How About That Roger Clemens?

Obviously, the craziest story to hit yesterday was the news that Roger Clemens had been having a relationship with country singer Mindy McCready for 15 years. A relationship that started when McCready was 15 years old and Clemens was 28.

That's pretty disgusting.

Oh, and incredibly illegal.

What was weird though was that Clemens still hasn't come out with a statement about the whole thing, while he came out swinging as soon as his name was dropped in the Mitchell Report. Was this because he was just hoping that by not giving the story any attention it would go away, or was it because after seeing what has happened to him after fighting the steroid allegations, he thinks it's best to just keep his mouth shut?

I can't really be sure, though Roger's lawyer, Rusty Hardin, did come out and say that all of this Clemens/McCready stuff was crap. More specifically, he said this.

"There's no question in my mind that this is a really filthy smear campaign orchestrated by [Brian] McNamee's lawyers clearly intended to do anything they can to ruin Roger's reputation. ... I'll let Roger speak for himself on the matter, but it is clear that the Daily News throughout this entire episode has been the house mouthpiece for McNamee's lawyers, and this is just one more example."

Looks like Rusty should have checked with Roger before saying this because McCready had her say yesterday as well, and she admits it's all true.

"I cannot refute anything in the story," a tearful but resolute McCready told the Daily News, which broke the story at midnight Sunday.

[...] "Yes, I have known Roger Clemens for a long time," McCready said, reading from a prepared statement. "He's a kind and caring man. He's also a legendary athlete. The central topic in the debate, however, regards his professional life, not his personal life.

"There are legal matters working their way through the system that have nothing to do with me. From my point of view, that is where the focus should remain."

Now you're probably thinking that Clemens having a relationship with a 15-year old girl is far worse than whether or not he stuck a needle in his ass, and you're 100% correct, if he did. If you read the New York Daily News article carefully, though, you'll see an important part that states Roger's relationship with McCready didn't become a sexual one until after she moved to Nashville.

McCready was 18 when she moved to Nashville.

That's not illegal.

It doesn't change the fact that Roger is kind of a scumbag, targeting girls at the age of 15 and then being "friends" with them until it's legal to sleep with them, but he's not a statutory rapist.

It's still pretty disgusting, though. Of course, the only man who could ever truly get to the bottom of this entire story would be Jerry Springer.