If the Rams are to add a veteran to their receiver corps, it won't be Terrell Owens. League sources told the Post-Dispatch on Monday afternoon that the team had decided against trying to sign the controversial Owens.

The Rams did discuss Owens in recent days, including Monday, when the coaching staff reconvened for the first time after a brief summer vacation. But their interest in Owens never was as great as portrayed in some media reports.

The Rams Park meeting Monday was to discuss a variety of personnel and team issues with training camp fast approaching, not just Owens. And despite speculation that the Rams were trying to bring in Owens for a visit, one source familiar with the situation said that was not the case.

So the player known as T.O. must look elsewhere for employment, and at the moment his only possible destination appears to be Cincinnati.

On Monday at the Bengals' annual training camp media luncheon, owner Mike Brown said the team has discussed a contract with Owens and agent Drew Rosenhaus.

"It's up to him," Brown told Bengals reporters. "We are talking to him. We have some interest."

So do Cincinnati wide receiver Chad Ochocinco and quarterback Carson Palmer, who have been lobbying the team to sign Owens. Palmer worked out with Owens in California over the summer.

"Carson was really impressed with a lot of the things that Terrell was doing," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. "Carson's comments to me — I guess the word is they resonate well."

As for the brief flirtation between the Rams and Owens, it never got very far. It amounted more to "just kicking the tires," as one source put it. It never even made it as far as a test drive.

Owens as a Ram didn't make sense on a number of levels. For one, at age 36 — he turns 37 in December — Owens probably has a year or two left at best as an NFL player. He doesn't fit the profile of the young ascending players that the Rams are trying to assemble as the foundation of coach Steve Spagnuolo's program.

He also has a well-established history of being a disruptive force in the locker room, even if he did behave himself last season with Buffalo. The last thing the Rams need with a rookie quarterback as their No. 1 overall draft pick — Sam Bradford — is turmoil on the field or in the locker room from a disgruntled player.

Even if Owens has matured, it's a chance the Rams ultimately might have been unwilling to take.

(The Associated Press provided some information for this story.)