Show will go on

Time to take a deep breath, folks.

Yes, the world of pro sports had a scandalous week.

Yes, we have a famous NFL quarterback accused of having dogs fight for his amusement and killed for his disdain.

Yes, we have an NBA referee accused of wagering on games he worked and making calls favorable to the line he bet.

And yes, if true, any and all of that is disgusting and stupid.

But it isn’t life-threatening for the institutions -- the NFL, the NBA or even referees in general -- who all are currently reeling while figuring out when to start spinning.

This much is certain: The sun will come up tomorrow.

This is not meant in any way to minimize the charges against the Atlanta Falcons’ Michael Vick, or the NBA’s Tim Donaghy. Nor is it a treatise on innocence until proved guilty, even though, in this day and age of Duke lacrosse cases and rushes to judgment on Marion Jones’ performance-enhancement habits, finger-pointing needs be selective.

Still, there appears to be so much smoke around Vick and Donaghy that prospects of huge fires breaking out in the near future are good. Newspaper reporters or website typists with agendas who make these sorts of accusations are one thing; Federal investigators altogether another.

So, for the moment, what do we do? How do we think, act? What do we say?

Anger is fine, appropriate. Hand-wringing is acceptable.

Vick has been called so many names in two or three days that we’ve pretty much got it off our chests.

Turns out, you can anger sports fans -- but don’t mess with PETA.

Now Donaghy has taken our anger to a bigger target, to an institution we never quite trusted but badly wanted to. Barry Mano of Racine, Wis., is a perfect spokesman for that institution. He is president of the National Assn. of Sports Officials (NASO), and Friday, while prefacing all statements with the phrase “if this is true,” he was clearly a man shouting out a window for all the world to hear.

“What we bring to the table is impartiality,” Mano said. “Without that, we’re lost. That makes this a horror story.”

Mano also used the word “tragedy” frequently in several conversations, which, in his world, is accurate and understandable. He comes from a family of NBA referees, and he knows no matter the legal outcome of the Donaghy case, what life will be like for his constituency next season.

“Hey, rock head. How many dimes you got down tonight?”

“Nice call, Jimmy the Greek.”

Yes, the fans will speak. Loudly, angrily. Their trust will be hard-earned. For a while, they may look upon their experience more like going to buy a used car than attending a basketball game. For a while, they may not go at all, which would be a fair message to both league and referees, who should have, somehow, prevented this.

But eventually, fans always come back. Remember how many said they were done forever with baseball during strikes? Remember how quickly baseball was back setting attendance records?

Both Vick and Donaghy, if guilty, have done temporary harm to the sports and institutions that paid them handsomely and defined them. But neither is big enough to bring them down, or, in the long run, even do much serious damage.

We love our sports. They are both entertainment and big business for us. They are pillars in deep cement.

Vick and Donaghy just hit us with a couple of cherry bombs, and nothing fell.

The NFL will react with appropriate anger and punitive action to reassure fans and, more important to them, big sponsors.

League administrators of sports officials, NBA and others, will treat their referees more like whipping boys than they do now, which in some leagues is considerable.

And Mano and his group, who coincidentally meet for their annual Summit of Sports Officials starting July 29 in Denver, will put their heads together -- all 250 of them spanning many sports -- and seek understanding and solutions.

A couple of grief counselors might find work there too.

For a while, every officiating call will be linked to a sports book in Vegas, every close loss on a controversial ruling will be further proof that everything stinks. There will even be those demanding that officiating duties be taken over by technology.

But reality will set in. It will become clear that Donaghy is one official in a sea of others who, remarkably, have stayed clean. Plus, hollering at machines is no fun.

More so, we have always conducted our sports this way -- people ruling on other people. We may hate the system, but it is our system.

Most likely, it will be 20 years before another NFL player will be seen in the same state as a dog fight. Most likely, sports officials will be so far under the microscope -- lie detector tests, random phone-call monitoring, etc. -- that you can bet there’ll be no bets.

Sometimes, from this much bad comes some good. We may even want to thank these two alleged perpetrators someday.

Bet your bottom dollar.

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Dwyre can be reached at bill.dwyre@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Dwyre, go to latimes.com/dwyre.