Ryan Braun has been suspended for the rest of the season and has agreed to forfeit all remaining pay for the next 65 games. He has waived his right to appeal, which basically means that the mountain of evidence against him was Olympian and MLB cut the suspension down to avoid the headache of another appeal process.
What it really means though is that Ryan Braun is Major League A**hole. In retrospect, it seems clear he abused the appeal system, in the process smearing the credibility of the drug tester involved in his case. With his canned statement of “no contest,” replete with vague apologies (“I’m sorry to those I may have disappointed”–really bro? May have? I’d say that one’s in the bag at this point) and thinly veiled attempts at PR damage control (“I’m very grateful for the support I have received from players, ownership, and the fans in Milwaukee and around the country”–dude, maybe they supported you in 2011, but no one likes to get burned twice…) it appears as though Braun has been a dirty player from the jump, and he’s left a trail of dirtied friends, fans, and family (“this situation has taken a toll on my entire family”) in his testosterone-laden wake.
The co-authors of this post have very different feelings about the overall issue of PEDs–but we both agree: Ryan Braun is a huge jerk. It’s one thing to play for an edge; it’s another to sully the game, manipulate the system, and purger yourself in the court of public opinion. Some things you just can’t rebound from. It’s not yet clear what this all looks like when the dust settles, but you can’t get around the fact that Braun has stabbed a franchise and a city in the heart that had made him their face.
Braun doesn’t even deserve credit for waiving his appeal and “taking it like a man”–he did it for entirely selfish reasons. The 2013 Brewers suck, and the 2013 payout for Braun is less than that of the 2014 payout. Braun took this deal so he’d lose less money and wouldn’t risk missing any playoff time. (He’ll ‘only’ loose about $3 million the rest of this year and the Crew is in last place.) The Brewers should try to move his contract and he should give up any money Milwaukee can’t get the other team to take on. But of course, that won’t happen. Why? Because Ryan Braun is a huge jerk.
-Ari Glantz and Max Frankel
Interesting Tidbit of the Evening: There are some distinct parallels here to the Lance Armstrong saga. We wrote about it here.
