Newsday: Harrington curious about Woods rumors, too

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- Padraig Harrington has won the British Open twice, won the PGA Championship, which makes him stand out from the crowd.

In other matters, gossip for example, Harrington's no different than the rest of us. He has a nagging curiosity.

"It's just part of life,'' conceded Harrington. "That's what we do. We're all interested in a bit of gossip and what's happening. And usually it's a long way from the truth.

"But it's part of human nature, I suppose.''

Harrington is in Southern California to play in the $5.75-million Chevron World Classic at Sherwood Country Club.

That's the tournament Tiger Woods hosts, the tournament that benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation, the tournament at which this year Tiger Woods is a no-show.

On the Tuesday of the Chevron, Woods normally spends about 45 minutes with the media in what has been labeled his State-of-the-Tiger address.

This year, when the demand for a few words from Tiger never has been greater, he was 2,600 miles away, having sent his regrets.

Woods crashed his Cadillac Escalade at 2:25 a.m. Friday outside his home at the gated community of Isleworth, a posh suburb of Orlando, Fla. That's a fact. Another fact is the Florida Highway Patrol has cited Woods for reckless driving and fined him $164.

Why he was hurtling out of his driveway long after midnight has been the root of the speculation, and a Las Vegas woman has asserted she had an affair with Woods.

Woods issued a statement after the accident claiming "the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible.''

It is the rumor stuff that people, including Harrington, find fascinating. "I have not spoken with Tiger,'' Harrington said Tuesday. "I know very little about this, barring what I've been reading online. I've learned a few new Web sites this week.''

Whether one was TMZ, the Hollywood-based gossip site that has published stories embarrassing to Woods, he wouldn't say. But Harrington did say he's drawn to scandalous stuff much like everybody.

"You get drawn in by it," Harrington said. "But at times when you're involved in it, you can see how far away from the truth they get.''

Steve Stricker, who is also playing in the Chevron, went undefeated with Woods as his partner at the Presidents Cup, and their wives walked together in some of those matches. He usually gets a quick answer when he sends a text message from Woods. This time, not a peep.

"Since I haven't heard back, I imagine he's in -- I don't know the right word -- a lot of pain," Stricker said. "And I don't even know what that means. I don't know what it's all about. I just feel bad for the guy. He's getting hammered in the media."

"I haven't talked to him," said Mark O'Meara, who took him under his wing when Woods turned pro at age 20 in 1996. - With AP

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Copyright © 2009 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday: Woods won't show up at own benefit tournament

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- It's his tournament, but Tiger Woods isn't playing. Isn't even planning to show up. That's hardly a surprise considering his physical condition -- the bruises -- and maybe the mental one.

On his Web site, Woods announced Mondaythat he would be "unable'' to compete in the Chevron World Challenge, which because the event benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation and normally is hosted by the man, has come to be known as the "Tiger Woods Invitational."

The statement gave the reason as "injuries sustained in a one-car accident'' early Friday morning in front of his home at Isleworth, outside Orlando, Fla.

"I am extremely disappointed that I will not be at my tournament this week,'' Tiger is quoted. "I am certain it will be an outstanding event, and I'm very sorry I can't be there.''

The other players, such as Lucas Glover, who won the U.S Open at Bethpage and Steve Stricker, No. 3 in the world who partnered Tiger at the Presidents Cup in October, are no less sorry.

They'll be pestered with questions about what they think happened to Tiger and caused the crash, a subject which as the days pass has grown dramatically.

The accident at 2:25 a.m. Friday sent Woods to a hospital in an ambulance and has sent gossip columnists into a frenzy.

Why was Woods leaving his home in the wee hours? What about a report in the National Enquirer that Woods had an affair with New York hostess Rachel Uchitel in Australia? Did Woods' wife break the window of his Cadillac Escalade with a golf club to pull him from the accident or because she was enraged over the rumors?

Perhaps Woods didn't want to face the questions. Perhaps, because of scratches and cuts on his lips and cheeks, he didn't want to face the public or the scrutiny.

"This is a private matter, and I want to keep it that way,'' Woods said. "Although I understand there is curiosity, the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about me and my family are irresponsible . . . ''

The 18-man Chevron tournament is held at Sherwood Country Club, an elite gated project with a Jack Nicklaus-designed course and around the perimeter off $4-million and $5-million mansions, one of which is owned by former hockey star Wayne Gretzky.

