Did anyone else hear the taped phone call between Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee? I really don't get it. To me, it makes Clemens seem more guilty. Whenever McNamee asks him "what do you want me to do?" (which he does like 20 times), Clemens never says "just tell them the truth". Isn't that what an innocent man would say? He also never asks"why did you lie to the commission?" or any variation thereof .

His lawyer is trying to say that Clemens was carefully trying to make sure it wouldn't seem like he was coercing a federal witness, but dude, come on. I understand that he shouldn't say "I want you to tell them I didn't use steroids" or "I want you to tell them you lied". You can't tell a witness what to say (and if he is guilty, that would be telling him to commit perjury). But saying "just tell the truth" really couldn't be construed as coercion. It's what he is supposed to be doing anyway.

It's just such a weird conversation in general, with all the talk of various dying children and missing children's funerals because of press conferences, and people getting ulcers. In fact, why would these 2 people, who are in fact suing each other even as we speak, get on the phone in the first place? If someone accuses me of a crime and ostensibly ruins my career and shot at the Hall of Fame, I'm really not that interested in chatting with him. Ditto a rich, blow-hard athlete who is suing me for defamation.

And if the whole point of the conversation was for Clemens to try and clear his name by getting McNamee to admit on tape that he lied or whatever...well, that didn't happen, so why would you release the tape? It just makes you look sketchier. And kind of dumb.