Now you mentioned that you're not down with cheating and
let's just start. Yeah, right. Because look,
I know, I don't think they've ever caught many cheaters. Oh,
of course not.
Yeah, they've never caught many cheaters. Oh, and we've taught
we talked about this before.
No one who ever test positive for a PPD with the exception of
Julian Edelman, whose response was I don't know what to say.
At least he didn't say.
Well, you know, I was getting ideality and real and I don't
know what I took, right? And all it ever was,
right. Yeah. There's there's always something other than
For example,
I had a knee injury
that didn't want to heal,
I needed to get myself healed. So I use some stuff
that would allow my body to heal. Ya getting older. Yeah,
and these young receivers are coming into the league every
single season. They're getting faster. They're getting better.
And at some point my team may say this guy's
Longer worth what? We're paying them. So they're going to pay
me less or going to get rid of me altogether. So I got to do
whatever I have to do to get myself healthy. So, you know,
did I use something? I shouldn't have?
Yes, I did. But I made that calculation and I got caught.
Okay. Okay, you never hear that.
I never hear that. And yeah, never happened. It never happens.
They've got this whole program aimed at catching guys who are
doing that and they never catch anyone who's doing that. Well,
I and to me, like, that's where I said, there's different
levels. A little bit. I do have a little bit of forgiveness in
my
heart, if that's the way it is there, but just come out and
say it, that's where I don't like this. This game of sure,
you know, bull crap and everything and I don't know
where I got this. I've been obsessed with my whole body, my
whole life and now, some foreign substance just somehow
got in there, like, bullcrap
bullcrap. I would totally take
injury year, like, you talked about last year, what it was
the hamstring first and then it became the knee right to go.
You know, I was trying to expedite the healing process
and I took some things to try to do that.
Okay. I have a place in my heart to where I can get around
that, right Ben and but I want to see that. I want to know
that I want you to admit that, you know, I'd like
tangible evidence of that because my mind goes other
places when I don't know, I start to go. Damn has DeAndre
Hopkins been doing this for a few years.
Has he been doing it for most of his career
has? He always been cheating?
I don't know. Has he just this the first time? He's got caught
because you know again, that's
so I don't know and that's
Where I wish there was a little more transparency in
the process and we didn't have to deal with this kind of issue
all the time
and the way that it all unfolded yesterday.
The announcement was made and I don't know whether or not
reports emerged before, the announcement was made. I never
liked that when it happens because I supposed to be
confidential. I don't like it when it gets late before
the announcements made,
but he did have an appeal and there are real appeal rights.
Now. He dropped his appeal. He's taking the six game
suspension and we were left to wonder for a while. What?
Really going on. Now, at some point. He had a brand manager
because he's
self-represented. Yes. I saw, he had a brand manager,
text a long statement to Chef T, who
posted it. And
It basically conveys, the gist of what we're talking about.
Completely shocked, very careful about what he puts in
his body. October. And December tests were negative. We're
investigating how the November test came back positive.
He's committed to demonstrating. He did not
knowingly, take a banned substance. He's never once
tested positive throughout his career. Now listen, hang on
Pete. I know Pete, let me get to it Pete. I'm getting there,
Pete.
I think what happened was.
The brand manager decides. I'll try to put this fire out
without the Andre having to put his name on it personally and
we don't we don't like as a brand manager. My my expert
assessment client is that I didn't manage your brand very
well. Maybe you
should try this. It didn't it. Didn't go over real. Well for me,
maybe you should try it. So
Hopkins, issues basically the same damn thing
an hour or two later,
which is just weird.
It's just with everything about this is weird, but it's always
Weird because no one ever stands up and says I tried to
cheat the system and I got caught
and and this idea that and don't tell me you never once
tested positive throughout your, we would know if you did
cause you would have been suspended before,
right? I went my whole life and I never killed anybody except
the month that I did. I mean, I don't think I've ever tested
positive before. I don't care. You're expected to know, has
paws on. If you do you get suspended, right?
Yeah. I never robbed a bank before this month.
That's not a defense to robbing a bank.
Absolutely. No, here's what happens. Yeah, and there's
there's DeAndre Hopkins statement. Same thing in my
10-year career. I've never tested positive. Well, you
can't say never you did once
to learn that. My November test came back with Trace elements
of a banned substance. I was confused and shocked very
mindful. What? I put my body yada yada, yada. It's all
the same. It's all the same. And look you got if you're
that mindful of what you're putting your body, you know,
you do Chris, you only use supplements that have been
pre-approved by the NFL the NFL PA and you don't go off label.
Go off brand, you don't use anything other
than what's on that list because that stuff, you never hear.
You never hear. Someone say, you know what? I only used
the nflpa and NFL approved supplements in this happening,
but you never hear that, you know, why? Because they tweaked
the rules, at some point in the past decade, where
if somebody lies about the circumstances of their
positive, the league can say no, that guy, everything that
guy just said is bullcrap, right? Thank you, right? So you
gotta be very Be careful. So this is the one Safe Harbor.
You still have
your not saying I didn't. It didn't show up in my test.
You're not lying about the outcome.
You're lying about if you're lying. Yeah.