The club is located about 40 miles west of downtown Los Angeles, in the Santa Monica Mountains, where Los Angeles County ends and Ventura County begins. The original M*A*S*H TV series was filmed nearby.

Woods has been involved with the event, under different sponsorships, since the 1999 start in Arizona. It was shifted in 2000 to Southern California, where Woods grew up.

Although not on the official PGA Tour schedule, the Chevron attracts some of the world's top players and annually serves as Woods' opportunity to review his year in a State-of-the-Tiger address.

That normally would be held Tuesday, but it was canceled along with his entry in the event. Woods almost certainly will not play in any tournament until the end of January.

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Copyright © 2009 Newsday. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: USC Rubs It in Against UCLA

in ,
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

LOS ANGELES -- Pete Carroll said it was only because he has the heart of a competitor. So, leading by a couple of touchdowns, with less than a minute to play, USC went deep. Into UCLA's heart.

Another touchdown for the Trojans. Another blow to the Bruins. And almost another one of those brawls which are an embarrassment to college football.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2009

SF Examiner: After 50 years in basketball, Attles remains a true Warrior

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

OAKLAND — He didn’t think his pro basketball career would last a day. It’s lasted 50 years. With one team, the Warriors.

There’s a song in “Follies,” the Sondheim musical of aging chorus girls recalling the 1920s and 1930s, titled “I’m Still Here.” Good times and bum times, the lady has been through them all. So, in his own way, has Al Attles. And always with the Warriors, whether Philadelphia, where he and they started, San Francisco or Oakland.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Singletary still has work to do

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

His phrase was “the enemy within,” an apt description of the opponent the 49ers, as any team where losing has been the norm, must learn to defeat before consistently defeating other teams.

We had a whiff of the idea from Mike Nolan, who perhaps went about it a little too vociferously. Losers think like losers. Winners, to the contrary, believe they will win.

Now we find Mike Singletary, all motivation and emotion, pounding even harder on the theme established by the man he replaced 13 months ago: The culture must change before the record will change.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company

Gradkowski might make it last

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OAKLAND -- He was talking about the team, about the Oakland Raiders. “Ultimately,’’ said Bruce Gradkowski, “we can make this last.’’ He just as well could have been speaking about himself.

Maybe this time, Gradkowski finds permanence as an NFL quarterback. Maybe this time, he ends up on a roster instead of transactions.

“He’s just what a quarterback should be,’’ said Raiders tackle Robert Gallery of Gradkowski. “Confident, has the trust of everybody, because he knows that he’s doing.’’

As opposed to the man he replaced, JaMarcus Russell, who was expected to do what on Sunday Bruce Gradkowski did, lead Oakland to a comeback victory, this one 20-17 over the Cincinnati Bengals.

If the Raiders made a bad choice in Russell, the No. 1 selection in the 2007 NFL draft, they made a wonderful choice in Gradkowski, signed as a free agent after being dismissed by three other teams in the preceding year.

Ultimately, maybe they can make it last, the Raiders and Gradkowski, a team that has been for years wallowing in the lower depths and a quarterback who has to keep proving himself.

There’s some pedigree. The 26-year-old Gradkowski was a star in the same West Pennsylvania high school league as Joe Montana, Dan Marino, Joe Namath and Johnny Unitas. Taken in the sixth round of the 2006 draft by Tampa Bay, he became a starter and then an afterthought, going to St. Louis and Cleveland in an un-merry-go-round.

“That’s how the NFL is,’’ said Gradkowski, who played his college ball at Toledo. “You shift around here and there, and finally you catch on and get a break.’’

Sometimes that depends on whether your receivers catch a ball, which is what two Raider rookies did at very significant times against a Bengals team eight days from a win over the Steelers.

Darrius Heyward-Bey, of whom it was said early on had more names than catches, made a grab of a Gradkowski ball early in the third quarter on a third-and-three play of a drive that culminated with a Sebastian Janikowski field goal.

Later, with Oakland behind 17-10 and only a half-minute remaining, Louis Murphy made a beautiful over-the-shoulder reception and pushed over the goal for a 29-yard touchdown that tied the score.

A Cincinnati fumble on the subsequent kickoff, and a Raider recovery, enabled Janikowski to kick the 33-yard game-winning field goal.

For the first time in four games, the Raiders had a victory. For the first time since the season's opening week, the Raiders had more than one touchdown.

