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A-Rod on past steroid denials: 'I was just a really big jerk'

The Alex Rodriguez redemption tour continues with more openness and honesty about his past mistakes. (AP)
The Alex Rodriguez redemption tour continues with more openness and honesty about his past mistakes. (AP)

Since abruptly retiring from baseball last August, Alex Rodriguez has been honest and open about the mistakes he made that helped to detail his legendary career. That continued on Thursday, when his redemption tour of sorts came home to Miami.

According to the New York Daily News, A-Rod spoke to students at the University of Miami about the mistakes he’s made, his failure to take responsibility for those mistakes, and the sour attitude that emanated from every pore of his body at the height of the Biogenesis scandal and his legal battle with Major League Baseball.

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That included A-Rod specifically addressing his infamous radio interview with WFAN host Mike Francesca back in 2013, which some consider to be the lowest point in a series of lows for the controversial slugger.

Here’s more from the Daily News:

“I think just being a big jerk, you know?” A-Rod said. “I was just a really big jerk.”

In 2013, A-Rod sued Major League Baseball, the MLBPA and Yankees team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad as he was appealing his suspension following the Biogenesis steroid scandal. All the lawsuits were eventually dropped, with Rodriguez serving a season-long suspension in 2014.

“I made mistakes and then I doubled down and became a bigger jerk and then went on sports radio and made an ass of myself.”

You can’t put it any clearer than that.

A-Rod’s most recent comments echo those made just prior to his retirement last summer. He described himself as a jerk then, and he’s not shying away from it now. It’s the first time he’s really pointed to that interview as an example of his behavior though, and that part is certainly garnering some attention back in New York.

The 40-minute interview came right on the heels of Rodriguez storming out of an arbitration hearing. He was clearly agitated, and spent the entire time denying PED use while dragging the name of then-MLB commissioner Bud Selig and anyone else he connected to the “witch hunt” through the mud.

Many were critical of Francesa at the time for his handling of the interview and the support he publicly expressed for A-Rod. Everyone seemed to have an opinion, right or wrong as they may have been, but A-Rod’s reflections point to a man in the middle of a crisis who simply didn’t know how to deal with it.

While that part may have been obvious to a lot of people at the time, it’s commendable that A-Rod is not only addressing and taking responsibility for it, he’s also making an effort to push young adults away from making those same mistakes. He can’t change his past, but he can help shape the future, and even with his controversial past he has a strong enough voice to make a difference.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!