Or it changes a lot, anyway.
Now that Jason Grimsley has stopped co-operating with the feds, neither he nor his attorney are going to have much credibility with me, because they have jointly made the decision that it is more important to pledge fealty to some ridiculous and archaic code of honor among players--even after his credibility among those very players has been blown--than to simply continue telling the truth.
So when Grimsley's attorney says that Andy and Roger "never in a million years" would take the PED's, it just doesn't mean very much to me.
But when the federal prosecutor goes out of his way to make a statement on their behalf, THAT does.
In view of the recent news reports purporting to identify certain athletes whose names had been redacted from the government's search warrant filings in the Grimsley matter, and in the interests of justice, please be advised that these reports contain significant inaccuracies.
These are strong words from a federal prosecutor, and strong enough, perhaps, to tip me back in the other direction. Perhaps, also, I should have insisted on seeing an actual unredacted document before believing The LA Times about what it contained.
I've spent more than a few sentences here bemoaning the blogosphere's sometimes-blithe willingness to run with unsubstantiated rumor, but I guess it's all good that I should be slapped in the head with a reminder that the mainstream media still grapples with its own issues.
There will be more reports and quotes and innuendo and pontification, but for now, it appears as if Roger and Andy may just escape untarnished.