For the first time all season, it seemed the Raiders had a quarterback on whom they could depend.

“He looked pretty good,’’ Raiders coach Tom Cable said of Gradkowski.  So, too, did Cable, who after replacing Russell last week for a second straight game made the decision in mid-week to go with Gradkowski in the opening lineup.

“I thought he was too amped up early in the game,’’ said Cable. “But that’s what I expected. He needed to settle down. But after, he was pretty darn good . . . and I don’t know if you can ask for a better closing drive.’’

It was the stuff of Montana, or Tom Brady or Peyton Manning.  It started on the Raiders' 20 with 2:12 remaining and included a fourth-and-10 pass for 29 yards to Chaz Schillens. Gradkowski spiked the ball and then threw the ball 29 yards to Murphy.

“He’s pretty calm,’’ Cable said of Gradkowski. “He goes out before a drive and has some thoughts with (the coaches). He knows where he’s headed. He’s into feedback. He’s into it the way you’re supposed to be.’’

Asked why Gradkowski had been signed and waived, signed and waived, Cable said, “You have to get things going right away in this business, very quickly, or you’re not around very long. That’s coaches, players, whatever.’’

Especially you’re if a sixth-rounder. If you’re the first guy taken in the draft and have a $32 million contract, as does JaMarcus Russell, you’re around perhaps longer than you should be.

Gradkowski showed up for the post-game interview dressed as if he going to a Hollywood party, in suit and tie. “Watch out for the glare off my head,’’ he joked, what hair that still remained having been shaved.

He explained that on the tying touchdown, Heyward-Bey was the first option but was covered. “I went through my progression,’’ said Gradkowski, “and saw the defensive back was on top of (Murphy), so I just kind of threw it the back shoulder. He made a great play. But if he didn’t get into the end zone, I was going to give him crap.’’

Something the Raiders had received more than enough of this season, and in recent seasons. But on this day, they were deserving of praise. And Bruce Gradkowski of getting that starting position as an NFL quarterback.

RealClearSports: Stanford Finds Out How Physical Cal Can Be

in ,
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

STANFORD, Calif. -- It was won on the ground. And between the ears. It was all the physical battle everyone predicted and maybe every bit the mental one no one suspected.

Stanford was on a roll. "The hottest team in the country,'' insisted Cal coach Jeff Tedford. But in this 112th Big Game, Cal was hotter, more efficient, and considerably more effective.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2009

RealClearSports: Pete Carroll Cares, and Proves It

in ,
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

LOS ANGELES -- The question came from the man who the past few days had been hearing too many of them.

This one, however, wasn't about how to repair a humbled football team, his team, USC.
Instead, it dealt with how we might repair a damaged society.

"Why should we care?'' asked Pete Carroll rhetorically.

Then he answered. "Because, we can change the culture.''


© RealClearSports 2009

RealClearSports: Belichick and Harbaugh Deserve Our Thanks

in ,
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- So here was Jim Harbaugh, who tried to tell us he didn't want to take chances, going for a two-point conversion with his Stanford team far ahead, being linked to Bill Belichick, who as we know took one very large chance.

Harbaugh, the guy who just got an extension to stay at Stanford, and why not, since he proved kids who study are kids who can play, was about to step to the microphone in a bayside sports bar/brewery/dining establishment called Gordon Biersch.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2009

SF Examiner: Heisman hype has shifted from Best to Gerhart

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — The Heisman Trophy often seems less a reward than a promotion. To be considered, you have to have talent, but you also have to have publicity, Hollywood-type stuff which catches the public’s imagination and schools hope catches the voters’ attention.


Cal went about it the right way with Jahvid Best, a superb running back, who played the hype game every bit as well as he played football, until he came crashing onto his head a couple of weeks ago, incurring a concussion which cost him not only any chance at the trophy, but also a chance at getting back on the field this season.


Now, it’s the guy across the Bay, Toby Gerhart of Stanford, who’s getting noticed, and while he won’t win it either, the shame is that two legitimate Heisman candidates could have been competing in the 112th Big Game on Saturday at Stanford Stadium.


Read the full story here.


Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company

Will it ever work for JaMarcus and the Raiders?

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By Art Spander

OAKLAND -- He was supposed to the savior, the guy who dragged the Raiders from the mess they’re in, the quarterback who made the right calls and the proper throws. It hasn’t worked that way for JaMarcus Russell, and now, after he was benched a second straight game, you have to wonder if it ever will work.

