Nearly two weeks after Texans linebacker Brian Cushing acquired the scarlet letter of steroids and one week after it became more indelible than a tattoo, his former teammate at USC has addressed the rumors that have intensified in the wake of Cushing’s four-game suspension.
I’ve never taken steroids,” Matthews said Wednesday, according to Jason Wilde of 540espn.com. “I would never even touch a banned substance. I’ve never done drugs, never in my life.
“As you can see from my family, I think our history speaks for itself. We’ve got some talented people in my family in regards to football, and we do it the right way. I take that very serious, when people throw accusations my way, because I feel like I’ve done nothing but hard work. I’ve done everything I needed to do to put myself in this position. And if people want to try to bring me down, that’s fine. But I’m going to keep being myself.”
Enhancing the rumors regarding Matthews is the fact that a false report emerged in April 2009 that both Cushing and Matthews had tested positive for steroids at the Scouting Combine. Both denied it at the time. Cushing’s denial now rings hollow.
“There was definitely a slight sense of guilt-by-association,” Matthews said of Cushing’s positive test for hCG. “Like I said, I’m very good friends with him, we have very similar stories, but beyond that, we’re on different teams now. He lives in Texas, I live in Wisconsin. There’s not a whole lot there.”
Matthews also expressed support for Cushing, but if the re-vote for the AP defensive rookie of the year award had resulted in Matthews getting more votes, Matthews wouldn’t have complained.
I didn’t really think about that to be quite honest, but if I’d have won the award I would have gladly accepted it,” Matthews said. “At the same time, in my eyes Cushing won it. That’s his award, he won it, he got it.”
He’s also achieved a level of notoriety that will continue to stick at least a bit to Matthews, and it will only dissipate after Matthews continues to produce solid seasons without generating a positive drug test.