I'm taking a time out from T.O.'s show

Perhaps it’s a sign of aging and the crankiness that accompanies it, but I opted for retrospectives rather than the so-called new “reality’’ on Tuesday evening.

I chose to watch replays of man landing on the moon 40 years ago instead of the launching of Terrell Owens’ new show on VH-1.

And from what friends, colleagues and total strangers have told me, I made the right television decision.

Yes, I know T.O. has created a buzz among playoff-starved Bills fans, and that’s a good thing. And I was on board with the signing of the receiver with the penchant for self-promotion and catching touchdown passes.

But I really have little interest in watching another self-indulgent athlete profess he is “The Eighth Wonder of the World’’ or that “There’s not much that doesn’t look good on me.’’

And as one of the seven million Americans who lost his job in the past year, I can do without scenes of an athlete spending $137,000 on some diamond-studded earrings. More power to you, Terrell. Go knock yourself out. But those of us struggling to make mortgage and tuition payments don’t need to have it flaunted in our faces.

I’m told that the two beautiful women assigned to keep T.O. on the straight and narrow said they were using the show to rebuild Terrell’s image. Puhlease. This is all about building bank accounts, not images.

Of course, the media and fan frenzy is expected to reach a fever pitch Friday when the Eighth Wonder shows up for the opening of Bills training camp at St. John Fisher College.

Sadly, ESPN, that self-important organization which fancies itself as the be-all and end-all in sports journalism, will be following T.O.’s every move this season, as if, somehow, his decision to put marmalade on his English muffin was somehow as important as Obama’s decisions about health care reform and the war in Afghanistan.

It’s times like these, when I’m happy I’m no longer a full-fledged sportswriter. It’s times like these when I realize how silly our society can be.

New reality?

Let’s be real.