.

Call it a form of bipolar disorder, borderline schizophrenia, whatever. I'm not a psychiatrist, so I can't put a name to it. But I've had a longtime relationship with psychiatric problems because of a close relative who has had them, and I've seen quite a few people like T.O.

It's tough to feel sorry for him, though, because he has a mean streak to go with everything else. He didn't attack Donovan McNabb or offensive coach Brad Childress until they were at their lowest ebb, at their most vulnerable. Same thing with his quarterback in San Francisco, Jeff Garcia. But that doesn't mean he's not suffering from something that never really gets addressed.

Spellman and Underwood were both first-round draft choices and defensive linemen. Both were diagnosed with major psychiatric disorders. Underwood didn't stay on his prescribed medication for any decent period. He never played in a regular-season game. Spellman, who was more careful about taking his meds, had a decent career but never lasted in football past his 20s.

Robbins, a Raiders center, was scheduled to start in Super Bowl XXXVIII against the Buccaneers, but on Friday night before the game he flipped out and never set foot on a field again. He was diagnosed as bipolar, compounded with alcohol problems. He admitted that he had major troubles when he went off his meds. He has been in and out of trouble with the law ever since.