Fibbing is a part of American sports. Athletes habitually fudge their height by an inch or two. Coaches are less than forthcoming about the extent of a player’s injury. Contract negotiations are always shrouded in secrecy.

There is a difference between being less than completely honest and telling a lie of the bald-faced variety, though. The former can be shrugged off. The latter will earn consideration for this list of the five biggest lies in the history of Seattle sports.

The case: Slick Rick.

The lie: “I have not been contacted by the 49ers about this job.” Rick Neuheisel, Washington coach, on KJR-AM, Feb. 10, 2003.

Actually: Neuheisel was in San Francisco the previous day, interviewing with 49ers owner Jed York, GM Terry Donahue and Bill Walsh.

Type of lie: Bald-faced.

Level of embarrassment: High.

Rick Neuheisel’s relationship with the truth has always been complicated, but that’s only because he continuously cheated on it. In early February 2003, Neuheisel, the University of Washington’s football coach, became rumored as a potential candidate for the 49ers head-coaching job. On Sunday, when Neuheisel was supposedly on vacation in Idaho, he turned up at the San Francisco airport where he was spotted by John Levesque, a sports columnist at the “Seattle Post-Intelligencer.” They were on the same flight to Seattle. 

Neuheisel denied to Levesque he was there to talk to the 49ers, said he didn’t know that much about the job and produced a golf ball as proof of the actual reason for his visit. The column on the encounter acknowledged Neuheisel’s denial, but made it fairly clear Levesque thought Neuheisel was trying to hide the (fairly obvious) truth.

Well, Neuheisel spent Monday denying any interview had taken place and reaffirming his long-term commitment to Washington. The school even sent out a press release, and that afternoon Neuheisel insisted, “I’m not lying about this,” in a live radio interview with Mike Gastineau.

Except Neuheisel was lying about this. On Wednesday, the “Seattle Post-Intelligencer” published a column in which Levesque explained he overheard Neuheisel on the phone in the airport lobby describing what happened in the interview with the 49ers. Late Wednesday, Neuheisel copped to his lie, going on the radio to apologize for not being more candid, which is an absolutely hilarious way to admit to lying.

Neuheisel wasn’t fired for this incident, but when the NCAA investigated his involvement in a March Madness betting pool several months later, Neuheisel’s deceit regarding the 49ers job was one of the causes cited in his dismissal. Turns out there is something worse than lying: Continuing to lie when you’ve already been confronted with the fact that you’re lying.

The case: Oklahoma Bull.

The lie: “It is our desire to have the Sonics and the Storm build upon their great legacies in the Greater Seattle area.” Clay Bennett, new Sonics owner, July 18, 2006.

Actually: “We didn’t buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here. We know it’s a little more difficult financially here in Oklahoma City, but we think it’s great for the community and if we could break even, we’d be thrilled.” Aubrey McClendon, Sonics, owner, Aug. 13, 2007.

Type of lie: Utterly Shameless.

Level of embarrassment: Absolutely none.

The only reason that this isn’t the biggest lie in the history of Seattle sports is that nobody believed Bennett when he swore up and down he wanted to keep the team in town after purchasing it. He was at the forefront of an investment group in a city that was hankering for its own NBA team.

Now, it’s possible the Sonics might have stayed in town had the taxpayers been willing to build the half-a-billion-dollar facility Bennett proposed – in Renton by the way – but that wasn’t what the new owners really wanted as McClendon bluntly revealed in a moment of honesty with a reporter. NBA Commissioner David Stern fined McClendon $250,000 for the comment, but stood by while McClendon and his co-owners ripped the team out of town less than a year later.

The case: Yeah, right.

The lie: In June 2003, Mariners reliever Kazuhiro Sasaki suffered broken ribs when he stumbled walking up a staircase and fell on the suitcase he was carrying.

Actually: Unclear as there are a number of different accounts, most of them involving alcohol, wrestling and one rumor pinpointing the location as the street outside Fort St. George Restaurant in Seattle’s International District. However, the one thing that everyone agrees upon was that it was more than just a staircase, a loss of balance and a suitcase that led to Sasaki’s rib injury.

Type of lie: Eminently Understandable.

Level of embarrassment: Minimal.

What makes Sasaki’s story so funny is that it is incredible, boring and utterly improbable. No one at any point ever believed it was the full story, but no one actually cared about it all that much, either. Well, maybe the Mariners. They were paying him $8 million that season, but “Kaz Sasaki’s Suitcase” remains one of the greatest names ever for a fantasy baseball team.

The case: Foot in mouth.

The lie: Running back Rashaan Shehee missed the University of Washington’s game against Stanford on Oct. 5, 1996, because of a foot injury suffered during practice five days earlier.

Actually: Shehee injured his foot the previous weekend when he jumped from the second-floor balcony of a Lake City apartment, fleeing a party after a gun was fired.

Type of lie: The red herring.

Level of embarrassment: Moderate.

Coaches, as a rule, are less than honest about injuries, but most coaches are smart enough to keep things vague enough they can’t be called out for a blatant lie. Not Jim Lambright, though. Then in his fourth year in charge of the Huskies, Lambright opted for a full-fledged fib to explain how his running back hurt his heel. Two footnotes to this one. First, the only reason Lambright could hide Shehee’s injury was because UW football practices were closed to reporters. He had to open practices to the public after it was revealed that Lambright lied about Shehee’s injury. Then, in 1998, linebacker Lester Towns was limited all season by a foot injury that was officially attributed to having dropped a 45-pound weight on his foot. However, Towns suffered the injury playing basketball, which Lambright prohibited his players from doing, so Towns came up with a more sympathetic cause for the injury. 

Case: The tangled webs of Al Martin.

The lie: “For some reason, probably because I was young and dumb, I decided I could make a head-on stop of Leroy Hoard. I hit him, or rather he hit me. You remember those big tree-trunk legs Hoard had? That’s what hit me.” Al Martin, Mariners outfielder, May 2001.

Actually: Martin did not play football for USC as he had claimed. USC did not face Hoard’s Michigan team in 1986, which was the year Martin cited for the game. In fact, there’s no record of Martin having played any football at any college as he was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the eighth round out of high school.

Type of lie: Puffery.

Level of embarrassment: High.

Of all the lies on the list, this one is by far the most difficult to explain. Martin was not just a big-league baseball player, but a pretty good one, and he’s lying like a junior-high kid with a girlfriend he doesn’t want his parents to know about. In fact, the lie went back years, listed in the media guide of not just the Mariners, but the Padres – whom he played for in 2000 – and the Pittsburgh Pirates, with whom he began his major-league career.

It should be noted that this was neither the biggest nor most serious lie that Martin told. In 2000, he was arrested in Arizona following an altercation with Shawn Haggerty-Martin, then his wife. According to the police report of the incident, Haggerty-Martin told officers the argument began because “she was sick and tired of Al not divorcing his other wife.” Yep. There was another Mrs. Martin.

According to Nevada records, Martin and Haggerty were married Dec. 11, 1998. However, Martin had previously married Catherine Carita Young in West Palm Beach, Fla., in 1991. The two had not divorced prior to Martin’s second wedding. The 2000 altercation resulted in Martin pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of domestic violence. It’s an exceptionally sad story for the women in Martin’s life. “I think his heart is in the right place, but I wish it was for one person instead of four or five,” Shawn Haggerty-Martin told the “Pittsburgh Post-Gazette” the week after his arrest.

As my mother used to say, “All we have is our word.”