Old interview with Crawford.
http://velonews.competitor.com/2005/08/news/coach-speak-a-conversation-with-rick-crawford_8792:
RC: I get very angry when somebody points a finger at me. I have a fiery personality. I carry a lot of passion and I carry it out there. It’s just the price of success. When your guys start kicking ****, everybody wants to know why. It’s a sad commentary that human nature is that way, but when you start enjoying the kind of success that my athletes have enjoyed it seems like the first thing people say is well they must be using drugs.
I understand the mentality because there was a time when I pointed fingers when I was a professional triathlete. I wish it wasn’t that way. I think that what Matt DeCanio stands for is good. He’s against drugs. I am against drugs. I get ticked off when that finger gets pointed at me, a guy who has pretty much walked a straight line. It ticks me off. I try to act with integrity and good character. These guys don’t even know me. I’ve never met Matt DeCanio. Period. My accusers don’t know Rick Crawford. That chaps me.
If they really want to accuse me of something, they ought to come to town, find me and talk to me. When someone I don’t even know comes from left field, it’s easy to create a conspiracy. The guys I work with are very high profile. It’s easy to say well they are involved with that team and that team had a program, and I know this guy and he said that. Well, you know, rumor and innuendo are very dangerous.
I wouldn’t do anything different. My guys have achieved great things and I know that my involvement has been clean. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that every one of my guys have never done drugs, but if they have I’m certainly not aware of it. And they’d have a problem with me. I don’t want to be associated with that. There are too many good people in my circle for one bad egg to drag us down.
That’s the nature of sport, though. Every sport where there are dollars to be made has been corrupted in some way because humans are a flawed product. I’m a flawed product as well, but in that respect I’m proud of the fact that I went through my entire athletic career on nothing stronger than ibuprofen. And that’s the strongest thing that I’ve ever recommended that my athletes take. Anybody who doesn’t believe that can come down here, dive into my records, do whatever you want. But don’t sit across the country on the Internet and accuse me, because the next time I see you, you are going to have to deal with me face to face.