No Lie, There’s a Pattern Here

Now that Denver Coach Mike Shanahan was cleared of any wrongdoing by the NFL after blatantly lying about Jake Plummer’s injury in last Sunday’s victory over San Diego, lots of other people in the league can step up to the confessional.

With the help of Google.com, I did a Web search coupling the names of players, coaches and owners with “lied,” and quickly compiled a list of people who must be dying to come clean. A sampling in no particular order:

Dolphin cornerback Patrick Surtain said Buffalo receiver Eric Moulds lied in saying the two patched up their differences at the Pro Bowl last season.

Josh Booty said the Browns lied to him when they released him this week. “It’s crazy. Where’s the loyalty?” asked Booty, who spent the last two seasons backing up Kelly Holcomb and Tim Couch.

Cleveland Coach Butch Davis lied to his University of Miami players, telling them he wasn’t going to take the Browns’ job, then turning around and doing just that.

Redskin receiver Laveranues Coles said New York Jet Coach Herman Edwards lied to him when he said, in Coles words: “As long as he’s there, I would be.”

At Florida State, Coles lied about accepting a plane ticket from an agent.

The NFL wants Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett to wait another year before making himself eligible for the draft. Clarett was suspended for the season by the Buckeyes for, among other things, lying to investigators.

Clarett said Ohio State officials lied to him about why he was not able to fly home from the Fiesta Bowl to attend a friend’s funeral.

Buffalo quarterback Drew Bledsoe took special pleasure in beating New England Coach Bill Belichick this season, especially after Bledsoe felt lied to by the coach when Tom Brady took over as the Patriot starter.

Minnesota defensive coordinator George O’Leary was fired by Notre Dame for lying on his resume.

The Buccaneers think Bill Parcells lied to them when he took the job as head coach, then changed his mind and later wound up in Dallas.

Raider owner Al Davis -- who surely never fudged on anything -- said this of Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum officials: “They lied to the community, they lied to the press, they lied to the Raider fans, they lied to the Raiders, and they lied to the taxpayers.”

Shanahan said the lying Raiders lied to him when they didn’t pay him his full severance package. The Raiders, of course, say he’s lying.

Then again, what’s a little fibbing among friends?

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It has been a long time since the Chargers gave San Diego fans much reason to cheer. The team has lost six in a row and nine of 11. Its home record is 20-29 over the last six seasons.

Can Marty Schottenheimer turn things around in his second season? The two coaches who preceded him couldn’t. Kevin Gilbride went 2-4 before being fired in 1998, a sophomore slump that was outdone by Mike Riley, who went 1-15 in his second year.

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Charger running back LaDainian Tomlinson had seven 100-yard games last season, but Baltimore’s Jamal Lewis doubts Tomlinson can do the same Sunday against the Raven defense.

“I would be surprised,” Lewis said in a conference call with San Diego writers. “I’m not saying that he wouldn’t get 100, but I would be surprised if he did. If he did, it would be a hard-fought 100 yards.”

Lewis has bigger goals in mind. He set the NFL single-game rushing record last Sunday with 295 yards against Cleveland and needs 182 against the Chargers to break O.J. Simpson’s two-game record of 476. The way Lewis gored the Browns certainly got the attention of Charger defensive players.

“He’s got exceptional balance and power,” defensive end Marcellus Wiley said. “But the thing that really took him over the top was his reckless abandon. He’s running like he’s mad. So much anger there. Some of his cuts and straight-arms showed he was a man possessed. With those straight-arms, those guys probably still have hand marks on their chests. It was ugly.”

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A record 10 interceptions were returned for touchdowns last week, bringing the 2003 total to 14, also a record for the first two weeks of the season.

Raider safety Rod Woodson, who has returned a league-record 12 interceptions for touchdowns, is coming off minor knee surgery and might not play in Monday’s game at Denver. A year ago, he ran one back 99 yards against the Broncos, helping the Raiders to their first victory at Denver since 1994.

