As we wait for the next shoe, baseball cleat, track spike or supposedly sealed courtroom document to drop, we take time to ponder this week's newly revised definitions of the word leak:
* To let a substance in or out through an opening, such as what occurs when a world-class athlete injects human growth hormone from a hypodermic syringe into his or her leg.
* A crack or hole that usually by mistake lets something escape, such as those cracks and holes now breaking out all over Notre Dame's once airtight image as America's College Football Program Above It All.
* Urban Meyer's new quarterback once he takes over at the University of Florida.
(To use it in a sentence: "One reason why Meyer snubbed Notre Dame and signed on with Florida instead was because Florida has Chris Leak and Notre Dame doesn't.")
* To allow to become known as information given out covertly, such as the grand jury testimonies of Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi, or not so covertly, such as ABC's teaser "preview" of its Friday night "20/20" interview with BALCO founder Victor Conte that made Thursday, Dec. 2, 2004 quite possibly the worst day in the life of Marion Jones. So far.
This has been the week of the leak, with some of the greatest reputations in American sports getting flushed in the process -- as well as, oh, yes, the law.
Friday, Michael Rains, Bonds' attorney, could be seen ranting on ESPN about the leaking of his client's grand jury testimony to the San Francisco Chronicle, saying that "the judicial system, the grand system, has broken down. And as a result, the confidence of my client in the justice system has been eviscerated and he has been betrayed."
Roger Cossack, ESPN's legal analyst, said that "one of the sacrosanct laws of law is that grand jury testimony is and should be and should always be secret until the event (under investigation or indictment) is completed. And that's something that's etched in stone."
Cossack said that if he were one of the defense lawyers representing BALCO, "one of the questions that I am going to bring up is one, whether or not I can get a fair trial in San Francisco, and, two, whether or not the leaking of this material has jeopardized my ability to put on a defense to the degree that possibly I would want to get it dismissed.
"Now that of course wouldn't get me out of the hot water, because they could re-indict with a new grand jury. But nevertheless, if it was successful, it would certainly help them."