So many factors, interconnected, inseparable, a bad football team, a questionable offense and then a young man who was the first selection in the draft and thereby supposed to correct the wrongs, supposed to turn the Oakland Raiders into winners.

But after the Raiders were beaten Sunday by one of the NFL’s other bad teams, the Kansas City Chiefs, 16- 10, a team over which Oakland had gained one of its only two victories this season, the future is more ink blot than window to success.

While it’s unforgiving to assign all the blame to JaMarcus -- his receivers offering little or no assistance, head coach Tom Cable counting eight dropped balls that should have been caught -- Russell has a great deal to do with the problem.

Or else Cable, for a second straight home game, wouldn’t have replaced him with Bruce Gradkowski.

And wouldn’t have conceded that he very well might start Gradkowski when the Raiders play Cincinnati next weekend, Cable adding that after watching the films he will have something more to say on that Monday.

Quarterbacks do not all develop at the same rate. Progress is relative. And those with potential invariably are taken by the bottom dwellers, the worst teams, meaning their baptism will be exceedingly painful. And yet it is the how and why of all this that adds to the doubt.

JaMarcus was a star at LSU with an arm able to launch rockets and a body (6-foot-6, 260 pounds , maybe 290) able to take punishment. He lacked finesse, polishing, but the belief was that it would come in the pros. He didn’t lack confidence, or after a long holdout ended and he signed for a $30 million guarantee, was that arrogance? Along with the tools Russell brought an attitude, or so it was perceived, the idea he was someone special. He isn’t.

He’s a struggling kid, the target of boos from a Raider fan base that seems to be shrinking by the week -- attendance at the Coliseum was only 40,720 -- but is not shrinking in its disdain for JaMarcus. Every wild pass was met with vocal derision.

This is JaMarcus’ third year, although he missed most of his rookie season, 2007, and the erratic performances are less baffling than they are irritating. Then again, maybe he’s not at fault -- if indeed he has worked to improve as Cable contends he has, it’s the Raiders who are at fault, for drafting him.

It’s the nature of sports, particularly the NFL, that a team chooses the athlete and then when he doesn’t live up to expectations, and there are no expectations higher than those for the very first pick every year, he gets the criticism, the boos, as opposed to the people who selected him.

Russell comes across as uncaring because he doesn’t scream and yell. He also doesn’t seem to grasp the mistakes, or at least doesn’t admit to them.

“I thought things were going OK at that point,’’ said JaMarcus, who was replaced late in the third quarter. Asked if he were disappointed, Russell said, “Totally. I really can’t explain it. I don’t know what to say. (Cable) said balls were going every which way, but one time my arm was hit when I threw.’’

What Cable said was that Russell, completing only 9 of 24 for 67 yards, misread several throws, two where receivers were unguarded. “It was a matter of game management and accuracy,’’ explained the coach.

It also was a matter of poor hands by his possible receivers or, and this isn’t shocking to anyone familiar with the Raiders, penalties. If Darrius Heyward-Bey or Louis Murphy hang on to a pass or two, maybe JaMarcus stays on the field.

“They affect you,’’ said Russell. “A couple of those aren’t dropped, it’s a totally different game.’’

By the time JaMarcus was taken out, the Raiders’ Shane Lechler had 10 punts, or one more than Russell had pass completions. Eventually, as a team, the Raiders, with Gradkowski going 4-for-7 and also having a couple of long passes dropped, would end with 13 completions. And 11 punts.

Asked if he were disappointed in Russell, Cable responded, “I’m disappointed where we are as a football team. This game is about making plays, and we just didn’t do it, whether it was JaMarcus or Bruce.’’

The Raiders have scored more than one touchdown only in one game this season, opening night. They ranked 32nd, dead last, in the league in offense. The Chiefs were 30th. And now both teams are 2-7.

And now JaMarcus Russell hasn’t finished two of the last three games he started.

“Some guys take longer than others,’’ Cable said, defending Russell. “He’ll get there at some point. He’s a talented guy.’’

But so far one without a clue how to play quarterback in the NFL.

RealClearSports: Cutler Turns Over a Victory to the 49ers

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- In the future we're destined to have pro football eight days a week. It's unavoidable, like death and taxes. Fumbles, interceptions, holding penalties by the hour.

