Mea Blogga

"When I arrived in Blogistan in 2004, I felt an enormous amount of pressure. I felt like I had all the weight of the world on top of me and I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day," INOTBB told ESPN's Peter Gammons in an exclusive interview in an undisclosed location in Oxnard, CA.

"Back then, [blogging] was a different culture," INOTBB said. "It was very loose. I was young. I was stupid. I was naive. And I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest bloggers of all time.

"I did take a banned substance. And for that, I am very sorry and deeply regretful."

In his first prime-time news conference, President Barack Obama called INOTBB's admission "depressing" news.

"And if you're a fan of blogs no one reads, I think it tarnishes an entire era, to some degree," Obama said. "And it's unfortunate, because I think there were a lot of bloggers who played it straight. Except for Jonah Goldberg, who was no doubt high on donut fumes."

INOTBB later added (as it's so hard to add earlier): "I was stupid for three years. I was very, very stupid" and said: "The more honest we can all be, the quicker we can get blogging [back] to where it needs to be. Particularly those of us on the left need to start forming that circular firing squad. And even if he's not on the left, let's put Joe Torre in the center first. A-Fraud that, Joe.

"When you take this gorilla and this monkey off your back, you realize that honesty is the only way," INOTBB said. "Plus, with a gorilla and a monkey, you can start a small zoo. Everyone likes to see gorillas. I'm finally beginning to grow up. I'm pretty tired of being stupid and selfish, you know, about myself. I'm really hoping I can be selfish about someone else for a change. And with my money, I think I can buy someone to be selfish for."

INOTBB also told ESPN's Gammons of his 2007 interview with Katie Couric on 60 Minutes, when he denied ever using steroids, that "at the time, Peter, I wasn't even being truthful with myself. How am I going to be truthful with Katie or CBS? I could have been truthful with Jon Stewart, but then said it was all ironic. But he never had me on. At the least my interview with Couric was better than Sarah Palin's. I mean, I've never said I know James Wolcott because I can see a link to him from my blog."

INOTBB also criticized Sports Illustrated for never putting him in the blogger swimsuit issue. INOTBB also said Selena Roberts, one of SI's reporters who covered the story, stalked him. He also accused Roberts of trying to break into his home last week while his two greyhounds were sleeping. Sports Illustrated released a statement, saying it "stands by the story and the professional manner in which it was reported. We tried sitting by the story, but we looked silly. Selena Roberts is a distinguished journalist and her reporting in this case led to INOTBB's admission that he used performance-enhancing drugs. That the drugs didn't enhance his perfomance isn't SI's fault."