Coming off a Bills game that played out like a televised reading of Atlas Shrugged, the national media took to gossiping Terrell Owens. After Buffalo’s 6-3 loss to the Cleveland Browns — in which Owens caught four passes for 44 yards — the T.O. narrative has shifted towards a possible trade scenario.

The LA Times says that Owens-to-Chicago trade talk — which it points out was started on ESPN’s NFL “Insider” rumors page — has overtaken the internet.

However, Mike Florio of NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk says T.O. is not on the chopping block.

The National Post’s Noah Love says that ESPN reporter Adam Schefter first mentioned the trade idea. Love tracked the rumor’s progress:

Schefter’s item appeared in ESPN’s Rumor Central section, where reporters post all kinds of wild theories that never come to fruition. But, given how starved the Bears are for a No. 1 wideout to pair with Jay Cutler’s heroic (if not always accurate) arm, the good people of Chicago are making it known that they support the possibility this hypothetical trade becoming a reality.

At the time this was written, the search term “T.O. to Bears” was No. 12 on Google Trends and climbing.

But not all Chicago fans want Owens. DeCon of the Bears fan blog Bear Goggles On says he puked in his mouth when he heard.

Meanwhile, the Buffalo News wants to make sure that sad Bills fans get a keepsake in case Owens does head west. Pick up a copy of today’s paper for your very own full-page T.O. poster.

In other T.O. news…

• Shed your locks at T.O. Cutz.
• Owens’ recent Twitter tete-a-tete with Rodney Harrison, is just the latest in a new tweet trend.

Other uses T.O. has found for Twitter…

• Showing off the “T.O. Girls.”
• Scripture.

The Associated Press led their game recap with this: “Terrell Owens made three catches Sunday — not great, but not bad considering his team seldom had the ball.”

Tom D’Angelo of the Palm Beach Post began his article about the game by observing: “If body language is the barometer, Terrell Owens isn’t happy.”

And Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald led with: “Terrell Owens, the dynamic receiver who has built a well-deserved reputation for big plays and bigger talk over 14 mercurial seasons, suddenly has gone as quiet behind the microphone as he has on the field.”

Conversely, back home in Buffalo Owens was merely an afterthought.

Rochester’s Democrat and Chronicle never mentioned Owens in its analysis of the Bills poor first month (for which both the players and the coaches are to blame).

Likewise Mike Catalan of Rochester’s News 13 TV station also did not mention Owens, although he did get dramatic with his analysis:

“The Declaration of Independence says ‘All Men are Created Equal’. That is a wonderful document for the United States of America in the real world.  But the NFL isn’t part of the real world. All the men in an NFL franchise are not supposed to be equal. Two men on a team are more important than any other. That would be the head coach and the starting quarterback. That is why the Buffalo Bills are failing now and will continue to fail until there is a major change.”

For the Buffalo News’ Jerry Sullivan, T.O. is best used as an example of what’s wrong with Buffalo’s coaching staff.

“They’ve done the impossible. They’ve even turned Terrell Owens into a dull, pathetic milquetoast. T.O.’s sunglasses could be on fire and he’d tell you nothing was wrong. He’ll keep working hard and if you want to know his opinion on Edwards or Jauron or Brandon, just ask them.”

In Week 4, the tone of T.O.’s coverage can be divided into two categories: that from upstate New York and that from everywhere else.