How do you feel about Merriman now?

[KNSD]

A lot of guys have knee injuries and come back. Why did Merriman just dry up and blow away?

Different knee injuries are different? (Not saying he didn't use the juice)

[QSmokey]

Why do you even follow the sport then? Do you honestly think all the other great players were clean? Hell, even the not so great players? A large number of fringe players take something just to get on a roster.

How about a guy like Lawrence Taylor? Without question the greatest linebacker ever but also someone who took performance enhancing drugs( in his case cocaine not steroids)

How about a guy like Dennis McKnight( for all you young dudes, his nickname was Conan and played for us during the 80's)? Now there's a player who, through the use of pharmaceuticals, made a nice career for himself. No bad mouthing him?

If you're going to bash guys for PED's, then bash all of them. If not, just remember for a short period of time the Chargers had the most disruptive defender in the league. And as I recall, every Charger fan loved it.

Damn good question.

And you are correct: BEFORE Merriman was busted for PEDs every Charger fan loved it. After he was busted, you can bet he had least one less fan.

[QSmokey]

How good was Shawne Merriman ???!?!?!?!?

Shawne Merriman was so good that he made millions of extra dollars for players like Shaun Phillips and the infamous Luis Castillo. Seriously, Merriman was so good that he made it look like Luis Castillo was actually any good.

How good was Shawne Merriman ??? He was so good that his presence and play got Luis Castillo's to dance. He was so good that Castillo had the balls to come up with his own "Salsa Sack dance"

So the infamous Shawne Merriman made millions for the infamous Luis Castillo. Let's try and at least be a accurate. And what was your point, anyway?

[Boltjolt]

That obviously depends on who you ask.

No one will EVER convince me that the 'roids didn't make him the (fake) player that he was. And I agree with bonehead: He probably would have had an average/good career without the 'roids. Certainly not "All World" like he was in his first 3 years. He was simply unreal. Which, come to think about it, he was.

And I'd like to see some proof that 'roid abuse doesn't start to show until you reach 30. It seems to me that would depend on the depth of the abuse.

Well again, you always like to think the worst. His third season id bet money he wasnt on roids after he was suspended in his second year. You can bet he was tested more often after that suspension that he was popped for in preseason of his second year. All these guys are kids and think they wont get caught and are invincible and they make mistakes.

And i didnt say roids starts to show at 30. I said some Baseball players who have taken roids for years have been well into their 30 when they start breaking down and Merriman was only 25 his last season with us.

[Millionaire Wussy]

A lot of infamous going around.

[Boltjolt]

How good was Shawne Merriman ???!?!?!?!?

Shawne Merriman was so good that he made millions of extra dollars for players like Shaun Phillips and the infamous Luis Castillo. Seriously, Merriman was so good that he made it look like Luis Castillo was actually any good.

How good was Shawne Merriman ??? He was so good that his presence and play got Luis Castillo's to dance. He was so good that Castillo had the balls to come up with his own "Salsa Sack dance"

Castillo was very good his first couple seasons. You think Merriman did that?....lol. It is the DL that helps make the LBs look better in a 3-4.

[WindsorUK]

Damn good question.

And you are correct: BEFORE Merriman was busted for PEDs every Charger fan loved it. After he was busted, you can bet he had least one less fan.

All of us here love our Chargers( even you!:nod and it's easy to get down on guys who get caught with their hands in the cookie jar. I just believe if we know going in that A LOT of these guys are taking something to help them perform and accept it, we won't feel so let down when the hammer falls.

Just enjoy them Q. We're lucky to have a team to follow............????

[Sec-E4]

Castillo was very good his first couple seasons. You think Merriman did that?....lol. It is the DL that helps make the LBs look better in a 3-4.

A Rabid LB can disrupt the whole offense. Maybe it was just a coincidence that once Merriman started falling, That some of those other guys started looking Mediocre and even performing below par.

[QSmokey]

Well again, you always like to think the worst. His third season id bet money he wasnt on roids after he was suspended in his second year. You can bet he was tested more often after that suspension that he was popped for in preseason of his second year. All these guys are kids and think they won get caught and are invisible and they make mistakes.

And i didnt say roids starts to show at 30. I said some Baseball players who have taken roids for years have been well into their 30 when they start breaking down and Merriman was only 25 his last season with us.

I didn't make up the suspension, or the subsequent drop off in performance. It happened. You do the math.

And my point was that the damage from his abuse could have started showing before he turned 30, so I don't think his age granted him any immunity. It depends on how much he abused his body.

[Gwynning_Spirit]

So the infamous Shawne Merriman made millions for the infamous Luis Castillo. Let's try and at least be a accurate. And what was your point, anyway?

Maybe the point was that Castillo infamously admitted using roids before the draft.

And I feel bad for Merriman. He'd be in great shape if someone hadn't tainted his steroid supplement.

[ArtistFormerlyKnownAsBKR]

I feel cheated. I feel cheated out of the one dominant defender we've had since Seau and the first really dominant pass rusher since maybe Leslie O'Neal. We didnt get to become what maybe we could have been because the dude was basically selfish. Would he have been the same player without drugs? Maybe not, but he wouldve been very good. Was the knee injury more responsible than the drugs? Possibly, but what if he'd gotten the surgery immediately, rather than keeping the club in the dark through FA and the draft? AJ Smith had this team sort of set up in a certain way and SM upset that applecart.

I also feel cheated out of tge memories. He was so good and so exciting. Anymore, those memories are undermined by his choices. So he cant even be a Gayle Sayers for me. He was a cheater so i dont even really know for sure how good he was. Those memories are kind of invalidated and that blows bc I should remember him differently than I do.

And then there's his whole #FAIL persona. Always hated his Lights Out dance. But what made him think his personality was going to tran$late and make him a legit celebrity? I never got this about him. I never found him particularly funny, interesting, intelligent or engaging. He was kind of a flatline personality but a self-promoter. He wasnt Rickey Henderson, Chad Johnson, Deion or anyone like that. Never got what he was trying to do...or more precisely, why he thought he could do it.

For me, he's Ken Caminiti

[Buck]

I will say I can remember exactly where I was and the utter drop in my stomach when the Tila Tequila news broke. It was at that moment that I realized he will never have his priorities straight and he was never the same after that.