You have to hand it to Roger Clemens, he is doing an excellent job of controlling his message in order to protect his image. First was the statement he issued through his agent denying the allegations made by Brian MacNamee - Clemens' personal trainer - in the Mitchell Report. Clemens' first statement was issued only hours after the release of the Mitchell Report on Thursday, December 13th.
Carefully read Clemens' statement:
"I want to state clearly and without qualification: I did not take steroids, human growth hormone or any other banned substances at any time in my baseball career or, in fact, my entire life," Clemens said Tuesday in a statement issued through his agent, Randy Hendricks. "Those substances represent a dangerous and destructive shortcut that no athlete should ever take.
"I am disappointed that my 25 years in public life have apparently not earned me the benefit of the doubt, but I understand that Senator Mitchell's report has raised many serious questions. I plan to publicly answer all of those questions at the appropriate time in the appropriate way. I only ask that in the meantime people not rush to judgment."
Ten days later, on December 23rd, Clemens posted a video on YouTube in which Clemens said:
Let me be clear, the answer is no, I did not use steroids, human growth hormone and I've never done so.
I did not provide Brian MacNamee with any drugs to inject into my body. Brian MacNamee did not inject steroids or human growth hormone into my boy either when I played in Toronto for the Blue Jays or the New York Yankees.
This report is simply not true.
Here is Clemens' YouTube video:
Each of these statements, as we are learning, we carefully crafted by Clemens' lawyers (more on that in a minute).
Now, we are learning that in fact Brian MacNamee DID inject drugs into Clemens' body. According to this report, we are learning that Clemens did have MacNamee inject his body with drugs - B-12 and Lidocaine.
Significantly, this report also explains why Clemens' response to the Mitchell Report has been proffered in such a piecemeal fashion: Clemens' lawyers are writing the script for Clemens, which means the public has to be aware that every word out of Clemens' mouth has been carefully chosen by Clemens' lawyers.
As a lawyer myself, I have learned that lawyers will craft responses in order to provide as much wiggle room as possible for their clients. But why has Clemens' team seemingly backtracked from Clemens' original and unequivocal denial first issued only hours after the release of the Mitchell Report?
Again, consider the first sentence of the statement release by Clemens' handlers on December 13th:
I want to state clearly and without qualification: I did not take steroids, human growth hormone or any other banned substances at any time in my baseball career or, in fact, my entire life
That is a pretty clear denial by Clemens that he never used steroids or human growth hormone. So why doesn't Clemens continue to say the same thing every time he is asked a question about whether he has used steroids or HGH?
If anything, Clemens' subsequent statements actually backtrack from his original statement issued on December 13th. Consider the statement from his YouTube video:
I did not provide Brian MacNamee with any drugs to inject into my body.
But based upon his interview with 60 Minutes, we know that MacNamee did inject Clemens with drugs. The beauty of the Clemens' statement is the wiggle room his lawyers put into the statement: I did not provide.....
OK, so Clemens didn't provide MacNamee with the drugs that Clemens was injected with, but it is clear now (again, from the excerpts of the transcript from 60 Minutes) that MacNamee did inject Clemens with something. The question is: what was in the syringes that MacNamee stuck into Roger's butt?
We may never know. It may end up being MacNamee's word versus Roger's. However, almost from day one Clemens and his team have been working very hard to get their stories straight and provide Clemens with enough wiggle room to be able to say "I've never used 'roids or HGH" without actually saying it. Some would say the Clemens team is working too hard....
Do you think Mike Wallace is going to ask Clemens about the inconsistencies in his prior statements? Me neither.
One last point. Some of you reading this might think that I am hyper-parsing these statements, and therefore you may dismiss my points. That is exactly what Clemens' team wants you to think, that is why they carefully word each statement, so that when someone like myself provides critical analysis, the average reader thinks "Man that is really nit-picky."
I am convinced now, more than ever, that Clemens 'roided up.
Comments