According to a report by ESPN.com, Roger Clemens was offered a plea agreement but his attorney Rusty Hardin said that his client declined the offer.

“The government made a recommendation [for a plea agreement] and we declined,” Hardin said. “I will tell you the recommendation they made was a very good one if he was guilty. And if he was guilty we would have jumped on it. Everybody has all this great solicitous advice, all the media and you guys — ESPN. Nobody is answering the question: What if he didn’t do it, what should he have done? And everybody wants him to confess.

“I have even heard people suggest that even if he didn’t do it he should have said he did so that everybody will move on. That is a helluva commentary.”

Hardin reiterated he and his staff have drilled Clemens on the need to fess up, if he did steroids or human growth hormone.

“He’s been told from the beginning if he did it he ought to do exactly what Andy [Pettitte] did. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that. And everybody assumes it is his arrogance and his ego that kept him from doing it.

“He wasn’t the greatest witness before Congress, I understand that. But I got to tell you, we’ve sat on him probably for 100 of our hours over the last two-and-a-half years, always with the same thing: ‘If you did it, the best thing to do is just admit it and move on and we’ll deal with it.’ He has never, ever wavered.”

Talk about rolling the dice. If he’s guilty and he didn’t accept this deal when he had the chance, then he’s absolutely out of his mind. The government has essentially given him a nice out and he decided not to take it, so he’s either truly innocent or clinically insane.

I will give Clemens this – he has maintained his innocence throughout this whole ordeal. He’s never wavered in his denial about talking steroids and obviously he’s willing to go to extreme measures to prove his innocence. One would think that if he were guilty, he would have taken the deal and then faced the public scrutiny to avoid jail time.

Of course, I wouldn’t put it past Clemens to go to jail and maintain his innocence, rather than accept a plea agreement and admit that he’s been lying this entire time. Even if he’s proven guilty in the court of law, he could continue to tell the public that he never juiced and that he was screwed by the judicial system.

What a mess.

After he was indicted yesterday on charges of making false statements to Congress during his testimony about his use of performance-enhancing drugs, Roger Clemens made a statement via his Twitter page denying that he ever used steroids.

I never took HGH or Steroids. And I did not lie to Congress. I look forward to challenging the Governments accusations, and hope people will keep an open mind until trial. I appreciate all the support I have been getting. I am happy to finally have my day in court.

Rocket

Is it just me, or does anyone else think there’s something sad about the way Clemens signs off as “Rocket” at the end of his note? That’s his nickname of course, but it almost feels like he’s trying to play to the crowd that beloved him during his playing days.

Regardless, if you’re innocent, you shout it from the rooftops as much as possible – just like Clemens has done. It’s also important to keep in mind that he has never been proven guilty of anything as of this point.

But given how much evidence there is linking him to performance-enhancing drugs, I can’t help but to think about the Dana Carevy stand-up routine when he pokes fun at the O.J. Simpson trial.

Here sits a mountain of forensic evidence and Roger’s like, “Why we even havin’ a trial?”

Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times is reporting that former pitcher Roger Clemens will be indicted on charges of making false statements to Congress during his testimony about his use of performance-enhancing drugs.

The indictment comes nearly two and half years after Clemens and his former trainer Brian McNamee testified under oath at a hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, directly contradicting each other about whether Clemens had used the banned substances.

The committee held the hearing in February 2008, just two months after McNamee first tied Clemens to the use of the substances in George J. Mitchell’s report on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. After Mitchell released the report, Clemens launched an attack on McNamee, saying he made up the allegations.

I’ve long held the opinion that both Clemens and McNamee lied about their testimonies back in 2008. I don’t think we’ve heard the true story of Clemens’ involvement with performance-enhancing drugs, although sadly I don’t know if we ever will either.

Even though Clemens has been indicted, don’t expect a speedy trial. Barry Bonds was indicted in 2007 and his trial won’t start until next March. Thus, it could be years before Clemens goes to trial.

Brian McNamee, the former trainer who alleges he gave Roger Clemens performance-enhancing drugs, is suing his former client for defamation.

Brian McNamee, who told federal investigators that Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs, claims the Rocket libeled and slandered him following the release of George Mitchell’s report on drug use in baseball. McNamee is seeking $10 million from his former client, according to a summons filed in Queens Supreme Court last week.

Clemens filed his own defamation suit against McNamee in January after the trainer said in the Mitchell Report that he regularly injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone. Clemens later told a congressional committee under oath that he had never taken steroids.

In the federal case in Texas, McNamee’s attorneys claim the trainer was forced to talk to investigators under threat of prosecution, rendering him immune from any defamation lawsuit. A federal prosecutor backed up McNamee’s claim, but a judge has yet to rule on his request to toss the case.

Clemens has one month to respond to the Queens lawsuit.

Would anyone else like to see both of these guys locked up together in a jail cell with some brute named “T-Bag”?