You could have given me a million guesses, and I wouldn't have come up with it.

Rewind to Saturday night. I was on the national update desk for Yahoo! Sports Radio when a tweet comes through from USA Today's Bob Nightengale. "#MLB about to be hit with a bombshell. Hard to believe this news" read the message, with the tease of more to come.

What could it possibly be? Was there a widespread gambling scandal? Was Bud Selig stepping down as commissioner? Was there the tragic and untimely death of a player?

When it was revealed a short time later that Ryan Braun had tested positive for performance enhancing drugs (PED's), Nightingale's "bombshell" warning was an understatement. Not only was this news harmful to baseball as a whole, here in Braun's baseball home city, it was far more devastating than the impending departure of Prince Fielder. At least we all knew that was coming.

Ryan Braun, right up until Saturday night, was the poster child for everything that was right with baseball: a hard-working, family oriented superstar that signed a long-term, below market value contract to be the face of a franchise for the majority of his career.

In Wisconsin, Ryan Braun has become so much more than just a baseball player. He has become this generation's Robin Yount; a player that parents can point to their kids and say "that's the way this game is supposed to be played. Emulate him."

Brewers owner Mark Attanasio last month said that someday he envisions a statue of Braun outside of Miller Park. The first people the Brewers leftfielder points to as his role models are his parents, who can be seen rooting their son on at Miller Park throughout the season. One of his closest friends is Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who quite possibly is the only other athlete who has a higher Q rating here in the Badger State.

In short, Ryan Braun is everything you would want the face of your franchise to be. Here in Milwaukee he is more than just another athlete; Ryan Braun is a cultural icon.

That he would risk that for a fleeting moment of strength, endurance, or pain relief is incomprehensible.

Bombshell? Turns out, that was the understatement of the year.

So what do we know?

We know that MLB's drug testing policy is the toughest in all of the four major sports leagues in North America. We know that no major leaguer has ever successfully appealed his positive test, and we know that based on the court of public opinion, most around the country are ready to convict based on the original ESPN report.

We also know that superstar players that test positive always have that black cloud above them, no matter how long ago they may have been guilty of using. Alex Rodriguez is a prime example of this. So is Mark McGwire. So is Ivan Rodriguez. So is Miguel Tejada.

We also know that while Ryan Braun may be a lot of things, self-confident chief among them. But he isn't stupid. To get caught using PED's in 2011, knowing how rigorous and accurate the tests were, is stupid. To know what the punishment is for getting caught (both from the commissioner's office and the public) and to still try, is stupid.

Finally, to put your future Hall of Fame candidacy in grave peril is beyond stupid.

Rafael Palmeiro is just one of four players to have 500 home runs and 3,000 hits in Major League history. The others are Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Eddie Murray. Palmeiro was considered a lock-down first-ballot Hall of Famer at one point. Last year, his first of eligibility to the Hall, he garnered just 11 percent of the vote, and likely will only see baseball's ultimate shrine by purchasing a ticket. To have seen the consequences Palmeiro has had to endure and not heed that as the ultimate warning is stupid.

Ryan Braun isn't stupid.

The flip side, of course, is the danger that blindly believing Braun calls into question one's own biases as a journalist. After all, we are trained to empirically review the facts of the case without prejudice in any way. Whether we know (or think we know) the accused is to be of no consequence.

The facts, ma'am. Just the facts.

To that, we have come to learn that apparently Braun's testosterone level was more than twice that of anyone else that has ever been tested. Really? Of the hundreds (thousands?) of tests that have ever been performed, this was more than twice as high as the next highest player? To me, that sets off the biggest alarm that something is amiss.

It is one thing to have elevated testosterone levels; it is another to have those levels be so out of whack with everyone else that it doesn't take a doctor to figure out that there is something fishy going on.

