It came from the message boards

So you’ve traded Babe Ruth. Bought a minority share of the Wiz. Signed a contract with Don King.

And now? You’re on a one-way elevator to athletic damnation. Heading down.

Way, way down.

You pass the gluttons (Hello, Mr. Kemp!). The thieves (Mommy, look: It’s Ike Austin!). The sowers of discord (Michael Westbrook, are you wearing a black belt?). And finally, good ol’ Beelzebub himself (Stuart Scott? Boo-yah!).

But that’s not the end of it.

Nope, there’s one more floor to go. A tenth circle in the Sports Inferno. The deepest, darkest, most forsaken pit of them all, a place where fiction is fact, rumor is currency and gossip is seldom — if ever — idle.

In other words, Internet message boards.

Forget the morning paper. Never mind talk radio. For the nastiest, nuttiest — and occasionally, most knowing — sports scoop, look no farther than cyberspace. Try the boards at Rivals.com. Or ESPN. Or Yahoo!. Or hundreds of other team and sport web sites.

On public forums and private boards, from anonymous posters and registered users, you’ll see and read the darndest things. Most of it spirited. Much of it spurious. Some of it even sincere.

Former Alabama football coach Mike Price’s wild roll, er, ride? It came from the message boards. Former Iowa State basketball coach Larry Eustachy’s dubious taste in domestic brew? Likewise.

As for some other notable ‘net rumors — like Steve Spurrier becoming the next coach at Notre Dame — well, the truth is out there. Orbiting Pluto. Alongside New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza being gay, Michael Jordan taking the Illinois basketball coaching job and the impending retirement of Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden.

Who, it should be noted, is still in charge of the Seminoles. At least as of last night.

“Oh, yeah, we have to deal with that [rumor] every year,” said Rob Wilson, Florida State’s assistant athletic director for media and public relations. “The message boards are a huge headache. They develop a life of their own.”

Do they ever. Like all vices, Internet — gambling, pornography, online solitaire — sports boards are wildly popular. Popular enough to warrant a feature in last week’s Sports Illustrated. Popular enough that one Washington Redskins board boasts 1,720 registered members and some 1,600 visits a day — and is dwarfed by comparable boards for Auburn, Tennessee and UCLA.

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