Nick Piccone
Back in December, Ryan Howard was named in an alleged doping report by Al Jazeera, but he wasn’t the biggest name. Peyton Manning was at the forefront, so many looked past some of the other athletes named in the report.
Howard was one of those guys, at least nationally. Locally, he’s been asked a few times about the report and has vehemently denied any wrongdoing or PED use during his career. And, honestly, if he did, it would put a huge damper on the 2008 World Series championship the Phillies won.
J.C. Romero was suspended for PEDs after that. Carlos Ruiz has been suspended. Antonio Bastardo has been suspended. And those are just the big names.
Today, Howard is meeting with MLB officials, according to CSN Philly’s Jim Salisbury.
Howard, according to a person with knowledge of the situation, is meeting with officials from Major League Baseball’s Department of Investigations. The meeting comes after Howard was connected to the use of PEDs in a report by the Al Jazeera network in December.
Howard has denied the allegations in the strongest possible way — he is suing the network for defamation. His legal representation has called the allegations “outright lies” and Howard has attached the word “garbage” to them.
MLB’s investigation does not signal any wrongdoing by Howard. The investigations department routinely looks into any allegation made against a player. Depending on what the investigations department learns, Howard could be disciplined or the investigation could be dropped and become a non-matter.
With Howard suing Al Jazeera, and he’s not alone, one would think he is telling the truth. Then again, what else would you expect him to do? And he’s battled injuries for years, so taking HGH – much like Peyton Manning has been linked to due to his neck surgery – wouldn’t be completely ridiculous to think about. Howard’s reaction is pretty much right in line with Manning’s.
We’ll keep you updated if anything comes of this.