Grip on Sports: Cover-up is always worse

Thursday: There is one subject on everyone’s lips right now, so I guess we have to address the Ray Rice cover-up and the fallout from it.

If you are of a certain generation – in other words, old – you learned the lesson long ago the cover-up is usually what causes the most damage, not the act itself. It’s just another thing for which we can thank Richard Nixon and his band of nattering nabobs.

However, Roger Goodell must not have been in class the day that lesson was taught. Wouldn’t you think Goodell, the NFL commissioner, would have made sure of his facts before he went before the NFL nation this week and said no one in his office had seen the elevator video prior to Rice’s suspension being handed down? After all, that information made his administration look pretty inept, so, at the very least, it better have been correct. But it doesn’t seem to have been.

The Associated Press published a pretty well-sourced story with a law enforcement source saying he passed the DVD onto the NFL and someone in the league office acknowledged having watched it. So yesterday afternoon and this morning, the airwaves and Internet and  newspapers are full of folks either calling for  Goodell’s head or his heart, whatever  seems more painful. Right now, it seems as if they may just get their wish. But I’m not sure.

Goodell is a prime reason why the NFL owners are, to quote Hyman Roth, bigger than U.S. Steel. So they will have to balance the tarnish the league’s brand is receiving against Goodell’s utility to them. It may be close.

Ray Rice’s suspension? It seems to have been overshadowed by the revelations concerning the video – and the conversations about it. Just yesterday in the Bay Area, where the  49ers have done nothing concerning one of their players who has been arrested and charged with a domestic violence crime, the team  suspended their radio announcer, Ted Robinson, for saying something stupid about it.

Let me get this right. The player who is accused of an illegal violent act against another human being is still practicing and playing as if nothing happened. But someone who said something the team deemed inappropriate and insensitive (and, yes, it was both) is suspended – for the same length of time Rice was originally suspended after obviously knocking out his fiancée. Just wanted to make sure I had that correct.

Monday: College football coaches all over America are still looking for the right mix.

They are fiddling with their teams, trying to find the right formula that will result in a winning season. They are dealing, in small part, with schemes. Mainly, though, they are dealing with their players.

Armed with two games’ worth of film, coaches are making adjustments. You will see it happen everywhere, but nowhere is it needed more than locally. Washington State is 0-2 and in desperate need of coming up with the right formula on both sides of the ball.

The offense and defense are both 1-1, one good game, one bad game. But that doesn’t add up to victories. Decisions have to be made and this week, with FCS also-ran Portland State coming to town, seems to be the time to see if they are the correct ones. It also seems to be a good week to deal with some psyches that are probably a little bruised. It wasn’t just Cougar fans who believed this season would begin differently. The Cougars themselves felt that way too.

Up the road, Eastern Washington’s questions are a bit different. The Eagles are good but have a chance, and a desire, to be great. After three games, there are some physical bruises that have to be healed, sure, but there are other aspects that need tending as well. The offense? It’s humming. The defense? Well, that’s different.

The Eagles knew coming into this season it would be that side of the ball that would be the difference maker. A great offense and a solid defense would probably add up to a national title.

But solid seems a bit elusive right now. Solid teams don’t give up a Bloomsday’s worth of yardage during a game, even one against a Pac-12 foe. Especially a midlevel Pac-12 foe. So it’s back to the laboratory, mixing bowls in hand. It’s time to find the right formula. The winning formula.