CARROLL BLASTS ‘ROID RUMORS

Late last night, a website dedicated to the NFL draft -- NFLDraftBible.com -- posted a rumor, citing various sources including one NFL team, that USC linebackers Clay Matthews III and Brian Cushing had tested positive for steroids at the Indianapolis Scouting Combine.Earlier this afternoon, the agent for Matthews made public an e-mail sent to the website, an e-mail which very succinctly and explicitly denies any knowledge of a positive steroid test for his client. The missive also included a veiled threat at the end, telling the website to "[g]overn yourself accordingly."Now, the linebacking duo’s college head coach is getting in a flurry of well-placed punches as well.In a posting on the official USC football blog, Pete Carroll leaves no doubt as to what he thinks about the report.”These rumors are absolutely false,” Carroll, who reportedly spoke to the NFL’s testing service this morning and was told his former players were clean, told the blog this afternoon."If they were found positive, Clay and Cush would have been notified three weeks ago, which they weren’t, and all of the NFL teams would have been notified too, which they weren’t."They’re both men of outstanding character and they never tested positive for anything here. This is an [sic] major example of irresponsible reporting, and the site that published this report should be ashamed of themselves."If anyone in the audience has an extra a-hole laying around somewhere, I think the guys at the website in question could use a new one as theirs just got ripped.