Imagine the shock ESPN.com Page 2 contributor Sam Alipour had when he saw a car racing towards him following an ESPYS after-party Thursday night. Perhaps more shocking than being blasted by a car was who was there to help him until the paramedics came: Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens.
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.”
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.)
“So, T.O. was nice, huh?” says the medic who took my blood pressure inside the ambulance. “Boy, you think you know somebody, but the media doesn’t tell you the whole story. You never know how they really are.”
Guilty as charged.
When the medics were done with the paperwork (note: patient has lacerations, bruised knee, stained shorts, etc.) I headed back to the street to deal with the police, meet the driver and thank my hero … but T.O. was gone. He didn’t care to wait for the cameras, the spotlight, the attention. Didn’t need to hear my thanks. He simply vanished into the dark night, alone (well, with his bodyguard, also a nice man) like a samurai, his work complete.
We hammer the guy for being an ass, so it’s only fair to commend him when he does a great thing. We’d like to think that any honorable human being would do the same thing T.O. did, but how many people would gaze astonishingly at what happened and allow someone else to extend a hand? Well done, T.O.
