COMMENTARY : Manley Can Only Wait, Keep Doing His Best

Now Dexter Manley must sit and wait. Maybe he has a feeling, maybe he doesn’t. He said he feels “very optimistic” but his attorney advises him that “cautiously optimistic” might be a more prudent position. All the evidence, oral and documented, is in. Paul Tagliabue, the NFL commissioner, is judge and jury. He will return a verdict on Monday, though sources indicated Friday that Manley most likely will be allowed to return to the league.

Dexter Manley, if you could pour truth serum into him, would tell you he fully expects Tagliabue to allow him to resume his career after a year’s suspension for drug use. We all expect that Tagliabue will let Manley back. But he would be the first drug-policy violator to return after only one season of suspension. As attorney Bob Woolf said: “We take nothing for granted. We understand the pressure the commissioner is under in making the decision.”

So begins the longest weekend of Manley’s life.

“Mr. Woolf is my adopted dad for the weekend,” Manley said, squeezing Woolf’s shoulders like a roll of Charmin as the two emerged from the meeting. “Actually, it will probably be just about the same as that weekend last year. The thing that was different about last time was I already knew the verdict.”

He was referring of course to another trip to Park Avenue, when a positive drug test -- for cocaine use -- forced his suspension from the league. There wasn’t a lot of suspense.

He said he wasn’t living in the past, though, and he wasn’t going to think negative thoughts like the possibility that Tagliabue would say no. “I’ve been disappointed before,” he said. “But one of the things that’s different is that I’m positive about life. I’m positive about myself. I’m positive about the fact that the commissioner let me come here and state my case.”

The hour-plus meeting was closed, but it is not hard to imagine the essence of what was said. Manley said he has worked hard to get his life in order and Tagliabue wanted to see proof. Woolf and Manley offered everything they had, documents testifying to the details of Manley’s aftercare and rehabilitation and a physician’s written prognosis. We assume Tagliabue wanted to know as much about Manley’s future as his past. There Manley had no proof to offer, only sincerity. “I told him that there’s been a lot of growth on my part,” he said.

Like everything else that has happened to him since age 18, this chapter of Manley’s drama was played out in public. When he and Woolf stepped out of the front doors of the NFL office on Park Avenue this sun-kissed day, nine TV cameras awaited, as did 20 or so reporters. Giants fans stopped by. Cabbies parked their cars on a busy Friday to listen to Dexter.

“Hey, you gonna play for dem damn Redskins?” one man dressed in a Giants jacket shouted out.

The new Manley, Diplomat Dexter, answered very carefully. “I’d like to leave all my options open.” Assuming he is reinstated, he will have plenty of options, but playing again for the Redskins probably won’t be one of them. The Redskins have had every chance to say they want him back and haven’t.