Was it just a month ago that professional sports was reeling a bit?       
NASCAR had been slapped with a $225 million lawsuit by Mauricia Grant, a former Nationwide Series official who claimed racial and sexual discrimination against her former employer with tales of institutional racism and sexism within NASCAR. On top of that, a great NBA Finals was being dwarfed by the accusations of a disgraced former referee who said some NBA refs are “company men” who have at least occasionally helped orchestrate the outcomes of games for the sake of TV ratings and match-ups that are more desired by the league.
Then, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won a race for the first time in what seemed like a decade. Junior Nation sighed relief — and probably, so did some NASCAR officials who would like to see all the talk of lawsuits just fade away.

It is dangerous for a professional sports league to shrug its shoulders at accusations that are so severe that they make you shake your head in disbelief if you’re jaded and disgust if you’re not.

It kind of worked that way for the NBA, too. The Celtics, its most storied franchise, returned to glory by beating the Lakers. Oh, and Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open so dramatically with a bum knee, beating would-be Cinderella-man Rocco Mediate in a playoff.
When all that happened, the members of the sports-loving public just wanted to talk about sports.
I can’t blame them.
But it is dangerous to allow the end of Junior’s 76-race winless streak to bury the story of Grant. It is dangerous for a professional sports league to shrug its shoulders at accusations that are so severe that they make you shake your head in disbelief if you’re jaded and disgust if you’re not.
One columnist wrote of the NBA that no one would risk federal prison for the sake of TV ratings.
Oh, really? When TV ratings relate directly to money? And when some of the things talked about occurred prior to the league’s recently signed TV package?
But let’s relate that argument to the case of Grant, an African-American woman who some say set up NASCAR with tedious note-taking of every affront.
This is 2008. America is more litigious than any society in the world. Workers at all levels have been warned time and again of the dangers and results of sexual harassment in the workplace. NASCAR, an entity that has tried so hard to make itself appeal to corporate sponsors by coaching, cajoling and fining its drivers to be as inoffensive (dare I say vanilla?) as possible, would certainly be no place for men and managers who still live in 1950-someplace. Right?
I mean, no one would expose himself to a co-worker. No one would use the name “Nappy Headed Mo” — not even in an ill-conceived attempt at humor, not even behind someone’s back. Right?
If you believe Grant, who was allegedly called “Nappy Headed Mo,” and who was allegedly in a hotel when one of her co-workers purposefully exposed himself in a hallway, then you’re probably pretty dumbfounded by it all.
Who do I believe? I honestly don’t know. I do know that two of Grant’s former co-workers were suspended by NASCAR soon after those charges came to light.
I do know that NASCAR President Brian France didn’t help his cause by going on the attack several weeks ago, while, no doubt, praying that Earnhardt would win a race to help all this unseemly business go away for a while.
And I know that if the NASCAR officials accused of saying and doing these things did indeed say and do them, then shame on them because that’s wrong. And it’s not a joke, not unless everybody’s laughing. You know it’s wrong because maybe you learned it in Sunday school or maybe you learned it in grade school or maybe in some corporate seminar designed to save the reputation of a corporation or a company and to stop $225 million lawsuits from happening, if not to save someone’s feelings. 
NASCAR caught a break with a little Junior-created slight of hand. And now Tony Stewart is leaving Joe Gibbs Racing for an ownership stake in Haas-CNC Racing, so the talk of lawsuits is somewhere off in the back pages.
It’s a big thing, a bad thing — and the NASCAR leadership has to tread carefully in the court of public opinion before it ever gets to a court of law.
This business is not going away for good — no matter how many races Earnhardt wins or how many teams Stewart buys into — just like every questionable foul call in a big game will never be seen quite the same way by NBA fans.