http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/chargers/20061027-9999-lz1s27playing.html Shawne Merriman, who knows he's being called a cheater and a liar, says he's using the appeal process to try to protect his reputation. UNION-TRIBUNE October 27, 2006 Shawne Merriman acknowledged he used to jump to conclusions when news surfaced that a professional athlete was being accused of taking a performance-enhancing substance. Cheaters, he thought to himself. Now people are saying the same thing about Merriman, and he doesn't like it. After recently testing positive for steroids, he's being called a cheater and a liar, even as he claims the test results are due to him taking a nutritional supplement that, unbeknownst to him at the time, was tainted by the manufacturing company. Merriman has been told he has a slimmer chance of winning his appeal than I do of being invited to the Spanos estate for Thanksgiving dinner – which is, not at all. But he's fighting the finding because he wants, if nothing else, to prove he never knowingly took an illegal substance. And that the only thing he's guilty of is ignoring the league's – and the team's – constant reminders that supplements are known to be tainted and players who use nonlicensed
