Anson Dorrance must feel a bit like that guy in the TV commercial about travel reservations, the one where a jack-hammer starts drowning him out every time he tries to ask his wife a question in their hotel room.

Seems like every time he got back to the business of producing soccer champions at the University of North Carolina, the lawyers showed up.

Almost a decade after it first started, the sexual harassment lawsuit against Dorrance is settled.

The university agreed to pay former player Melissa Jennings, a reserve goalkeeper from 1996 to 1998 at UNC, $385,000 and to conduct a comprehensive review of its sexual harassment policies and procedures. Dorrance also issued an apology to all his players.

In other words, it all boiled down to the university paying some lawyers to let it get back to doing what it would have done anyway. In these times of sensitivity and so-called political correctness, au courant institutions everywhere in the United States bend over backward to indoctrinate their employees or students in proper behavior. This appeases the legal and insurance industries.

The case goes back to 1998, when Jennings and Debbie Keller filed a suit seeking $12 million in damages. Both claimed Dorrance made inappropriate remarks and inquiries into their respective private lives. Dorrance said it was locker room banter.

Keller's suit went a bit farther. The national player of the year in 1996, she claimed Dorrance interfered with her chances to make the 1999 World Cup team. She sought damages that included what she believed she would have earned after the U.S. team won the World Cup in '99.

Keller and the university settled in 2004 for less than $100,000.

Now that it really seems done, champions for the two females spin this as a victory. They say the case -- which never made it into a court after more than nine years -- brought national attention to the need for boundaries between coaches and players.

Did we need a lawsuit to decide that coaches should treat players with respect? If so, would someone please forward those findings to Bobby Knight?

Immediately after the suit was filed, way back there in the 20th century, scores of players -- stars, backups, current and former -- came forward to stand by Dorrance. It seems dubious to think that women of the stature of Mia Hamm, Cindy Parlow and Tiffany Roberts would add their names to 95 others in a statement of support for Dorrance if they had any doubts about him.

It's supposed to be nearly impossible to prove a negative, but that comes pretty close.

Many of those women had the same experiences as Keller and Jennings. Some were teammates. They didn't think anything was wrong.

Dorrance admitted to making some teasing remarks to his players. Judging from the size of his intellect, it's not hard to imagine he could be biting, even acidic, if he chooses.

While one has trouble envisioning Dorrance selectively singling out females for harassment, it's not difficult at all to imagine that high-calibre athletes can have egos open to bruising.

In the agreement announced this week, Jennings stipulated that Dorrance never pursued a sexual relationship with her, despite her feeling offended by "uninvited and offensive" remarks.

For whatever reason, both Keller and Jennings believed they were wronged. These women thought the university and Dorrance specifically should pay.

He did.

It didn't matter that UNC and the N.C. Attorney General consistently said the case lacked any merit. It didn't matter that judges twice tossed the case, saying there was no 'there' there. Like dogs coming back to the fire hydrant, plaintiff lawyers kept circling Dorrance. The case didn't go forward but it didn't go away.

For almost 10 years, Dorrance was been picked and poked by lawyers, who, by training and practice, often drag things out for as many billable hours as possible. This process has been compared by its victims as being pecked to death by ducks.

Some might see that as justice. But, even it were, it's an ugly sight to behold.

Defendants in civil cases could look forever and never find someone to return their good name to them. Dorrance may be a bit luckier than that.

He gets to take the field next fall and get back to work.

Carolina almost definitely will get back to winning where it counts in athletics: on the field. And that will be just.