Video of Marion Jones’ Apology October 7, 2007
Posted by Marquis Chapman in Sports, Track and Field, Video.trackback
For anyone who hasn’t seen it, here is the video of Marion Jones’ apology for lying to the feds about using steroids, as well as stating that she will be retiring from Track and Field.
Another athlete’s career tarnished and ruined because of drugs. When will they learn?
All Talk Sports 
This is sad. I really liked Jones but now she is just a fluke. I wonder what will happen to the medals.
This is the one person I believed. She was the one person I thought would be clean. But, the clues were all around us. Her ex husband and current husband used steroids. And, I think the medals are going to be taken away. That’s is really sad. All those accomplishments are now erased.
wow… this really saddens me… I admire her humility though. Addressing the public was a good decision, rather than just letting it be reported, she came out and gave the story and apologized. Her words were so well spoken and flowing that part of me is wondering if she’d rehearsed the speech. I felt that if there was any sincerity in her address, it was when she apologized to her children. Whether she regrets it or not, as a mother she failed to set an example and I believe she recognized that right there in that moment… so unfortunate…
This makes me want to give her a second chance. She seemed really remorseful. It tells you something about her character to get front and center and carry responsibility. Not many athletes do this and if they do so, they usually just write a public statement.
Nike knows doping, lying and cheating!
Go Lance Pharmstrong (steroids, insulin, hGH & cow blood)
Go Baroid Bonds (Balco steroids, hGH, insulin, and Clomid)
Go Kobe Byrant (steroids & rape)
Go Michael Vick, steroids, weed and dead dogs
Go Tiger Woods (steroids and 35 lbs of new muscle)
Go Tim Montgomery (Balco roids & Marion’s 1st child)
Go CJ Hunter (Deca Durabolin & Marion’s ex)
Go Tori Edwards
Go Regina Jacobs
Go Kelli White
Go Michelle Collins
Go LaTasha Jenkins
Wow. That is a long list of athletes. Very sad.
That was just a very short list of Nike drug cheats.
There are about 1,000,000 US teenagers on roids today too.
Then all college football players, most baseball, all wrestlers, most track sprinters use PEDs (steroids, insulin, asthma, corticoids, etc..).
All NFL, MLB, NBA athletes use drugs too. 100% Minor leaguers too.
Ubiquitous doping!
Come on Marion, don’t retire!!! You made the apology, now continue and show everyone that you can do it without the steroids. Appreciate the apology, but retirement?!?!?!?!?
Apology – BRAVE move
Retirement – total punk move! (Maybe this is due to the jail time that I heard she will have to do, but how long is it?)
Well, if anyone is surprised that there are steroids at the professional level of any sport, then you haven’t talked or care to believe the right people. Let’s just get right to it..
MLB – Come on, if BASEBALL players are taking steroids – then the world is on steroids…Bonds, Maguire, please. Them pleading innocence is like OJ pleading innocence.
Probably 75%-90% of NFL players are currently or have taken steroids in one form or another. yes people, it is almost a requirement to be an NFL player.
100% of the “sport” of professional bodybuilding is using a performance enhancing drug. At the elite level, they have to do it under a doctors direction as their dosages are so specific, high and risky (think liver and kidney failure as a daily threat). IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET THAT BIG WITHOUT STEROIDS! Seriously, it is.
Steroids are part of our culture as fans and participants constantly desire a higher level of performance. Not to mention an endorser “needs to see a winner”. When dollar signs are on the line – believe me, these athletes will do whatever to stay in the limelight, make money and have longevity.
I played at the college level and been around extremely high level athletes. It’s a fact that no one wants to accept because it would make Sunday afternoons not so sexy and those acceptance speechs a little less sexy as we would really KNOW the reason for their victory. Ignorance is bliss with steroids. It all boils down to that fact.
Do I think Marion Jones did a courageous thing by pleading guilty and apologizing, yes, but let’s be perfectly clear….she isn’t mad or apologetic that she took performance enhancing drugs,she is SAD and MAD and all apologetic that she got CAUGHT and surrounded herself with people who were careless.
This fact will always remain – if you don’t want to get caught, …don’t do it!
Chew on that reality.
[…] …lets fast forward now, to the most recent steroid controversy, American sprinter Marion Jones. After years of denying any usage of performance enhancing drugs (”I have never, ever used performance enhancing drugs”, Jones declared back in 2004), yet being connected with many convicted drug offenders (former husband C.J. Hunter, coach Trevor Graham, and boyfriend Tim Montgomery), many people thought it was only a matter of time before damning evidence came out against Jones. As it turns out, she beat everyone to the punch. Last week, Jones admitted to using performance enhancing drugs as she announced her retirement in front of federal district court in New York. It is now merely a matter of time before she is stripped of her five Olympic medals; only one of the prices she will pay for her cheating. EDIT: Marquis @ AllTalkSports has the video of the apology […]
This is a sad story for all sports at the highest level. For so long, we wanted to believe Marion Jones when she said she was clean. We all thought we were seeing something special at the 2000 Olympics, but in the end, it was the drugs.
As for the apology, I think she only confessed to taking drugs because of the other pending money laundering case against her which could have sent her to prison for a long time. I think this apology was part of the plea deal.
In response to George J. Mitchell’s comments in October:
Mr. Mitchell,
You will probably never read this, but for those who do, I have a very important message. Marion Jones’ story is one of disgrace. Few believe her excuses which push the blame off on her coaches, and the IOC’s decision to erase her records and demand the return of her gold medals is righteous in every regard.
However, as an athlete who competed at a highly competitive level and was drug tested, I find your list of guilty athletes to be purely offensive. I can’t imagine how it would feel if people were to wronly accuse me of such a horrible crime. While many of the names on your list certainly belong there, there are a handful that do not.
You have condemned athletes like Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, and Kobe Bryant to be steroid users. These men are incredible athletes, among the greatest who ever lived. They have dedicated, or rather sacrificed, their bodies, hearts, and souls in pursuit of greatness. For you to damn them with the stroke of a key is absolutely appalling.
Do you think, in today’s world of doping and testing, that these athletes would consider using steroids? Granted, their careers extend to times preceding the exposure of the BALCO scandal, but I think we can all agree that none of the men would dare use “the clear” or any supposedly concealable performance enhancing drugs today. We are talking about the most high profile athletes who have everything to lose and nothing more to gain; they are already the best.
Do you have evidence, I mean hard evidence, that these athletes have been doping? Assuming you don’t, since everyone is looking for it and no one is yet to find it, it is incredibly irresponsible and immature for you to make such claims. If you, or anyone else has information that just happened to slip ESP, CNN, NY Times, and federal prosecutors feel free to post it. If I’m an idiot, and totally out of the loop, let me know. But until I am proved wrong, what you have said Mr. Mitchell is a harmful rumor which mars the records and public sentiment about these athletes.
Beyond that, who are you? A doctor? Clearly not the case. If you were, you would know that human beings are physically capable of putting on that 35 lbs of muscle weight. I would credit Tiger Woods for being capable of doing so; look what he could do with a golf club, why can’t be incredible in the weight room as well?
Unless you are involved in high level athletics, I see little chance that you know, or could even fathom, the personal repercussions of the things you say. As a friend of someone who was once wrongly accused, I take the matter very seriously, and so should you. From now on, provide some evidence, then talk.
Tyler