Baltimore Ravens veteran wide receiver Derrick Mason recently called NFL commissioner Roger Goodell "a joke" for wanting to implement blood tests for human growth hormone.
Then, he appeared on ESPN wearing a T-shirt that read "A JOKE" across his chest.
Now, he has apologized to Goodell sort of.
"Someone I love and respect so much said I should apologize to the commissioner not for what I said but for the shirt," Mason wrote on his Twitter account. "So commissioner goodell I apologize for the shirt bit I still feel that there's a bigger issue to tackle right now and that's the cba!! That's my public apology for my disrespect of the shirt....... And it's sincere."
It doesn't seem like Mason is sorry, though.
Here's what he initially said about Goodell:
"He needs to stop crying about blood testing and HGH, he needs to get a deal done. He to me, is just a joke. You want to do whatever you have to do to make sure there's not a competitive edge in this sport. Blood tests? I don't know. They've been crying about blood tests for the longest time. I think that's too intrusive. There's other ways and other methods, I think, to go about testing for it. He's been on the crusade about HGH, but he needs to be on a crusade about getting these owners together and trying to work out a deal. He's a joke because every time I look he's talking about performance enhancements instead of trying to figure out a way to make sure football is played in August."
Mason said he would tell Goodell that he's a joke to his face, too.
"Yeah I mean he's no kin to me," Mason said. "He's a grown man and I'm a grown man, but you know we're walking around and he's talking about performance enhancements and keeping the sport clean, which is a big thing, but I think right now you know the fans don't want to hear about that.
"That's the last thing they want to hear about. They want to hear about what are you doing as a commissioner to get both sides together to try to work out a deal and you're going around and you're talking about other things as opposed to putting together two sides and trying to work out a deal."