by Steve Adubato, PhD

Sometimes it is not just HOW you communicate that matters, but WHEN. Sometimes people wait too long to say what they need to say and when they DO say it, it falls on deaf ears.

Consider the case of Mark McGwire, who in 1998 hit 70 home runs to break Roger Maris’ longtime record of 61. At the time, McGwire’s was the toast of the baseball world. A media superstar. Amazingly, his body had morphed over the years, packing on what appeared to be between 30 and 40 pounds of muscle. There were rumors that McGwire was using performance enhancing drugs, but we still celebrated him back in 98.

Off the field, McGwire’s first defining communication moment came on March 17, 2005 when he was called before U.S. Congress to testify about steroid use in baseball. Based on advice from his lawyers, McGwire repeatedly responded to every question about his alleged steroid use by saying that he wasn’t there to discuss the past. Basically, McGwire pleaded the 5th because he didn’t want to incriminate himself. That was his Constitutional and legal right, but we are talking about public communication with your reputation on the line. In this critical moment, McGwire virtually destroyed his reputation and then went underground.

But, just a few days ago, he resurfaced in a series of tear jerking interviews, the most prominent one being with Bob Costas on the Major League Baseball Network. In the interview, which McGwire was prepped for by former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer who now runs a crisis communication firm, McGwire blamed his lawyers for what he did before Congress in 2005. He said he really wanted to communicate in a more candid and honest fashion, but his lawyers told him not to.

He went on to say that he only used steroids to try to recover faster from injuries. He also said he wanted to “truly apologize…looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era.” When asked if the steroids helped him hit more home runs, he basically said he had no idea. Finally, he said, “After all this time, I want to come clean. I was not in a position to do (this) five years ago in my Congressional testimony, but now I feel an obligation to discuss this and to answer questions about it. I’ll do that, and then I just want to help my team.”

The team McGwire is referring to is the St. Louis Cardinals where he recently was hired as a hitting coach. That’s some coincidence that five years after McGwire refused to communicate in a forthright fashion before Congress that he wants to “come clean.” The communication game doesn’t work that way. You don’t get a five year pass when choosing to avoid any responsibility for your actions. It is laughable that McGwire would blame his lawyers for stopping him from communicating more openly in 2005. Lawyers can tell you anything they want, but in the end, YOU are responsible for what you say.

Is it better that McGwire ultimately offered some degree of honesty about his steroid use? Of course. But the question comes down not just to what you say, but as I mentioned, WHEN you say it. There are times in our professional lives where there is a narrow window of opportunity to step up, to lead, and to do and say the right thing. For Mark McGwire, that moment came in 2005 and he struck out looking.

I don’t want to pile on a guy who clearly has suffered tremendous public embarrassment, but one wonders why so many—whether we are talking baseball players and steroids, CEOs and unethical business practices, or politicians in compromising situations—just don’t get it. McGwire probably wishes he could get back that moment when he communicated like a coward in front of Congress. But, those chances don’t come along often. It’s a lesson for all of us to seriously consider.