Again, it's how does this happen? Tell them the truth and
they never catch it. They've no, it's possible that he and
everyone else that has tried. This is telling the truth and
they've never caught a deliberate cheater, except for,
Julian Edelman. Who said, I don't know what to say,
but the fact that and I think we've talked about this before,
the fact that there's strict liability allows this.
Goose.
Because anything in your body no matter how it gets, there.
You test positive, you're suspended. So when you test
positive you can say, I don't know how it got there. Yeah,
right. I don't know right strict liability.
Yeah. I don't know. Maybe they sprinkled it on my salad when
I went out to eat the other night. I don't know how it got
there,
right? I mean, but that's just that's the bull crap. That's
hard to believe. And I mean, I like DeAndre Hopkins. I've
spent time with them. I mean, he's cool. He seems like
the realest dude. There is
that mean? Yes, but I have a hard time buying
This one I do. I mean yes, and then, you know, also Trace
elements, you know, things like that 02. Like,
you know, say oh with small amounts. All right,
then do a drop the appeal. Obviously, he knew there was no
way to finagle it down to a 4. It was obviously like a
very guilty or right. Or are they just felt like there's no
point in dragging this through her blood. That's a, six-week
period, right? Got into, it's a more independent.
Appeal process than it used to be. But but he knew he wasn't
going to beat it. And and this this defense is not a defense.
If you go in and say, yeah, I tested positive but I don't
know what happened. They're going to bang the gavel
and say, six games. That's not a defense. No, it's not
a defense. It's not. And and again, you know, I I just wish,
you know, come out say it. That's where I want to. I want
to know again was an in-between. Okay, wait, you
know, he
had the game. I can't remember the specific game, where he, he
went up to catch the pass right in the End Zone, somebody
landed on his knee. That's where he hurt his knee. Was it
within those next week?
Were you doing something to heal a ligament hoping? Okay.
Maybe I can get back for the playoffs and help my football
team,
you know, I can get into that like but you gotta show me
the tangible evidence and proof of that's what it was like and
that's where you went from it. You know, other than that,
yeah, it's dicey. I don't believe that wide receivers are
pretty obsessive about their bodies.
There's no way. Say that just some element or something like
that, just got into the bloodstream or whatever without
you knowing I have a hard time buying that I do.
So that's where it's tough. And then you know, you talked about
like some of the public stuff and how it's all set up and
they can't, you know, deny that they didn't test positive.
This is where I wish the league would change this. I wish
the nflpa would get behind this too. I wish they would make all
this stuff public. If they made it public to me, that would be
the number one defense to stop people from doing it.
Because then the entire
Our assessment, the public embarrassment is, what's going
to stop players more than anything. Oh no. Oh no. It's
going to be out there. What I did and now, everyone's going
to think I'm a fraud and,
you know, everyone's going to question everything I did in my
career. And that's what I don't like about this either. And of
course, you've said it, they just players can hide behind
this, you know, these certain phrases all the time to act
like they didn't do it.
But let's drill down on this a little bit, because if the NFL
and the nflpa were to disclose today. Yeah. What he tested
positive for and by what amounts
he would still say, I don't know how it happened.
He can still say,
I guess you're whatever it is, right? I don't know how it
happened. Right? I don't know what happened. It's crazy
amounts. I mean, you know, people are going to go home.
Yeah. Okay. You don't know how that happened. Right? It's
whoa.
It's egregious lie above the level
really. You don't know how that happened,
you know. I mean then you're going to just look like
a blatant liar, but you're right, you still be able to say that.
Now
I'd have to research the policy, which is a fancy way of
saying, I don't know the answer
as to whether or not if you misrepresent the
concentration of the substance, right? That that opens the door
for the league to say. It really wasn't Trace elements.
It really wasn't Trace. I was there was enough there to tell
us
this wasn't something that got
Accidentally mixed in with whatever he bought down at
the GNC that this is something he was taking, you. Don't get
these numbers if the guy's not really taking its. So
I don't know that he's stepped in it by saying, Trace
elements, but maybe it is Trace elements. And again, it doesn't
matter. Because Trace elements are still a positive test, not
knowing how it got in. Your system
is still a positive test. Those are the rules.
So, whatever you're doing to be obsessive about your body.
You're not being obsessive enough, because something
happened to cause you to break the rules, but again,
Your existence of that rule
allows you to say when it happens.
I don't know what happened.
I'm very careful about what I put in my body. I don't know
what happened. I intend to get to the bottom of this. As soon
as I have more information.
I will share. You know what, I can guarantee you right now.
I can't guarantee many things in life, death taxes, and we're
never going to hear anything about this. Again.
I guarantee you he's not going to get to the bottom of it.
He's not gonna Sue anybody over, you know here that every
once in a while. I think what shawne Merriman.
But one point, I'm gonna sue somebody and get to bomb. Going
to sue the supplementing fracture. Maybe did, I don't
know. Maybe somebody actually went through. I don't think
anybody's ever
gotten
to the point where they've gone through with something like
that. Pushing the ruse that far if it is a ruse, again, I don't
know. I feel bad for the one guy who's telling the truth.
I feel bad for the one guy
who can say
Honestly
in a way that would pass a lie-detector test in a way that
would come out if you give him sodium pentathol,
I really don't know what happened
because they all say I don't know what happened. We've never
caught a cheater.