Hubris and Bad Lawyering - An Irresistible Combination

A couple of weeks back I noted that baseball star Roger Clemens seemed hell bent on embarking down a disastrous path in response to the allegations that he had used steroids.   And I gave him some free and oh so cogent legal advice -- "shut the fuck up."  Forget the defamation suits and the angry denials and, above all, take the Fifth Amendment and don't think about testifying before Congress.

But did the Rocket listen -- oh no he di'int.  This week he up to Capitol Hill and evidently spoke with investigators for hours, denying the allegations that he used performance enhancing drugs.  Now it appears that his accuser and former strength coach may have already provided physical evidence of the steroid use by Clemens to the FBI in the form of used syringes with the pitcher's blood still on them.  And still Clemens is planning on testifying to Congress, a prospect to which his lawyers says he is looking forward.  Roger -- more advice -- think about a new lawyer.  Oh, and STFU.  Really.  It's a lot worse going to jail than not getting into the Hall of Fame.    

Comments

[rageahol]

caring about organized sports is stupid.
caring about baseball, doubly so.

how do i form my rss feed link so that it excludes your natterings about irrelevant bullshit like baseball/football/lacrosse/cycling/field hockey/curling?

[Lisa Simeone]

Ah, yes. More national hand-wringing and head-flailing about whether our sports "heroes" use drugs to make them run faster and jump higher. Maybe someday somebody will actually care that our beloved heroes also commit a disproportonate number of violent crimes against women. Routinely.

Yeah, that'll be the day.

[litbrit]

rageahol, this is a group blog with nine authors, and we write about a wide range of subjects, not all of which are going to appeal to every single reader. Kind of like a magazine or newspaper. Presumably your parents showed you how to turn pages while they were teaching you how to insult people who give you things for free?

[Sir Charles]

rageahol,

I like to touch on things from time to time that aren't polititical -- be it music, sports, movies -- because as Michelle Malkin so sagely reminds us, life is about more than just politics.

This particular topic is actually at the nexus of sport, politics, entertainment, and law and so struck me as being of some interest to the Cogblog community.

Seriously, you can skip over it if you it doesn't interest you.

[DivGuy]

While I think Sir Charles' point that Clemens oughta shut up is well taken, and I tend to assume Clemens did use steroids, this whole thing stinks to high heaven.

McNamee said he told Mitchell everything. He did not tell Mitchell about the syringes. He kept the syringes for seven years, but we're supposed to trust him that they have remained untouched since the day of use?

Mildly apropos of Lisa's point, McNamee's also a scumball rapist.

There are no winners here.

[bystander]

I firmly believe that we will never rid ourselves of the relationship between sports, particularly professional sports, and performance enhancing drugs. Never. The best we will ever do is to chase the biotechnology, trailing years behind what biochemists can produce. There is simply too much money, too much ego, and too many competitive instincts at stake. The entire incentive structure is pro-drugs.

Given those realities, I'm to the point where I'm ready to say the performer owns the body they're in. It's up to them to choose. If the experience of the Olympic East German women circa 1960's isn't enough to dissuade these folks, then I suspect nothing is.

[Joe Klein's conscience]

Rusty Hardin(The Rocket's lawyer) is a pretty well known name(and probably gets paid a ton of money as well). You have to think he knows what he is doing.

[Joe Klein's conscience]

DivGuy:
You make a great point there at the end. I also wonder what kind of medical waste McNamee has been keeping around the house for 7 years(those used needles and stuff he says he has).

[Sir Charles]

Joe Klein's conscience,

You would think these high fee guys would be worth it -- but in my experience it is often not the case. I can't say for sure here what is the result of Clemens not being a client you can control -- it happens. But I sure wouldn't let him do what he is doing.

I am not suggesting, by the way, that McNamee is a good guy or even necessarily believable, but I would be very leery about having my client deny these allegations under oath if there is any chance they are true. Ask Marion Jones about that.

[Adrock]

Who keeps used syringes around for 7 years if they don't intend to use them for nefarious purpose? Clemens may have done 'roids, but this whole story is just so ridiculous. What a lesson in human behavior. Trust no one, Mulder.

[Sir Charles]

The truth is out there -- possibly in the form of used syringes.