Moody column: Embarrasing week for Goodell

This has been one week the NFL and Roger Goddell, the league’s commissioner, would love to forget.

The now-famous elevator footage of Ray Rice knocking his then fiance out and then dragging her out of the elevator in a New Jersey casino has caused quite a stir.

And, now running back Adrin Peterson of the Vikings has been indicted in Texas on what amounts to child abuse charges. The Vikes did the right thing by de-activating him for today’s game.

Fans were outraged when Goodell gave Rice just a two-game suspension. Rice told his employers he hit his fiance with an open hand. The new footage showed Rice lied. Obviously a lot of alcohol was consumed, and that’s never good. Still, you don’t hit a woman. It’s not like Rice’s fiance was going to hurt him unless she had a knife or gun, which she didn’t. When TMZ aired the elevator footage, the Ravens released Rice and the NFL suspended him indefinitely.

Goodell is taking a lot of heat. He claims not to have seen the footage until it became public knowledge. Maybe he’s telling the truth and maybe he isn’t. The Associated Press reported a source said he sent the NFL the footage back in April. I understand the NFL is a big corporation, but if Goodell is trying to cover up the fact he’s known about the tape all along, he should be fired. If he really didn’t ever see the tape and one of his underlings had it but kept it private, then that person should be fired.

Either way it’s a mess, and the NFL is looking bad. Very bad.

•••

I have to laugh at all the excitement at Nevada beating Washington State last weekend. Washington State is in the Pac-12 in name only. Pack fans if you want to get excited about beating a Pac-12 school save it for when you beat an Arizona State, Stanford, UCLA, USC or Oregon, and that is likely to happen when pigs fly.

A win is a win, however, and now Nevada is four wins away from earning a bowl bid. People talk about winning eight games. That would be nice, but Nevada has to prove it can go at least .500 in road games, and entering Saturday’s game at Arizona, coach Brian Polian had yet to win a road game in his career.

•••

Oakland Athletics fans have to be in a state of shock right now, and they should be pointing a finger at management for dealing Yeonis Cespedes to Boston for left-handed ace John Lester, who has pitched well for Oakland.

The problem Oakland is having these days is producing runs. Cespedes could carry a team offensively, and none of the other A’s have stepped up to replace him.

Oakland may make the playoffs, but it will be the pitching staff that will have to carry the team if it expects to go far in the post-season.

•••

Western Nevada College has two fall softball doubleheaders — Sept. 20 against Shasta College and Oct. 10 against Butte College — at Edmonds Park. Coach Leah Wentworth is also trying to organize a small tournament in which WNC would play some club teams.

The Wildcats played in a three-day tournament last weekend in Utah, and Wentworth was pleased by what she saw.

“There were a lot of positives and so far, they are showing great chemistry,” Wentworth said. “They all have a really good attitude whether they were playing or not.”

Briauna Carter, who led the state of Utah in home runs in her final prep season, was recruited by the Wildcats at last year’s tournament. Carter delivered a mammoth homer in Utah, and Tyra Tyler hit home runs in three consecutive at-bats over a two-game span.

“We have a lot of depth right now, which is great,” Wentworth said.

“It’ll be exciting to see where we are going to end up at the end of the semester. We are deeper than we’ve ever been and that’s going to make us better in conference play.”

WNC will cap its fall scrimmage season with an October 25-26 weekend series against College of the Siskiyous in Weed, Calif.

•••

I thought Carson High’s boys soccer team might be in a rebuilding mode this year, but that hasn’t been the case.

Carson is 3-0 and has scored 13 goals in knocking off Reno, Reed and Spanish Springs.

The real tests will come when Carson goes up against Hug (Wednesday night at 7) and Wooster.

New coach Mike Alvarez promised more offense this year, and so far his team has delivered.