Disgraced Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun finally admitted in a statement on Thursday that he used performance-enhancing drugs and apologized for his actions. Braun said he had nobody but himself to blame and said “those that put their necks out for me have been embarrassed by my behavior.”
Braun did not address recent allegations that he tried to smear the technician who collected his urine as an anti-semitic Cubs fan to fellow players while trying to gain himself support.
Braun was initially suspended for 50 games after he won the MVP award in 2011, and then won his appeal–becoming the first and only player to do so–when an arbiter determined that the “chain of custody” had been broken when the urine collector did not immediately go to a FedEx to send the urine sample, which tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, to Major League Baseball. Braun had also said he would bet his life that he did not use performance-enhancing drugs.
Braun, who accepted his 65-game suspension for the remainder of the season without pay, said that he used a cream and lozenges to recover from a nagging injury in 2011 and said he deeply regretted his actions and how he reacted at his 2011 press conference.
Here is his statement:
“Now that the initial MLB investigation is over, I want to apologize for my actions and provide a more specific account of what I did and why I deserved to be suspended. I have no one to blame but myself. I know that over the last year-and-a-half I made some serious mistakes, both in the information I failed to share during my arbitration hearing and the comments I made to the press afterwards.
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