MARK MCGWIRE COMES "CLEAN" AND ADMITS STEROID AND HGH USE

Steroid abuser Mark McGwire finally admitted today to the AP he used steroids for several years while playing professional baseball. In other related news the sky is blue and snow is white. Here is his official statement:

"Now that I have become the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, I have the chance to do something that I wish I was able to do five years ago.

I never knew when, but I always knew this day would come. It's time for me to talk about the past and to confirm what people have suspected. I used steroids during my playing career and I apologize. I remember trying steroids very briefly in the 1989/1990 off season and then after I was injured in 1993, I used steroids again. I used them on occasion throughout the '90s, including during the 1998 season.

I wish I had never touched steroids. It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era.

During the mid-'90s, I went on the DL seven times and missed 228 games over five years. I experienced a lot of injuries, including a ribcage strain, a torn left heel muscle, a stress fracture of the left heel, and a torn right heel muscle. It was definitely a miserable bunch of years and I told myself that steroids could help me recover faster. I thought they would help me heal and prevent injuries, too.

I'm sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids. I had good years when I didn't take any and I had bad years when I didn't take any. I had good years when I took steroids and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn't have done it and for that I'm truly sorry.

Baseball is really different now -- it's been cleaned up. The commissioner and the players' association implemented testing and they cracked down, and I'm glad they did.

I'm grateful to the Cardinals for bringing me back to baseball. I want to say thank you to Cardinals owner Mr. DeWitt, to my GM, John Mozeliak, and to my manager, Tony La Russa. I can't wait to put the uniform on again and to be back on the field in front of the great fans in Saint Louis. I've always appreciated their support and I intend to earn it again, this time as hitting coach. I'm going to pour myself into this job and do everything I can to help the Cardinals hitters become the best players for years to come.

After all this time, I want to come clean. I was not in a position to do that five years ago in my congressional testimony, but now I feel an obligation to discuss this and to answer questions about it. I'll do that, and then I just want to help my team."

In other words Mark McGwire is pulling the old Pete Rose and finally admitting he did something wrong in order to be back in the good graces of Bud Selig and baseball. Good for him. He still will never get in the Hall of Fame but at least now he can move on and not live in the shadows of denial. I was a big McGwire fan when I was little and even went out to Oakland in 1989 to see him play. He lived up to his home run hype by slugging one off the Budweiser sign in left field that day. It just sucks to look back at it and realize he was cheating baseball and himself to accomplish pretty much everything he did in baseball. Tainted it to say the least.

RAVENS FANS DO IT DOGGYSTYLE

This Baltimore Ravens fan lost a bet in which he promised to run through an electric fence for his labrador if the Patriots lost the game. I guess he figured Tom Brady's 23-0 record at home would hold up in Gillette Stadium. Deadspin has the video of the now famous face of a Baltimore Ravens football fanatic gone wild. Take a look.



Hopefully this week he bets to put it on his nutsack if they beat the Colts. They need the mojo.

USC TROJANS EMPIRE OFFICIALLY CRUMBLING

If you are a fan of any other team beside the USC Trojans you had to be reveling in the fact that before your eyes the once mighty Trojans football infrastructure is crumbling faster than Pete Carroll left town in the middle of the night to go "Winless in Seattle." After an uncharasistic 4 loss season in Southern Cal after 8 years of dominance in the PAC 10 with the program on the verge of NCAA sanctions because of the Reggie Bush and Joe McKnight scandals it appears ole Pete the Cheat (HT: George Lee) is getting his ass back to the NFL as quickly as possible.

If you follow this blog you probably should know I'm not the biggest USC and/or Pete Carroll fan in the world. In fact I loathe them so if you are looking for a fair and balanced view on them you have to come to the wrong place. Hell we invented the FUSC shirt. With that being said it was just a matter of time before USC fucked things up. College football is cyclical in terms of dominance. People tend to forget that USC, before Pete Carroll arrived with his shit eating grin, were a consistent 6-8 wins a season max team for 15 plus seasons. They were in essence the Notre Dame of today. A once proud program who should dominate but made mistake after mistake in terms of head coaching decisions. Pete the Cheat brought back the Fight On (or Cheat On) mentality to the Trojan World and completely wiped up recruiting west of the Mississippi. Simply the law of college football averages is catching up with USC.

Already the five star recruits such as Kyle Prater and Dillon Baxter have decommitted from USC and now appear to be heading elsewhere. Backup QB Aaron Corp transfered to Richmond. Everson Griffin, McKnight, and Damian Williams are all leaving early for the NFL not to mention Taylor Mays is graduating. The once mighty ship of USC is sinking fast. And if you are wondering how USC players and recruits are finding out about ole Pete the Cheat's departure well then you should check your text messages. Yes, Petey didn't have the dignity to tell them face-to-face or even by phone call that he was leaving. He sent them a fucking text message. Cold man.

So now that USC dominance is coming to an end it joins Miami and FSU as programs on the decline while Alabama, Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma remain the upper echelon of college football powers. USC will now be scrambling to get a head coach and it won't be Mike Riley who signed an extension with Oregon State and it won't be Lane Kiffin who is building something special in Knoxville. They could go after alums Jeff Fischer or Jake Del Rio but they would have to leave high paying NFL head coaching jobs to go back to college. Not likely. Jim Harbaugh would be a good fit and I honestly hope he doesn't go because I think he is one of the better college coaches in the game. Notre Dame snagged up Brian Kelly and Steve Sarkisian looks pretty comfortable in Washington at this moment.

I've heard Paul Hackett is available. Just throwing it out there.

USC FOOTBALL 2010: