Ryan Braun Must Find Time To Address PED Allegations

If National League MVP Ryan Braun really has a reason for his positive performance enhancing drug test, he needs to come out with it soon. This is not something to wait on. 

TMZ found Braun at LAX. There, he said that he wants to speak but can't, and that his time will come. That was in response to the report from Mark Fainaru-Wada and T.J. Quinn of ESPN, saying that Braun had tested positive. 

Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel detailed what Braun's strategy will likely be. But we need to hear Braun. Saying that his day will come and leaving others to speculate will not do anything to ease the frustration of the average baseball fan. 

The reason is that we've heard it before. It's not often that you hear someone test positive for steroids, only to come out and admit that they were guilty. No, there's always some explanation. We just never hear that explanation, just that one is forthcoming. 

When the ESPN report first came out, I wrote this. If that turns out to be nothing more than a knee-jerk rush to judgment, I would be happy to be wrong. But I am not holding my breath for that very reason: we never hear an explanation. Nobody ever gets vindicated. 

That's why we haven't had a single test overturned since baseball began testing for performance enhancers. 

Even though it was just coming out of an airport, the more I hear stuff like this from people like Braun, the more frustrated I get. It's hard to take any of these "I'm innocent" claims seriously until we're given a reason to. That hasn't happened yet. 

If legal matters are keeping Braun's mouth shut, then fine. But a few things need to happen when this is all said and done.

One, he needs to be vindicated. We can't go through a long process only to have the initial test stand up. If that happens, it's going to turn into a he said, she said battle, and that's not going to work. There's too much of that and too many reasons to disbelieve the athlete.

That's not a shot at Braun in particular as much as it is an acknowledgement that these charges aren't anything new in the sports world. Athletes in general haven't come close to earning the benefit of the doubt in this matter. For someone to earn that doubt, there can't be any significant reason to not believe him. 

Two, we need to hear an answer as to what happened. Why did he test positive for such a high amount of testosterone? If it's a lab mix-up, then I want to hear the lab backing that up. 

Again, if when this is all said and done, Braun's camp is telling us one thing, and another reputable side is telling us another, Braun's not going to win in the court of public opinion.

It would be great if we can actually turn the corner from the "Steroid Era." As fans, it's nice to have confidence that what we're seeing is legitimate. When records are broken, we want to believe that cheating wasn't needed.

Nothing will help those doubts stay in the mind of the fan quicker than the National League MVP testing positive in his MVP season. Now, if that's a false positive, great. One thing that we've proven time and time again is that this is a forgiving society. We just need to be given a reason to forgive. 

If Braun has a reason to forgive him, or can prove his innocence, he can't waste time in providing that. Every day that goes by without hearing anything from Braun hurts him.

No, Braun's career isn't close to being over, but that was never in dispute. If Braun wants to go down as anything more than "Just another cheater," we need to know for sure that he's not. 

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