It’s been said many times before, but it needs to be repeated: This is a forgiving nation. Americans expect other Americans to take responsibility for their actions. They have tolerance and understand for people who make mistakes and own up to them. They have no patience and no sympathy for people who look to weasel out of trouble by blaming others or denying guilt.

Imagine if Barry called a news conference. Right now. In it, he took the podium and told the assembled media:

“It’s true. I took steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. I did it because I am an intensely competitive individual and I was looking for an advantage. I saw others doing it and said to myself, ‘Why not?’ Looking back, I realize now that I made a huge mistake. Instead of honoring the game I love, I helped bring embarrassment to it. I also may have unintentionally influenced young people to follow my example and endanger their health by taking steroids. I am deeply and sincerely sorry and hope you will someday forgive me.”

Why not? If he did that, he’d have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Everybody already knows he took steroids. It’s not a secret anymore, thanks to the BALCO grand jury and to authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. If a suspension occurs after the MLB investigation, it will have happened anyway, no matter what Barry said or did.

If Barry offered a mea culpa, he would suddenly transform from a figure of derision to one of respect. Then we could all get on with our lives. Even his pursuit of Ruth and Aaron would be more readily accepted because people would move on and celebrate the career of a great player — and Bonds is indisputably one of the all-time greats, steroids or no steroids — rather than dwell on the cheating. And he would get into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.

Remember the tragic arc of Rose. He kept denying, denying, denying. Finally, when he was backed into a corner so deeply that his backside took the form of a right angle, he admitted he gambled on baseball. But by that time, fans, MLB officials and media were so disgusted with his act that they shunned him, and he remains shunned.

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Bonds seems to be following the Rose playbook. He tried to sue the authors of “Game of Shadows” to keep them from profiting from it. He didn’t deny the information was true, he just argued they should not have been able to obtain it, a baffling and inane position. His attorneys are issuing asinine statements of praise for Bonds while excoriating his critics. This is a supreme example of why jokes like “Question: What do you call 100 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? Answer: A good start” continue to get big laughs.

This illustrates that Barry doesn’t get it, that he has no perspective, that he is jogging down the path toward exile and ridicule rather than glory.

Again, it’ll never happen. But if Barry Bonds should somehow tell the truth and offer a sincere and heartfelt apology, he might just get the biggest ovation of his career.