Preface: Please note that the following is not the opinion or position of Cagesideseats.com, any of the other writers from Cagesideseats.com or other websites on Sportsnation. It is solely the opinion of the writer, Matt DiRienzo.
Shane Carwin has used or is currently using steroids. There, I said it. I firmly believe that at one time or another he had taken some type of PED in an attempt to improve his performance. And yes, outside the same reports that you and I have both been reading over the past few days, I have no other evidence to back this up, but as the old saying goes, where there is smoke, there is fire.
We live in a country where you are innocence until proven guilty, but Shane Carwin isn't on trial and I am not the judge presiding over the case, but in the court of Matt DiRienzo, Mr. Carwin is guilty. The fact that Carwin literally has said nothing in regards to being implicated as a recipient of illegal PED's from Applied Pharmacy Services, a company under investigation by the Federal Government, speaks volumes of his guilt. If Carwin is innocent, he would and should be standing on a soap box right now trying to clear his name of any wrong doing. He should also be in the process of suing anyone that implicated his name in the investigation if the allegations are false. I mean, this is the man who says time and time again that he is proof of what hard work and dedication can accomplish. From an interview with MMAjunkie.com:
"I'm a working man's man. I've done everything I've had to do, even if it was the hard way. I'm a big believer in hard work and dedication, and I've tried to live by that."
So what is Carwin doing instead? He is doing what every other major athlete that has been caught on or linked to steroids has done. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. If the past has taught us anything, Carwin and his management team are probably trying to figure out right now if they can spin the allegations or just deny them completely. The problem is, Carwin and his management team have to be careful about what their statement is going to be. If he flat out denies that he ever has used PEDs or even received a package from Applied Pharmacy Services, he is going to have to make sure that nothing can be dug up and linked back to him. It will be a lot worse if Carwin denies steroids use only to find out later that he actually used them (i.e. - see Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGuire, etc). He will not only be a cheat, but a liar as well. If Carwin was innocent of any wrong doing, he would have already said so, because he would have nothing to fear. Carwin hasn't said anything, because he is trying to figure out if anything can get back to him if he publically denies the allegations because he did use steroids.
More after the jump...
Frankly, I think Carwin is probably going to do the David Ortiz and say he is going to look into how his name got on the list of illegal steroids recipients and then hope everything just go away.
There are going to be many people out there that defend Carwin. They are going to state that Carwin has never tested positive in the past for steroids. This means nothing. Major League Baseball player Jason Giambi admitted to the Grand Jury in 2003 that he used HGH from 2001-2003 and he never tested positive. Testing in all professional sports, whether it is combat sports or the NBA, is very far behind the times and the technology pharmacists use to mask PEDS. This isn't to say that the testing isn't out there to check for these illegal substances, but that is a different topic for a different column.
I also want to go on record and state that Carwin's size has nothing to do with my opinion. Just because the man is a giant walking among us does not lead me to believe that he is on PEDs. I think Josh Barnett is proof that you do not have to be enormous and extremely ripped to be a steroid user.
So, I may be alone in my belief that Shane Carwin is a steroid user. Maybe evidence will come out that completely exonerates Carwin from any wrong doing and I will have to eat every single one of these words I just typed. But let me ask you one thing, has there ever been a professional athlete linked to one of these illegal steroid investigations by the federal government that has been found innocent after the fact? I think not.