Taking yet another page from the Barry Bonds book of self-defense, Roger Clemens has introduced the equivalent of flaxseed oil, albeit with a bit more savvy than Bonds. Bonds claims he used something he thought was flaxseed oil, which turned out to be a steroid. So he's an addmitted user with "ignorance" as his defense. On the CBS show "60 Minutes," Clemens now says he was injected by his trainer, Brian McNamee, but it was with allowable substances, Lidocaine and Vitamin B 12 .
Clemens' defense is that his injections were of allowable substances and not performance enhancing drugs (PEDS). He has the further advantage, presumably, of no physical records or other hard evidence of PED use such as were available on Bonds through his BALCO association. But who knows what the future will reveal in this increasingly bizarre saga.
In a former career, I sold pharmaceuticals, including lidocaine. As a strength coach, I've spent many years in gyms, and I've known a lot of guys who have used all manner of PEDS. With this as background, a few questions come to mind:
1) Why is Clemens willing to talk on national TV to Mike Wallace, but not in private to George Mitchell?
2) I'm guessing Clemens' lawyers vetted the questions Wallace would ask before agreeing to the interview. Even the final video that CBS showed may have been edited. With this in mind, it's too bad that Wallace didn't explore this whole "injection" issue more. Steroids are typically injected in the buttocks area, intra-muscularly (IM). Lidocaine is usually applied topically or by sub-cutaneous (sub-q) injection, as dentists use it, for example.
The only use by an athlete for pain that I'm aware of would be by intra-articular injection (IA), or within the joint. This is a very different type of injection, more technique-sensitive and potentially dangerous, something that a skilled physician would perform - not a trainer.
3) McNamee has a Masters degree in Sports Science. Clemens' educational background is in, what? Just a guess here, but I'm willing to bet that McNamee knows more about drugs than Clemens. The fact that MLB players commonly use the term "B 12 shots" as a euphemism for steroids isn't particularly helpful to Clemens either.
And now we find that Clemens is finally suing McNamee for libel, after McNamee threatened to do the same. Clemens' attorneys are claiming that "McNamee made the allegations with actual malice, knowing they were false."
So who benefits from any of this? One name or the other may be cleared, but not both. I'm not a legal expert, but does this lawsuit prevent Clemens from saying anything substantive in front of Congress, should he decide to appear before them - the old, "I'm sorry, but I can't comment on that because of ongoing litigation I'm involved with?"
And now that the legal process is officially engaged, Clemens had better tread carefully. Bonds is in trouble not for his PED use, but lying about it. Interesting, isn't it, that law enforcement may end up doing more to rid MLB of PED use than MLB itself?
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