Ryan Braun Coming Clean: Too Late?

Will telling the public what they already know help Braun repair his image?

Excluding those who have been implicated in serious real world criminal behavior, there may be no athlete in history who has fallen further, faster than Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun. He went from being named the 2011 NL MVP to one of the least trusted athletes in the U.S. in just 18 months.

In fact, a recent poll revealed there are only eight athletes considered less trustworthy by the American public: Marion Jones, John Daly, Manny Ramirez, Lance Armstrong, Michael Vick, Metta World Peace, Pete Rose and Dennis Rodman. That’s some unfortunate company.

Although it’s actually pretty impressive that Braun is surrounded by such heavy hitters.

Armstrong and Jones are in a class all their own when it comes to long-term lies about steroid use. Rose stands alone as a degenerate gambler who compromised the integrity of the game by betting not only on baseball, but his own team.

Daly, Ramirez, Peace and Rodman crafted their unlikable personas over more than a decade. As for Vick? Well try as he might to repair his image, there’s always going to be a large portion of the population who will never forgive him for the grisly dog fighting operation he funded.

Braun has had a lot of free time on his hands since being suspended for the remainder of the 2012 season for his role in the Biogenesis scandal in July, and it seems like he may be coming to terms with the full weight of the situation. Today it was reported that, for the first time, he will finally admit guilt.

But is this a case of too little, too late?

The passion and conviction of Braun’s denials, not to mention the reckless disregard shown for anyone seen as a threat to expose him, was positively Armstrong-esque. And like Armstrong’s confession, it seems this is nothing more than a last ditch effort Braun is being forced to turn to, having exhausted all of his other options.

But it didn’t work for Lance Armstrong. It didn’t work for Marion Jones. And it definitely didn’t work for Pete Rose. These are people who repeatedly looked the American public in the eye and lied, before eventually coming clean with a series of half truths that ultimately painted a far uglier picture than would have been revealed had they just been honest and recognized the jig was up.

That’s exactly where Braun finds himself today. He’s painted a very ugly picture of himself and now that people have seen it, it’s going to be difficult to see him any other way.

Coming clean is a good first step, but at this point it’s really the only step. And you don’t get points for telling the truth, only after all other options have been exhausted.