But right now it's only Sunday, Monday and, had we forgotten, Thursday night, that series now restarted to the delight of NFL Network if not the game's purists.

The San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears each played, and lost, Sunday, and then four days later, they were forced to face each other by the side of San Francisco Bay, two not very good teams offering a lot of not very good football.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2009

RealClearSports: Agassi Becomes an "Open" Book

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

It was the great Jim Brown, arguably the finest of running backs, who when asked from the distance of retirement to analyze his career said a person should be occupied by things other than trying to judge his own importance.

Brown was of a different era, a different time, when sport and humility were interwoven. He ran for a touchdown, handed the ball to an official and moved to the sideline, without self-promotional gyrations. He performed. We cheered.

Andre Agassi was born in 1970, five years after Brown left the NFL, and the connection is that there's a disconnection, even if Agassi reached a point in his sport, tennis, that Brown reached in his, the top.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2009

Niners may not be who we thought they were

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SAN FRANCISCO -- The rant was predictable. What Mike Singletary said was the way the 49ers played, or in truth misplayed, is unacceptable. “Stupid stuff,’’ was his terse analysis of another game squandered.

Indeed, but should we, and he, expect anything else?

Maybe the Niners, who Sunday at Candlestick Park lost their fourth straight game, this one to the bottom-feeder Tennessee Titans, 34-27, are no more than they can offer.

Maybe those wins in September were illusory, giving everyone including the head coach the mistaken idea the team was in the upper echelon of the NFL.

Maybe the thought San Francisco could for the first time in seven seasons finish with a winning record, or at the least an even record, was the stuff of fantasy rather than reality, a dream for the faithful nurtured on the greatness of Montana and Young, Lott and Rice.

Indeed, the Niners could have beaten the Titans, perhaps should have beaten the Titans, whom they led 20- 17 in the fourth quarter. But they didn’t, and no matter how you analyze it, the four Alex Smith turnovers, three of them interceptions, the inability to shut down  Tennessee running back Chris Johnson (135 yards and two touchdowns), that’s all conversation.

Singletary, who now has a losing record, 8-9, since being elevated to then interim head coach a year ago, spoke of giving away the ball and of giving away games, both contentions being undeniable.

“The No. 1 thing is we cannot turn the ball over,’’ said Singletary after the Niners record slipped to 3-5, “and that’s the thing that basically killed us today . . . We’re not finishing football games. If you go back to Minnesota, back to Indianapolis, back to the game today, take your pick, we’re not finishing games.’’

But the response to both explanations is a question, to wit: Why? Why are the Niners making mistakes? Why are the Niners blowing leads down at the end?

Could it be their players simply are not as good as the other team’s -- even a team such as the Titans, which won a second straight game after opening with six consecutive defeats? Could it be the offensive game plan, so restrictive, doesn’t fit the players in the lineup?

Singletary is understandably supportive of offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye, since he is the man who chose Raye. And no intelligent coach knocks his players, not when there are eight games to play, one of those games in quick turnaround on Thursday night against the Chicago Bears at the ‘Stick.

But Alex Smith isn’t there yet, despite all out-of-control optimism constructed over the previous two games. And the offensive line remains a problem, even though Singletary avoided a direct assessment of this game with the answer, “You know what, the past two weeks, I think they played well, I really did.’’

They didn’t play terribly well when Alex, who appears more comfortable in the shotgun formation he played at the University of Utah, was under center in the “T.’’

Smith was sacked four times, one of those resulting in a lost fumble with some nine minutes left in the third quarter when the ball was knocked out of his hand as he reached back to throw.

Raye, the coordinator, had been criticized for his conservatism, mainly because Shaun Hill was at quarterback. But with Alex playing a third straight game and starting his second in a row, it wasn’t what was called -- Smith threw 45 passes and completed 29 -- but the style that was utilized.

So many of the passes were short and wide, four yards, five yards. Alex has an arm. What he didn’t have was time, and perhaps Raye figured that into the equation.

What nobody figured was Smith would throw three interceptions, although one came after the Titans had taken a 27-20 lead in the fourth quarter, and Alex was forcing an attempted comeback and two others came after tipped balls.

“I wouldn’t say that at all,’’ Singletary insisted when asked if the interceptions were Smith’s fault. “I thought Alex was playing well today, for the most part. When you get turnovers, obviously you can’t say that, but I thought he made some good decisions . . . It looked to me that he was getting the ball where it needed to go.’’

