Published: 6/7/2018 11:02:55 PM
Image screencapped from the TB12 Sports web site, a place where they never shut up about drinking water.
According to reports, it’s totally fair to suspect the involvement of Tom Brady’s business, TB12 Sports, and his trainer, Alex Guerrero, of supplying NFL players with illegal, performance-enhancing drugs based on a thing that technically hasn’t even happened.
Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman is appealing a possible four-game suspension for allegedly using a performance-enhancing drug, which makes it totally reasonable to publicly speculate whether Guerrero, a trainer Edelman has worked with, is illegally distributing such drugs, said the entire Boston media except for Brady’s best bro, Alex Reimer.
As of press time, it was unclear how much scrutiny the trainer will deserve if Edelman wins his appeal. On the one hand, there would be no scandal involving HGH or EPO or Deca Durabolin to tie Guerrero to. On the other hand, Guerrero is a “conditioning guru” who emphasizes “pliability” and “eating right” and “drinking water,” and has been called a “cult leader” by the very people questioning his innocence. Plus, he has now been connected to an HGH scandal that theoretically could have happened, which is the smoke that is a sure indication of fire, regardless of whether or not there is any fire (or smoke for that matter).
The extent to which any harm has actually been done is irrelevant, however, as everyone was just asking questions. After all, Guerrero had opened himself up to criticism by helping Brady play past age 40 and advocating the frequent ingestion of water and avocados. He had certainly invited this conversation, or least Edelman had invited it on Guerrero's behalf. As Trenni Kusnierek of NBC Sports Boston said via Twitter, it is a “valid question,” to see if this controversy leads to “greater scrutiny” of Guerrero, a man whom she said had a “checkered past.”
Apparently invalid questions that Kusnierek and the rest of the media were not asking on Thursday:
• Is Julian Edelman actually suspended yet?
• What substance has he been accused of using?
• Why run an illegal drug dealership out of a business owned by the greatest football player of all time…
• …less than a football field away from the football field at Gillette Stadium…
• …with a clientele that is routinely tested for the very drugs he’s distributing…
• …and then draw attention to that racket by attaching a very public lifestyle brand to one of the most visible people in the entire world?
Rendering such questions moot is Guerrero's “checkered past,” which everyone recognizes as a bona fide reason to accuse him of wrongdoing any time someone in his personal orbit does something wrong. How exactly did Guerrero checker his history? In 2005, the Federal Trade Commission sanctioned him for fraudulently promoting supplements that supposedly cured cancer and concussions. The supplements did not cure cancer or concussions. In other words, Guerrero used to sell supplements that did not work. Therefore it is perfectly reasonable to suspect that he's escalated to selling supplements that do.
After word of Edelman’s possible infaction led to non-stop discussion of Guerrero’s alleged drug ring, the trainer released a statement suggesting that Edelman knows other people.
“Elite athletes sometimes work with multiple coaches and health professionals as part of their off-season training,” Guerrero said in his statement.
He went on to defend the TB12 Method as hippie cult shenanigans that don’t involve any performance-enhancing drugs at all.
“Here at our facility, we take a natural, holistic, appropriate and, above all, legal approach to training and recovery for all of our clients,” Guerrero said.
Finally, proving he has zero clue how journalism is supposed to work, Guerrero questioned the integrity of the people questioning his integrity.
“And anyone who would suggest otherwise is irresponsible, Guerrero said, “and just plain wrong.”
As of press time, two sources had told Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports Boston that Edelman's failed drug test was not the result of anything Guerrero had given them, opening Guerrero up to an avalanche of apologies from people who questioned his involvement in Edelman's suspension.
Dave Brown is a freelance correspondent who covers the Patriots for the Monitor. You can follow him on Twitter @ThatDaveBrown.