Brian McNamee Explains How He Boosted the Rocket

When confronted with the news that evidence of steroids were found on syringes and other materials provided to federal investigators by Brian McNamee, Roger Clemens' attorney said that he planned to challenge their authenticity. The paraphenalia was in McNamee's possession from 2001 until 2008, opening the door to questions about whether they were tampered with in the meantime.

McNamee is fighting back against those charges in an interview posted on SportsImproper.com, a website the Daily News reports is owned by friends of his.

“One of the needles I gave the government was used to inject Clemens with steroids in either July or August of 2001,” McNamee said. "The place was his high-rise apartment, which is located off the corner of 90th Street and First Avenue in Manhattan. It was when Clemens was pitching for the Yankees. That day, he laid out the drugs, dropped his trousers and I did as he asked, that is, inject him with steroids. Afterwards, he told me to get rid of the needle. I went into the kitchen and found an empty Miller Lite can in a wastebasket under the sink. I put the used needle into the can because it was actually hazardous material at that point and I didn’t want anyone to get hurt by sticking themselves. He told me to throw it away but I kept it instead.”

McNamee goes on to detail other times when he injected Clemens, including in the Jacuzzi at Yankee Stadium. While there's no corroborating witnesses, it does seem unlikely that anyone would make false claims about hottubbing with Clemens.

Clemens' camp has long held that the only things McNamee ever injected into Clemens were vitamin B12 and lidocaine. Connecting the dots, that would mean they'll hold that the syringes with Clemens DNA were tainted after the fact with drugs that weren't used during the injections. The Daily News, however, spoke with "a source close to the case" who said that there was no sign of lidocaine and that it "sounds impossible" for McNamee to have eliminated all traces of it.

All that said, the case will still boil down to whether or not a jury finds Clemens or McNamee to be more believable. The scale seems to be tipping in McNamee's direction more and more, but stranger things have happened in the courtroom.

Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.

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