The 49ers are not getting where they need to go. Losing to the Vikings, then undefeated, at Minneapolis, or to the Colts, still undefeated, at Indianapolis, both narrowly, is no sin. But losing to the Titans could be considered one.

When Alex, as a starter four and five years ago, before the injuries and agony, had an unusual number of fumbles, someone, fact or fiction, determined Smith had abnormally small hands. Singletary refused to enter that discussion.

“What he did in the past,’’ Singletary said of Smith, “I’m going to leave in the past. All I know is what I saw today was a quarterback throwing the ball pretty effectively. As far as the fumbles, we have to look at it, but I’m a little bit surprised he hasn’t fumbled more. When you get a quarterback that’s coming in new and not taken any snaps during the year, there are some of the things you’re going to have early on.’’

It’s early for Alex. For the 49ers, it may be later than they think.

RealClearSports: Harbaugh Turns Stanford Into a Winner

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

STANFORD, Calif. -- Stanford didn't as much play football as endure it. It was a place kids went so they could get into medical school or create Google, not get into the NFL. There was a reason it was nicknamed Harvard of the West, besides the academics.

Then a coach named Jim Harbaugh arrived a couple of years ago with the stubborn idea kids who had brains could also be kids who had athletic ability. He was going to recruit people who not only could score on the SATs but also on the field.

Read the full story here.

RealClearSports: Cable's Troubles Becoming Unacceptable

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND -- No one's ever judged this region by what might be called normal standards. The Bay Area, Northern California, was settled by Spanish missionaries, who were pushed out by pioneers looking for gold, with a lot of frontier justice on the side.

The edge of the continent may have put a limitation on movement -- this is as far west as you can go without a ship or a surfboard -- but there never has been any limitation on ideas, no matter how irrational or unpopular.

Almost anything is acceptable. Almost.

This situation with the man who coaches the Oakland Raiders has all but reached a point of unacceptability, with people who don't know exactly what happened screaming "Off with his head'' and those in a position to find out the details saying very little.

Oakland is one city south of the Protest Capital of the World, Berkeley, or as the late columnist Herb Caen called it, "Berserkeley.'' It was an Oakland native, Gertrude Stein, who said of the city, upon returning to find her old home had been razed, "There is no there, there.''

These days, with Tom Cable being accused of everything except that recent mechanical failure of the Bay Bridge, the one that closed the structure for eight days, there is plenty there.

Too much for Cable and the Raiders organization.

The Raiders have a bye this weekend, which, when you're 2-6 for 2009 and haven't had a winning season since 2002, might be viewed as beneficial. Instead, it's proving just the opposite, since media that might be focused on the team's troubles instead are concentrating on Cable's.

And they are many.

During camp in August, up at Napa in the middle of the wine country -- where else would a Nor Cal team train, anyway? -- Raiders assistant Randy Hanson incurred a broken jaw during a meeting of the coaching staff.

He accused Cable of causing the injury, either, as the story goes, by shoving him out of a chair in which he had leaned back, or punching him in the jaw.

After an investigation, and surely deliberation, the district attorney of Napa County declined to press charges, maybe because he didn't believe the case was strong enough, maybe because Napa didn't want to aggravate the Raiders and chance losing them to another city.

For a few days after the announcement, the Raiders' subject matter dealt with the ineffectiveness of third-year quarterback JaMarcus Russell and other paranormal items. Then on its "Outside the Lines'' program last Sunday, ESPN provided the revelation that some 20 years ago Cable had hit his ex-wife and early this year smacked a girlfriend.

The Raiders contended they were blindsided by ESPN, a network the team contends harbors a grudge against it. But to the credit of the Raiders -- meaning owner Al Davis, considerably more sensitive than his critics want to believe -- and chief executive Amy Trask, the allegations were not taken lightly.

"We will undertake a serious evaluation of this matter,'' read a release from the Raiders. "We wish to be clear that we do not in any way condone or accept actions such as those alleged.''

This was not good enough for the National Organization for Women, which demanded Cable be suspended while the allegations are checked out. It wants NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who has spoken about fairness, to make a statement about Cable.

Earlier in the week, asked about his future, Cable insisted, "I'm coach of the Raiders, and I think my future is to be coach of the Raiders.''

Al Davis does not like firing coaches, despite all the coaches he has fired, and he likes even less dismissing them during the season, having done that only twice, Mike Shanahan and Lane Kiffin, over the past 40 years.