The Raiders should find a way to get him on the field. Woodson is 17-1 in “Monday Night Football” games, the best mark in league history for players with at least 10 appearances on that stage. He was 10-1 with Pittsburgh, 3-0 with San Francisco, 2-0 with Baltimore, and is 2-0 with Oakland.

Among the players behind Woodson on the Monday night list: John Matuszak (14-1), Kenny King (12-1) and Leon Searcy (12-1).

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The last time Oakland linebacker Bill Romanowski played against the Broncos -- his former team -- he locked arms with Shannon Sharpe, fell on him and left the tight end with a dislocated elbow. Sharpe later said he suspected it was intentional.

“I don’t know if I disliked him, or if I disliked the things that he did,” Sharpe told Denver reporters this week. “When someone keeps doing something, you say that that isn’t him; he is just making some bad decisions. Sometimes those decisions reflect the person. I loved that he worked hard and that he was punctual. He always did the things that got him ready to play football. He was a very team-oriented player. Then he does stuff that makes even his teammates say, ‘Why are you doing that?’ I think that is the biggest problem I had with him.”

From spitting in the face of San Francisco receiver J.J. Stokes on national television, to punching out Raider teammate Marcus Williams at practice, Romanowski is the worst kind of thug. And, Sharpe wonders, what don’t we see?

“What about the stuff he did at practice in Philadelphia, San Francisco or [Denver] that wasn’t documented?” he said. “At some point it becomes a distraction for your team and [in] your locker room.”

So will Sharpe and Romanowski talk through their differences when they face each other Monday night? Don’t bet on it.

“On the field,” Sharpe said, “we talk about as much as me and President Bush.”

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The Seahawks are the only team without a turnover through the first two games. If they keep that up Sunday against St. Louis, they’ll be the first team since the 1998 Patriots not to cough up the ball in the first three games. The NFL record for fewest turnovers (14) was set by the 1990 Giants, who went on to beat Buffalo in Super Bowl XXV.

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The NFL and Major League Baseball were honored Wednesday by the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., and Hall of Fame receiver Steve Largent, a former U.S. Congressman, gave a speech introducing NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.

Largent talked about his lifelong love of football and recounted when the Seahawks played at Chicago in Walter Payton’s final game. Seahawk linebacker Brian Bosworth was assigned to shadow Payton wherever he lined up, and the Boz was embarrassed on several big plays.

Finally, he got a wide-open shot at Payton and plastered him to the turf, hitting him so hard that pieces of Payton’s helmet flew off. Instead of staying down, Sweetness popped to his feet and smiled at the player who would become one of the NFL’s all-time busts.

“If you run that play again,” Bosworth growled, “I’ll bite your head off.”

Payton didn’t miss a beat.

“Bosworth,” he said, “if you do that, you’ll have more brains in your stomach than you ever had in your head.”

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Also attending that black-tie dinner were Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard and former mayor Bill Thomson, chairman of the Rose Bowl Operating Company. They were sitting at a table bought by John Moag, the Maryland investment banker spearheading the push to land an NFL team for the Rose Bowl. Sitting between Bogaard and Thomson was Roger Goodell, the league’s chief operating officer and a pivotal player in getting any stadium deal done.

If you think that means Pasadena is ahead of the pack, hold on. The league is talking to the Coliseum too -- the fact Tagliabue has acknowledged the mere existence of that stadium is news -- and it’s also poking the embers in Carson. This time, though, league executives are talking directly to Carson city officials rather than dealing with Michael Ovitz and GMS Realty, whose proposed deal fell apart in embarrassingly short order.

Even though Ovitz is out of the picture, the Carson site is still toxic. The way I hear it, capping that former dump could require on the order of 200,000 truckloads of dirt. That’s a logistical nightmare and could drive the price even higher into the stratosphere.

Not even Shanahan can produce that much steer manure.