Larry, Moe and squirrely

In professional football, when an official catches an offensive lineman holding a defender, you hear a whistle, see a flag thrown and yards stepped off against the offending player’s team.

But many NASCAR fans will tell you in a heartbeat that pro football is a “stick-and-ball sport.” And that NASCAR is different.

Here, just one day removed from the National Stock Car Racing Commission’s ruling and NASCAR’s announcement regarding penalties for Messrs. Carl Edwards and Robby Gordon and their teams, some fans, writers and radio and TV personalities are hotly debating the issues.

The merits – or lack thereof – of the penalties, the appeals process and nearly everything else even remotely involved are getting a pretty full airing. And the airing will likely continue through the upcoming Atlanta race weekend.

I really like some of the stick-and-ball sports, football particularly. And I dearly love stock car racing. But I sometimes get a little troubled when I hear people arguing so passionately about how vital cheating is to the success – yea, the very fabric – of the sport of stock car racing.

Innovating, being creative and working in the gray areas would be the preferred terms, of course.

Here's another term to consider: Integrity.

What if, say, the National Football League’s rules didn’t specifically forbid an offensive tackle from reaching over and tying together the shoelaces of the defender across the line from him. Should that be a “gray area” to be exploited? Or should it at least be so until the rules are rewritten to expressly prohibit it?

If the same player on offense pokes his rival in the eye or even sticks his fingers up his nostrils and leads him around like a farmhand putting a halter on a stubborn calf, is that working in a gray area, too?

And, if the rules didn't specifically address those kinds of things, would the first guys who got caught doing them be applauded as innovators?

No, maybe not. But NASCAR is different.

All right, maybe these aren’t even fair comparisons. Tying shoelaces together is kind of Three Stooges. And gouging and nose-pulling? Those sound more like pro rasslin’ than any of the other, legitimate sports, don’t they?

Oh, wait ...