Brian McNamee gives Clemens a bang-up 4th

July 3, 2:41 PMSports ExaminerPaula Duffy

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Do these items contain Roger Clemens' DNA?

Brian McNamee's lawyers made sure that Roger Clemens has a clouded holiday weekend. They filed a brief at day's end on July 2 that not only asks for Clemens' defamation suit to be dismissed but alleges that the infamous vials and syringes will have Roger's DNA on them.

Remember them? Believe it or not that suit is still crawling through the court system. Clemens has never dismissed it and actually added other defamatory remarks to his complaint as well as a charge of "intentional infliction of emotional distress".

Emotional distress? I guess you could argue he is emotionally distressed but not necessarily from the defamation he claims McNamee engaged in when he told Senator George Mitchell that Clemens was injected with performance enhancing substances.

He has been virtually invisible since the scandals rolled through his life related to the women he had fun with, so to speak. He hasn't been in front of a microphone on radio or TV. Neither has Mrs. Clemens. Funny how he slides into oblivion when he isn't posturing about his innocence and only speaks through his legal filings.

McNamee is asking for a hearing this summer so that the judge can throw out the whole lawsuit. Pick your favorite reason: Tests will show Clemens' DNA was on the medical waste; the suit contains statements made too long ago to complain about; McNamee should be immune from suit since he made his statements published in the Mitchell Report at the request of federal prosecutors. Oh and by the way judge, this lawsuit should be moved out of Roger's backyard in Texas and transferred to NY near me because I'm poor and can't afford to fight this cross country.

Roger Clemens never tested positive for steroids or other substances banned by major league baseball so he wasn't afraid of punishment. He was afraid that his presumed Hall of Fame career wouldn't actually land him there if he didn't make a fuss about the allegations in the Mitchell Report. In hindsight, he might rue the day he made that decision.