Clemmens McNamee Drama
In theory, the writers’ strike would mean that we’d be without soap operas this year, but (luckily?) the sports world has produced several juicy storylines that should make up for the lack of the episodic dramas we’ve been missing.
Sitting down to write my column this month, I felt like a kid in a candy store--both because I started on Valentines Day and was surrounded by candy--and because there are so many stories right now that are a columnist’s dream.
I ended up landing on two controversies currently being discussed on Capitol Hill. One: the fallout from former senator George Mitchell’s investigation on steroids in sports and the baseball great’s Roger Clemmens/Brian McNamee story that has officially replaced the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan debacle as sports’ greatest soap opera. (In 1994 Harding was behind an successful attack on Kerrigan’s knee) And two: Congress’s investigation into the NFL’s handling of Spygate.
The McNamee/Clemmens saga started last December when the much anticipated “Mitchell Report” about steroids in sports was released. One of the higher-profile athletes mentioned was Clemmens. According to the report, Clemmens had used HGH and anabolic steroids several times. Clemmens has repeatedly denied this. McNamee, who was Clemmens’s personal trainer at the time Clemmens was allegedly juicing, has said that Clemmens has used anabolic steroids and HGH.
The interesting thing here, is that they have given these contradictory views to congress, under oath. I’m not an expert in law, but if Clemmens told the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that “I have not used steroids or growth hormone,” but McNamee has told that same committee that the he has injected Clemmens with anabolic steroids and HGH, somebody is committing perjury.
McNamee has evidence including bloody syringes and cotton balls, that he supposedly kept from the time when Clemmens was allegedly on steroids, from 2001 according to the report. I won’t lie. It’s really, really creepy to think that McNamee kept these syringes lying around all that time. But if they are truly syringes used on Clemmens to inject steroids, then however creepy, they’re still incriminating.
Bottom line, McNamee has evidence--Clemmens has only public opinion and his decreasingly good name to support him, but many, including me question why McNamee kept bloody syringes lying around for seven years.
Still, as more and more evidence begins to surface, it is becoming increasingly obvious to me that Clemmens is guilty.
The tip of the iceberg, was Clemmens’s teammate Andy Pettitte’s confirmation of McNamee’s testimony regarding Pettitte’s alleged steroid use. If McNamee was telling the truth about Pettitte, I’ve got to believe that he’s telling the truth about the Clemmens.
Perhaps the most interesting, and flat out weird, aspect of these hearings though, is that the opinion among Congress members falls largely among party lines. Now, we can expect there to be a partisan response to the war in Iraq, the economy, and other issues that should be discussed on capitol hill, but over a hearing on steroids in baseball? How can this possibly manage to fall among party lines?
And by the way, what in the world does congress think it’s doing investigating the Spygate scandal? It looks as if the government is more concerned about the way the NFL handled the situation than they were with the real Watergate, which is a very bad sign.
I guess I have to admit that I secretly want congress to unearth something that would make the Patriots seem more evil, and I definitely want steroid users to be brought to justice, but I really feel strongly that they should be spending more time on congressional issues than athletics.
The bottom line is that the government has more important things, much more important things, to deal with right now. Sports were created to be a distraction, but not to distract the government!
