Maybe I should take it as a sign the league is maturing and the monolithic, sanitized and corporate single-entity media machine is losing control of its appendages. Either that or they haven’t a clue at Real Salt Lake.

It’s one thing to allege Peter Nowak made a racist comment. Allegations are charges and there are proper channels within which to pursue those charges. The referees at the match, as representatives of the USSF, should have been notified (evidently they weren’t). Major League Soccer should have been notified (evidently they weren’t either). Aside from the few who heard the charges aired live on Salt Lake City’s AM1280 - “The Zone” - everyone heard about them the same way: on BigSoccer.

Seemingly overlooked amid the “John said, Peter said” was word from Steven Goff that “league is not pleased with the way Salt Lake has handled it, especially Ellinger’s radio interview.” Asked later if there’s “Any chance Ellinger faces discipline from MLS for a false accusation,” Goff replied “I’m sure that is among the options for the league.” Those comments followed an earlier report in which Goff suggested Kevin Payne is “furious with Ellinger and Real Salt Lake for going public with the dispute.” In fact, Payne is quoted in the same article saying “The league also needs to look into how Salt Lake has handled it.”

Yesterday I tuned in live to hear Jeff Cunningham’s interview on the Bill Riley show on Salt Lake City’s “Hot Ticket 700.” Apparently someone had emailed Riley beforehand and was assured Cunningham would be asked to comment on the incident. Surely, I thought, MLS and Real Salt Lake had gotten control of the media message and Cunningham would say the league was now investigating the matter and beyond that he’d politely decline to comment.

That’s what I expected. It wasn’t what I heard.

I don’t have a transcript. So I can only talk about what I remember hearing. Cunningham admitted he couldn’t remember hearing anything. He was on the field at the time and by his own admission heard nothing of the event in question. But that didn’t stop him from offering a rather strong opinion on the matter. He said, paraphrasing, he knows Nowak. He knows he’s “rough around the edges” and it wouldn’t surprise him if he had said what Ellinger alleges. Cunningham expressed a general disappointment that even today racism remains a problem in this country, and then, apparently taking the allegations for truth, he expressed a particular disappointment in Peter Nowak. Cunningham concluded by saying he hopes the league takes some sort of “action” against Nowak and that he hopes some good will come of all this.

DCenters has a very diplomatic take on all this. I mean, really, it’s admirably diplomatic. Cunningham’s standing with his coach, other folks are standing with Nowak, everyone’s just waiting for MLS to get to the bottom of things. There’s surely something to that. And if Cunningham took that stance in private or within the team I’d understand.

But Cunningham went on the radio and repeated allegations as if they were facts. Peter Nowak has denied these allegations. Players who were sitting on DC United’s bench and heard the actual remarks also deny the charges. Kevin Payne has stood strongly alongside Peter Nowak and proclaimed his innocence. Does that mean he’s innocent? No, it means the incident is a matter of dispute and I’m perfectly willing to let the league’s investigation establish its truth.

Cunningham spoke as if he knew the truth; he spoke as if nothing was disputed here. What he said was completely out of line. Major League Soccer can’t conduct an investigation in which Peter Nowak’s guilt or innocence is supposed to be the core issue while league players continue to brand him a racist in the media.

(By the way, at this point DC United should also keep quiet. And to their credit they haven’t said a word since they denied the charges in Steven Goff’s article. That was appropriate at the time, and that’s all they should say until the league finishes its investigation.)

If as Steven Goff reports Real Salt Lake’s handling of this matter, and particularly John Ellinger’s decision to take it to the media before pursuing it through any official channels, are among the issues Major League Soccer is investigating, then I certainly hope Cunningham’s comments on the radio yesterday are undergoing some league scrutiny today. And regardless of what the league determines in Nowak’s regard, I hope some action is taken against Cunningham and I hope some good will come of his inopportune comments.