two words: NOT GOOD
it's the appearance of impropriety.
Anderson (i.e. the juice distributor) unfortunately has singled out Tom from 10-20 other athletes who contacted him by phone. You can try to spin that in a positive way, but unless there was something serious going on here, you don't protect Tom's image by only naming him -- my guess is Anderson had little choice because the grand jury/ feds are putting serious pressure on him (i.e. prison for not just the 18 months the grand jury lasts, but a longer sentence for perjury).
this means they could very well be on a witch hunt and could very well be targeting our QB.
yeah, Tom and Barry are friends, and he spends a lot of time with family in the Bay Area and probably needs a personal trainer, or might just have called him as a favor to Barry, but the bottom line is that if there was nothing going on here, there would not have been any need to single him out in his statement...why JUST Tom??, why not "defend" (i.e. destroy the reputation) of all others named in the story.
look, it's obvious the league has a substance abuse problem. This will eventually catch up to the league like it has with MLB. In fact, the league has been plagued by drugs for decades. The bigger picture is that we're headed for a massive train wreck in the NFL over rampant use of banned growth enablers, and this could just be the first crack...
it will be interesting to see how this develops tomorrow...it could easily blow up (lots of guys have a big stake in the image of the League, but the government isn't one of them), and you always get rogues who force the mainstream media to tackle the issue. If I'm right about the feds' intentions to expand the investigation outside of baseball and Bonds, and possibly make an example out of the NFL's golden boy (this would essentially be a nuclear bomb for the entire league -- if HE could be on juice then are there any players who aren't?) then Anderson's statement could just be the beginning.
the suspicion of doubt is a very cruel thing...those who don't want to give him a pass will have every reason not to. headline will read: "Bond's Supplier Defends Brady" -- NOT GOOD.
p.s. gotta believe Anderson's lawyer gave Yee a head's up on receipt of the subpoena...Tom had to know about this for a while. Did he not miss practice this morning and suck in the afternoon?...this all went down today on the west coast and it's hitting the wires after primetime for a reason.
NOT GOOD