I would like to believe Braun is innocent, and I hope Carroll isn’t just blowing smoke again, but I’ll believe it when I hear more about this than Carroll’s vague claims about how he’s interpreted what someone else supposedly said.

2) I dunno, jbwiii explains it pretty well at 9:33 PM (EST) last night further up-thread

Also, I’m pretty sure Matt Lawton just copped to using when he was busted in 2005.

XI. PROCEDURES AFTER COLLECTION
E. If the specimen is not immediately prepared for shipment, the Collector shall ensure that it is appropriately safeguarded during temporary storage.
2. The Collector must store the samples in a cool and secure location.

XII. IMPORTANT ITEMS TO REMEMBER
B. The Collector should not leave specimens in a car. This will affect the laboratory’s ability to analyze the specimen.

Like, don’t leave it at room temperature for a couple of days because it could turn into a bacteria culture medium.

The first test, the gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer would tell you the exact same thing. I guess a second test using a different methodology is a good thing.

Braun got off on a technicality.

Life is boring, ordinary, and routine. When all signs point to a specific result being true it is. Braun is stone cold guilty and got off on a poor decision even more so than a technicality.

1) Even if the collector had immediately driven to one of the FedEx locations, how would storage of the sample in a FedEx store until Monday (it would not have been shipped before Monday in either scenario) have prevented the sample from allegedly spiking in testosterone? I don’t understand Braun to be claiming, for example, that FedEx would have stored it at the correct temperature, whereas the collector may have exposed it to heat. So the “protocol violation” is really not relevant to the result (i.e. a technicality). What they are really attacking is the reliability of ANY samples that are taken on a Saturday and can’t be delivered to the lab until a Tuesday — whether the collector delivers it immediately to FedEx or not.

2) Assuming the defense team was able to reproduce the elevated testosterone levels in a sample that sat for 2-3 days, that still does not explain Test 2 (IMRS), which shows that the testosterone was SYNTHETIC. There is no explanation for that type of magical transformation.

Why take the collector’s word for it over Braun? For one, it’s not a “he said, he said” issue because we have the triple-sealed vial accompanied by Braun’s signature. But even if it was, Braun’s motive to lie is obvious — he wants to avoid missing 50 games and losing $2 million in salary. Show me one guilty person who just admits they did it …

What if someone with asthma problems uses Advair, and winds up taking a test, the test sits for a few days and gets tested, they test it and a rainbow shows up because the testosterone levels are throught he rough.

There is still a lot of the story to be told. While I personally believe its an EXTREMELY rare happening, because sometimes miracles do happen unfortunetly so do catastrophes.

“In sports governed by the World Anti-Doping Code — the Olympic Games, for instance — the athlete would have to prove not only a breach of protocol, but that the breach caused the positive result, Howman said. ‘This is not the situation in this case.’”

This is a sensible rule; it is illogical to throw out an otherwise unassailable test result based on a technical/procedural error that has no bearing on the validity of the test. There is no serious argument that the purported breach in protocol caused the positive result here. What rational basis is there for treating any mistake, no matter how harmless or attenuated to the result of the test, as an automatic win for the player?

1. Braun is off the hook. Like it or not.

2. Braun is going to spend 81 of his 162 games hearing thousands of people chanting “STERRRRROOOOOIIIIDS!” LIKE IT OR NOT.

He can claim he was framed, that it was a bad test, whatever. But those 81 games are gonna happen no matter what, and only jumping into a time machine and NOT taking PEDs is gonna change it.

Her career nearly ended in 1994 when she was accused of taking the performance-enhancing drug, testosterone. She was sent home from the Commonwealth Games in Canada.

Modahl engaged lawyers to show that the laboratory in Lisbon had stored her urine sample on a table in a room heated at 35 degrees for three days, which caused bacterial degradation. She has always professed her innocence and was later cleared. She said: “I have declared my innocence, I have never taken any banned substance”.

__________

It may not have been tampered with, but mistakes happen.

With all the tests they do and the mishandling of his specimen for the kicker it was one of the perfect storms.

I will compare aplles to oranges Birth control works 99 percent of the time, but it only needs to fail once.

Dudes guilty sorry but no bones about it (except for the procedural bones!)

So except for the whole part where the test results are thrown out so the results are invalid, yup you’re right.

You want to wipe the slate clean on Braun, that fine. But don’t act like it is unreasonable to think his positive test, coupled with the fact the he did not dispute the test itself or allege tampering, means he did steroids.