Between now and January's arbitration hearing, Braun's defense team will use every tool at their disposal to prove that there is at least enough doubt to earn the Brewers star a reprieve. While no MLB player has ever had a positive test overturned on appeal, we have come to learn that at least one minor leaguer was able to show enough chain-of-custody issues with his sample to win his appeal. Expect that to be a cornerstone of the Braun defense. After all, the expectation of a vigorous defense is guaranteed of the accused in our court of law. Why should baseball players be not afforded that same right?

Not that it is of any consolation to Brewers fans who want to believe in their hero, but just because someone is a steroid user that doesn't automatically make them a bad person. The horror stories of Barry Bonds ripping up a child's baseball card and laughing while walking away dominate public perception, just as Roger Clemens alleged affair with a then-15 year old Mindy McCready does. However, that is not the reality of the people behind baseball's steroid culture of the recent past.

Jason Grimsley pitched for seven teams over a 15-year career. Grimsley shattered the notion that only bulked up sluggers used steroids when he confessed that he used Deca-Durabolin, amphetamines, human growth hormone, and Clenbuterol. Grimsley, by his own admission, was also distributing HGH to other players.

That might lead one to conclude that Jason Grimsley is the worst kind of person ever employed by Major League Baseball, right?

Not the Jason Grimsley that Davey Nelson knows. Nelson, the former Brewers coach and current television broadcaster, knows Grimsley as one of the biggest donors to his Open Arms Home for Children in South Africa. Every year, Grimsley travels to Kohler to participate in Nelson's charity golf outing at Blackwolf Run, and every year he winds up writing the biggest check of anyone there.

Grimsley is friendly, outgoing, and generous to orphaned children a world away. And he was a steroid user.

In the late 1990s, I did a number of appearances with former Brewers second baseman Fernando Vina. Vina was one of the bright spots on an otherwise moribund club that was going nowhere. Nevertheless, Vina would sign countless autographs, pose for pictures, and talk baseball with everyone that came by. He greeted fans with genuine warmth that you only get from someone that knows how fortunate he is to be playing Major League Baseball.

We did a series of appearances at some Charcoal Grill restaurants in where we ate comped meals afterwards. Every single time, Vina insisted on tipping the waitress anywhere from $50-100, depending on what he was carrying that day. In a nutshell, Fernando Vina was just a really good guy.

Fernando Vina confirmed that he was properly implicated in the landmark Mitchell Report as a steroid user, although he disputed some of the lesser details of the document.

Jason Giambi is an admitted steroid abuser, and one of the first big names to have been implicated. He was one of the poster children for what we thought a typical PED user looked like. Yet, teammates and managers alike have lauded Giambi for being one of the best clubhouse players and best teammates to have in baseball for the last 15 years.

Jerry Hairston, Jr. was one of the Brewers clubhouse leaders in the second half of last season. Hairston was a versatile "glue guy" who had been through the rigors of a pennant race before and provided guidance, presence, and clutch play through the NLCS. Hairston was also one of the players implicated in the Mitchell Report as a multiple steroid user in the mid 2000s.

Former Major League pitcher Paul Byrd is a devout Christian and was called the "nicest guy in baseball" by his peers. He was also implicated in the Mitchell Report as a user of HGH.

The point is this: while the jury is still out on Ryan Braun – and yes, the jury has not yet rendered a verdict, so let us please not brandish his chest with a scarlet "S" just yet – he is still the same player and the same person he was before last Saturday.

Fortunately, he will get his day in court. However, unfortunately, because of a clumsy and inaccurate rush to be first to report, he will not have the due process of having that day in court behind closed doors.

To many, Ryan Braun will forever be castigated as a baseball cheat; a fraud of MVP proportions. It seems difficult to comprehend given what we know about him and given his consistent denials that this is indeed the case, but as they say, stranger things have happened. Certainly we have all been disappointed in people that we thought we knew at one time or another. That is an inescapable part of life.

Hopefully, in the end the truth will come out. But for Ryan Braun, should that verdict be "not guilty" there will still be damage that forever will have been done.

And that will be the biggest crime that could have possibly been committed.