But this uproar over Cable is an embarrassment. It may even become a distraction, although the players, worried about their own futures and paychecks, invariably ignore everything except trying to keep the opposition from making a touchdown while making some touchdowns of their own.

Cable conceded he did slap his first wife, with an open hand, not a fist, and has regretted it. He said he did not strike any other female.

A team as bad as the Raiders, groping for any reason to be optimistic, hardly needs the current scenario, a coach under fire for reasons other than his record, and even the folk of Northern California wondering what is going on.

Any moment, we may all go over the edge.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

RealClearSports: Urban Meyer Teaches a Bad Lesson

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

They're teachers. That's how coaches describe themselves. They take pride in helping the youth of the country, instructing them in how to become better players, become better citizens.

We're always hearing about the second part, how what a coach wants most is to prepare a kid for life after sports.

Do something wrong, you get punished. "Coach Suspends Halfback'' is the headline. Unless he's too valuable. Then, well, as we're often reminded, discipline will be private.

Or virtually non-existent.

Urban Meyer, the Florida coach, has his own ideas about justice. And lesson-teaching. They might not be similar to ours, but we don't have to think about national rankings and the BCS.

Our ideas have to do with the difference between right and wrong.

To Meyer that difference is only 30 minutes, half a football game.

One of Meyer's players, linebacker Brandon Spikes, was caught last Saturday on videotape intentionally sticking his fingers through the facemask and into the eyes of Georgia's Washaun Ealey.

A dirty move, a cheap shot. And an incident replayed again and again on the various networks.

It bothered us. It didn't bother Meyer, not to the point he would keep Spikes out of uniform for the next game, against Vanderbilt.

Meyer understood he was required to make a showing. So he announced Spikes would have to sit out the first half of the Vanderbilt game. Then Spikes will be permitted to go out and gouge someone else's eyes.

"I don't condone that,'' said Meyer. He seemingly was referring to what Spikes did, not about his own decision.

Out west in September an Oregon running back, LeGarrette Blount, sucker-punched a Boise State defensive end after the game, and Blount was suspended for the season. Or, barring a change in mind by Oregon coach Chip Kelly, to this point in the season.

But in the Sunshine State, the coach looks at violations a little more kindly. Or at the AP rankings a little more intently, not that Florida should need Spikes to beat Vanderbilt.

What it does need, however, is a sense of perspective and an understanding that there's no place for scofflaws in activities built on rules and fairness.

Reprimands have been popular of late in our sporting world. Chad Ochocinco, the Cincinnati Bengals receiver, was fined $10,000 for wearing a black chinstrap. That NFL certainly has its priorities.

Then a golfer nobody ever had heard of, Doug Barron, became the first PGA player to be suspended for violating the Tour's performance-enhancing drug policy. He's gone for a year.

Now, Brandon Spikes is going to be banished for an entire 30 minutes of a 60-minute college football game. That should make him contrite.

"I talked to him,'' Meyer said of Spikes. "That's not who he is. I love Brandon Spikes.''

And then my favorite phrase in failing to explain why an athlete gets away with almost anything, "We're going to move on.''

They're going to do anything to avoid the facts, the implications, the embarrassment. They're going to worry about putting the ball in the end zone instead of putting a finger in an opponent's cornea or retina.

Why does it always have to be like this? Why does the final score have to supersede common decency? Why can't a coach, any coach but particularly one as recognized as Meyer, step forward and act responsibly, since he wants his players to act responsibly?

We know Urban Meyer can recruit and motivate. We know he's won national championships. What's so hard about admitting that there was a problem and, as a leader of boys who would be men, that problem will be corrected?

Why is Brandon Spikes being given a figurative slap on the hand used to attack an opponent's eyes? Why is getting a man into the lineup more important than getting a message across?

We found out long ago sport does not build character. What we found out the past few days from Urban Meyer was that anything is permissible. Except defeat.

The sin, the author John Tunis said, is not failing to act like a gentleman, but in failing to win. Florida fans are thinking of another national title, not of reprimanding an act that in some places would be considered disgraceful. Get the kid out of the doghouse and back on the field. That's all they care about.

And so that's all that Urban Meyer cares about. You're surprised he didn't have Brandon Spikes write an apology on a chalkboard. That is if Spikes is apologetic.

Urban Meyer certainly doesn't appear to be.


As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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