By Charles Bricker

It's nearly 8:15 p.m. and 60 Minutes, delayed as usual this time of the year by an NFL game, has finished up with, I thought, a darn fair examination of Andre Agassi in the wake of the revelations in his forthcoming book, "Open."

I'd been struggling more than a week with what to say about Agassi, but resolved a few days ago to wait until his well-advertised appearance on 60 Minutes, and I'm glad I did. I wanted to hear what he had to say, and I wanted to examine the way he said it. A lot of the conflicted feelings I had about him when this story broke are now resolved in my mind, and I feel at this moment about Andre pretty much as I did when he retired at the U.S. Open in 2006 -- one of the great tear-jerking moments in tennis.

He's an extremely sympathetic figure and, yes, taking crystal meth for much of 1997 was stupid, immature and, worst of all, showed how much disrespect he had for himself. He's been excoriated by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Martina Navratilova, to name three high-profile tennis figures, and I thought he was going to break down during the interview when Katie Couric read Navratilova's remarks.

"Shocking. Not as much shock that he did it as shock he lied about it and didn't own up to it. He's up there with Roger Clemens, as far as I'm concerned. He owned up to it, but it doesn't help now," said Navratilova.

Strong words from a woman who carries as much or more baggage as Agassi did with a long list of anti-American remarks and words about former President George Bush which reminds one of the worst and most vicious comments that have been directed recently at Barack Obama.

Then there was the former women's star Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, ridiculously suggesting Agassi admitted to all this in order to sell his book. The idea that he needs to sell anything with the money he and wife Steffi Graf have taken from tennis is ludicrous.

No one, of course, is endorsing Agassi's use of drugs or his lying to the men's tour. But while I believe the game has been hurt by this news, I find it hard to be as outraged as all these people.

To begin with, I prefer to look at Agassi's full body of work -- years of post-drug use as one of the great gentleman-sportsmen in the game and his years of commitment to educating poor children in Las Vegas.

Next, there is a very real debate about whether meth enhances or detracts from performance on the court. It's an upper. It makes you feel good when you feel depressed. But it's not a steroid and it doesn't help build strength. Students take it to stay awake in order to cram for exams. I'm sure there are a lot of out-of-work people taking meth these days as they ponder how they're going to feed their families.

As bad as meth is for you, it doesn't equate to steroids, which makes Navratilova's comparison to Clemens so much drivel.

Taking meth was wrong, not only because it has the potential to further destroy your life but because it's illegal. But it obviously didn't make Andre play better tennis. Until November of 1997, he was a dog and his ranking dropped to 141.

If he had been on top of the world with a string of Grand Slam titles and taking meth like some bored, rich Hollywood star, it would be difficult to summon up any sympathy. But he was taking the stuff at a low point in his life, looking for a release. Or, as Agassi said when he first took it, "It can't be any worse."

He said he began taking meth after a bad loss to Pete Sampras left him dispirited and, perhaps for the first time, thinking about quitting the game that his father drove him to play from the age of 4.

It was early in 1997, he said without identifying the exact or approximate time, that he took his first dose and not until late in the year, after yet another bad loss, this time in Germany, that coach Brad Gilbert told him he should either quit the game altogether or start over.

He started over, going home to Las Vegas for a Challenger, then on to Burbank, Calif. The wins were coming again and after the worst year of his life he seemed committed to a turn-around.

But not long after his comeback he got The Call, telling him he had tested positive and that he needed to offer an explanation. He lied and the ATP either bought it or decided the publicity would be really, really bad for the game. You'll have to make your own call on that one, since there's no evidence one way or the other.

You can trash Agassi if you like. He deserves a good trashing. But he also deserves a heavy dose of sympathy here. This is not the bad human being Martina makes him out to be. If there is one thing we've learned about Agassi over the years, and which is clearly authenticated in this book, it is that he is a complex person with a very big heart.

He made a mistake and, though he got away with it, maybe he feels as if he has to punish himself now. Marc Antony had it right about people like Navratilova: "The evil that men do live after them. The good is oft interred with their bones."

I wish even 10 percent of the stars in this game were 20 percent as honest as Andre Agassi.

Charles Bricker can be reached at bricker@tennisnews.com

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