FORT MYERS, Fla. -- When Major League Baseball called Curt Schilling on Thursday night, he admitted to offering misleading statements … 4 1/2 years ago. 

But as for this week's claim that a member of the Red Sox medical staff had suggested back in 2008 that he use human grown hormone to recover from his right shoulder injury, that's something Schilling isn't backing away from one bit.

In talking to both the MLB officials and WEEI.com, Schilling stood by his statements made on Colin Cowherd's ESPN Radio show Wednesday, referencing the encouragement by a Red Sox employee to use HGH. Where he steered the league investigators wrong, the former pitcher explained, came a few days after the comment was made.

"They came to Boston to do an interview with me and ask me about the situation," Schilling said by phone. "[Thursday night] when I talked to them I basically kind of came clean. I said, 'Listen, at the time I was more concerned about my teammates and the organization, and in hindsight it was probably the wrong thing for me to do.' I didn't realize it at the time, but they also wanted to make sure this wasn't some separate incident."

As for the '08 incident in question, Schilling said he remembers it vividly.

Schilling said the comment was made by a member of the team's medical staff who is no longer employed by the organization, clarifying it wasn't former trainer Paul Lessard, former strength coach Dave Page, former team medical director Thomas Gill or anybody from the front office. 

"Call it naive, stupid or say whatever you want, when I said what I said that it was somebody formerly in the organization I assumed that would end any legitimate big conversation about it. But it did the opposite because it whittled the list down to a select group of people and now everybody is trying to figure out who it was," he said. "That was just stupid on my part, because it wasn't Tito [Francona], it wasn't Theo [Epstein], it wasn't Jed Hoyer, it wasn't a baseball ops person. Think about the clubhouse. Who would actually be in the clubhouse to talk about something like this."

According to Schilling, the interaction actually took place in the trainers' room during a homestand that began on June 20. Just a few days earlier, in Cincinnati, he had thrown what would be his last bullpen session, succumbing to pain in his injured throwing shoulder.

Schilling already had been at odds with the organization throughout the '08 season over the proper way to treat his injury. The pitcher wanted to undergo a procedure known as biceps tenodesis, with the team preferring to promote a comeback through non-surgical rehabilitation. But with his failed throwing session in Cincinnati, it appeared as though going without surgery wasn't going to be an option.

According to Schilling, it was after that realization that the comment in question was made.

"He was talking to me in a setting there were other people who could hear," Schilling said. "There were probably five or six guys who were there that could hear the conversation and did hear the conversation, because I had follow-up conversations where I said, 'Did that really just happen?' "

When asked if the words could have been taken out of context, Schilling said, "There is no possibility that it was a joking conversation."

Schilling immediately informed both Francona and Epstein of the incident, telling them, "I had a very uncomfortable conversation."

Epstein informed MLB of the incident, setting off an investigation that lasted what Schilling believed to be less than a month. When talking to the officials, however, the pitcher downplayed the comments, later saying he was prioritizing how any fallout might affect his teammates.

"When I look back on it, I should have followed through," he said. "I should have gotten the guy fired and I didn't, because I was, wrongly, more concerned about the team. … The reason I was having that conversation with anybody else was, 'What if he's having that conversation with a 23-year-old player?' Because I didn't have anything to lose."

Schilling said that it was that "nothing to lose" mentality that the comment was partly born from. 

"I didn't think it was the tip of the iceberg, by any stretch, because I was in such a uniquely different situation then anybody in that clubhouse," he said. "I'm at the end of my career. I'm playing a year I probably didn't expect to play a year and a half before that, and I had an injury I got caught blindsided by, and here I am halfway through a season being paid money for not performing, which I had never done. He was right. I didn't have anything to lose. I guess my bigger concern was I didn't want this to affect the team."

As for the fallout from resurfacing the incident, Schilling wants to set the record straight regarding his motivation.

"A lot of people are saying I'm trying to get attention, and nothing could be further from the truth," he explained. "I guess the point I was trying to make was, it's not always bad guys making bad decisions. I don't think it's common. I think it's rare at best, but it happens. It wasn't to throw anybody under the bus or to draw attention to myself. I answer the questions I get asked, and there are probably sometimes I should probably take a breath and think about the answer I'm about to give. But I'm honest about it, so I'm not worried about being caught in a lie, so I do speak quickly about things maybe I should think about because I certainly didn't mean to cause any trouble for Tito or Theo or Jed or anybody. And I would tell you, in hindsight, the process worked the way it was supposed to. The club immediately notified MLB. There was an immediate, very thorough, very deep investigation, and they took care of it."