Shamefully, Agassi Fails the Trust Test

You're being handled, played, manipulated. I am, too.

Where is Andre Agassi? Why hasn't he come out in the past 72 hours to tell us that drugs weren't the greatest thing to happen to him, no matter what his book excerpts seem to say? Why has this man who has done so many great things with his school for disadvantaged kids, let the message just hang out there?

Drugs fun. Hate tennis. Bad relationship with Dad.

If he wanted to clear his soul, to confess to his sins, then why did he need be paid $5 million to do it.

"Now that he is retired, he comes out and says this?" Rafael Nadal said at an awards ceremony in Madrid. "It's a way of senselessly damaging the sport."

And when Agassi said that he failed a drug test, but the tour swept it under the rug, he took down all of his contemporaries, too. Superstars were given passes then, huh? Which other stars?

So where is Agassi? Why isn't he clearing up the details that have come out since the excerpts were released earlier this week? Well, he'll be on 60 Minutes on Sunday.

That's the next step in this sales pitch. Agassi has sold out. And if not, then he's following the worst advice imaginable from PR people. They are letting out information in drips to keep Agassi and his book in the headlines as long as possible.

Well, it's working. Earlier this week, I wrote a column saying that while this tarnishes his image, it was 12 years ago. It was a different lifetime ago for a man who had turned himself around. I was still going to believe.

Next headline: I'm losing belief. Watching Agassi manipulate us has changed everything.

See, I was categorizing him as having two lives: One was the young punk, rebel. Then came the grown up philanthropist.

An awful lot of people have believed this new life was all for show, that he was a phony. I'm still desperately clinging to the idea that he was not.

"There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness," he writes in the book, explaining his first experience with crystal meth. "Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I've never felt so alive, so hopeful -– and I've never felt such energy.''

So don't give up kids. There are easy ways to find hope, euphoria and the feeling you're alive.

Have you tried crystal meth?

I'm sorry, but this is not exactly the best message I've heard. And reading through every word of the excerpts in Sports Illustrated, I see not one hint of remorse or anything.

Surely, he isn't intentionally promoting drugs to kids. But at this point, no accidental message matters more than promotion of the book, apparently. Or the $5 million he reportedly received for the rights to it.

He should have been out the day these excerpts were released to explain. Instead, we have to wait for wherever his publicist might decide is the best place for him to clear his conscience.

It gets harder and harder each hour of this handling, Andre. It is not so easy to put his drug use and joyful memories of it into the first Agassi life anymore, because his irresponsibility these past few days are the actions of a 39-year old Agassi.

He still has done so much with that school, still talks eloquently about trying to overcome his mistakes and becoming the best person he can be. He honestly still says not to trust the good image you see now, either, because life is always a work in progress.

"Shocking,'' Martina Navratilova told the Associated Press. "Not as much shock that he did it as shock he lied about it and didn't own up to it. He's up there with Roger Clemens, as far as I'm concerned. He (Agassi) owned up to it (in the book), but it doesn't help now."

First, they dripped out that Agassi's excerpts will include a confession that he had done crystal meth. The next day, we got the excerpts. Now comes TV interviews. And soon, the book, Open, will be out.

And they keep things slightly out of context, slightly blurred and confusing so we'll have to keep looking for more. Just don't let any responsibility get in the way of the plan.

Agassi's career was down in 1997, and his assistant, Slim, Agassi says, suggested they do crystal meth together, because it would make him feel like Superman.

Hear that, kids?

Eventually, Agassi writes, he became a regular user, and once failed a drug test on the ATP Tour. When a tour official told him he had failed and would likely get a three-month suspension, Agassi invented a lie to get out of it. He wrote the tour, he says, saying that he had accidentally had a drink of pop from Slim, who had spiked the drink.

So the issue went away.

Would you be comfortable hearing the guy running your kids' school send this message?

Give him this: The story about the lie is helpful because you wonder how often this happens in other sports, too, where a star is given a pass. The ATP Tour seems, awkwardly, to be denying Agassi's charge. We need more truth about this stuff.

But this also makes you wonder about the other stars of his era.

Tennis players have reacted from different parts of the world. Serena Williams said, "I don't even know what crystal meth is, so, you know, that's what my reaction to it is."

Andy Roddick wrote this on his Twitter page: "Andre is and always will be my idol. I will judge him on how he has treated me and how he has changed the world for (the) better.'"

I was thinking the same thing, Andy. About three days ago.

Email me at gregcouch09@aol.com