Last summer, former St. Louis Cardinal Jack Clark accused another former Cardinal, Albert Pujols, of PED use on his brand new radio show. Pujols vehemently denied the allegations and sued Clark for defamation. Well, we finally have a resolution to the case – Clark has retracted his comments about Pujols, and after the retraction, Pujols dropped his lawsuit.

Of course, the common refrain hasn't been "oh good, this stupidity is finally behind us", but instead "PUJOLS IS A PED USER BECAUSE HE DROPPED THE LAWSUIT!!!!" No. Just… no. It doesn't work that way. Here's the full statement from Clark.

"I would like to address Albert Pujols' pending defamation lawsuit and re-confirm that I have no knowledge whatsoever that Mr. Pujols has ever used illegal or banned PEDs. I publicly retract my statements that Albert Pujols used such substances. During a heated discussion on air, I misspoke and for that I sincerely apologize."

And here is Pujols' response about dropping the suit.

"I have accepted Jack Clark's retraction and apology to resolve my lawsuit against him and clear my name."

Yep, because that says so much about Pujols being a PED user. What probably ended up happening was that Clark had no way to prove Pujols ever used PEDs, and Pujols had a mountain of passed tests from MLB, which wouldn't be a good thing for Clark, who has dealt with bankruptcy in the past. Imagine getting back on your feet and then getting smacked back down because of something ridiculous you said. In this case, all it cost Clark was his reputation, his job, and probably some lawyer fees as opposed to everything he owned.

[ESPN LA]

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.

Comments are closed.