Masked behind a year of surprise contenders like The Carolina Panthers and the Cincinnati Bengals and three consecutive games that ended in exciting, walk-off fashion, The National Football League would have you believe they are giving you the best product possible. Or even just one that is good. The fact of the matter is they are giving us a horrendous product from top to bottom this season and they don’t care. Because we watch anyway.
If we look at where this all started, we have to address the massive professional blunder that was Deflategate. A scandal involving a missing 2.5 pounds per square inch of air pressure missing from a football in the AFC Championship Game last season. In an issue that shouldn’t have gripped the entire universe, the entire universe became gripped into the issue and gave their opinions. The only overwhelming opinion; however, was that the NFL was wrong and this was an embarrassing blunder. Adam Schefter, a respected veteran of unbiased and straight news, described the outcome as “a black eye” for the NFL on Sportscenter. And he was right.
Deflategate went on to set the premise for what the NFL is now. An organization that insults its fan's intelligence by allowing blown calls to dictate games, women abusers to receive multi-million dollar contracts and stay employed and concussed players to continue playing until they develop CTE and commit suicide as is happening rapidly (See Junior Seau, see Javon Belcher). For two quarters of play with slightly underinflated footballs in which the team was not even winning, Commissioner Roger Goodell fined the team one million dollars, stripped a first-round draft pick and targeted their most valuable player, Tom Brady, and no one else on the team with no credible evidence of involvement by suspending him for four games. Of course, Brady appealed in federal court and his suspension was overturned. ESPN did their best to keep their business partnership with the NFL strong and verbally indicted Brady every chance they could.
Chris Mortensen had to quietly delete a past video and news article in which he incorrectly defamed Brady from the ESPN website and a scathing Outside the Lines report was done after the suspension was overturned in an attempt to further bury the Patriots. The piece, with little to no evidence, implied that Goodell came down hard on the organization to make up for Spygate, a 2007 debacle where the Patriots, in their absolute right, filmed one preseason game of the New York Jets. I say in their absolute right because this is a competitive league and filming of opponents was not illegal as indicated in the collective bargaining agreement or the official NFL rulebook at the time. The Patriots were only fined because of the location in which they were filming, not the act of filming itself. No one from the NFL, as per usual, has made any comment about the piece. We have a legal concept in this country called double jeopardy in which we cannot add up past crimes or be tried for the same crime twice. So, if the NFL admitted they don’t follow the legal precedent established amongst all of us as citizens, there would be outrage. Of course, they won’t comment. Let’s put all of this into relatable terms and apply it to the current season.
Concussion protocol:
With "Concussion," a biopic about the doctor who discovered the CTE epidemic amongst NFL players and is trying to be bribed releasing on Christmas day, the NFL needs to brace itself. Frank Gifford, a respected legend and hall of famer was lost on August 9 due to natural causes. Gifford played in the 1950’s and his brain was found to have traumatic injury from CTE. This has been a problem since the 1950’s and the NFL has simply paid money to families instead of altering player safety, improving helmet technology, or increasing fines and suspensions for illegal hits. The NFL is the only professional organization in which the players association (NFLPA) and the league itself, absolutely oppose each other. They downright hate each other. This is a huge reason why. Currently, the NFLPA is livid because Case Keenum, a backup quarterback for the St. Louis Rams suffered a nasty and vicious illegal hit in a game against the Baltimore Ravens on November 22nd. He was checked for the length of a timeout and then totally against protocol, was put back in to finish the drive. Keenum could barely stand and looked as if he were about to vomit as he immediately fumbled the ball to the Ravens. Any fan who realized what was happening was disgusted. The NFL made no statement and the Rams nor Elvis Dumervil, who made the hit, have been fined.
Injuries:
This season, the NFL, a company centered on its larger than life superstars, is missing nearly all of them. To just go off the top of my head the names of pro-bowl caliber players missing for most of or the entire season includes Tony Romo, Colin Kaepernick, Kelvin Benjamin, Jordy Nelson, Arian Foster, Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning, Julian Edelman, Dion Lewis, DeAndre Levy, Le’Veon Bell, Jamaal Charles, Keenan Allen, Joe Flacco, Steve Smith, Justin Forsett, Jimmy Graham and Victor Cruz. Okay, deep breath. Are the games worth watching when it’s all backups playing? I’m not implying the NFL is responsible for injuries directly but they could be indirectly. Many players this year have been injured in pre-season games or training camps and Thursday night games. Why are teams playing Sunday and then travelling cross-country to play Thursday? 4-days rest? Really? And why do we even have pre-season games that nobody watches just so players can get injured and not have it mean anything? Just extend training camp. Wait, the NFL doesn’t see ticket revenue from that. I forgot.
Officiating:
This is where people tend to get sour and the “you’re making excuses” train heads into town. If it weren’t such a game-changing issue, I wouldn’t mention it. We have witnessed Jacksonville beat Baltimore on a field-goal where the whole team was lined up incorrectly and not called, the game should have been over. We witnessed Baltimore’s backups (see above), beat Cleveland on what’s described as a miracle field-goal block after a Baltimore player was five yards off sides and the penalty was not called. We saw a Patriots team that would have probably been undefeated lose due to a myriad of terrible calls and missed calls and most recently, we saw a Lions team leave broken-hearted because of a hail-mary play that should have never happened and was set up by a fake facemask call. I don’t want to run long. These are just the ones that literally costs games. On top of this, all referees have varying opinions on what a catch, yes, a catch, is. Roger Goodell said in a recent statement “our officials are doing an extraordinary job.” If they are, why point it out right now? Hmm…
Greg Hardy:
A category all to himself. I’m sure he likes the attention. Greg Hardy narrowly escaped prosecution and was released by the Carolina Panthers after assaulting and throwing his then-girlfriend into a pile of assault weapons. His punishment? A 10-game suspension with no fine that was then reduced to just four games. He was immediately signed to a high-incentive deal for $11.3 million by Mr. Shameless himself, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. He has since erupted on the sidelines and gotten into physical confrontations with coaches and teammates during games and at practice. He has shown up late, not shown up at all and there is currently a petition with 70,000 signatures to have him banned from the league. This didn’t get any better when photos leaked online of the battered face and body of his ex-girlfriend. Hardy responded on twitter by simply stating “sorry about the past.” Yeah, you mean that. Very heartfelt. The NFL, in its blissful ignorance, decided it would be a smart idea to host a Jerry Jones Q-and-A on Twitter. The results speak for themselves.
.@nflnetwork if I threw my girlfriend onto a bed of assault rifles and beat her would I be considered "a leader of your team"?#AskJerryJones
— rochelle (@rochelledz) November">https://twitter.com/rochelledz/status/669541062029... 25, 2015 I am one to take accountability. I can take the heat of being called a hypocrite because I still watch. Unfortunately, that is why the NFL gets away with this. Because we still watch. That’s why it is important to voice your opinions and take advantage of the avenues you have to let the league hear what you have to say. I stay invested only because I love the game and I want to see it get better for the players and the fans. I hope to take a page out of the NFL’s book and sweep this season under the rug like they do for their controversies. For their own sakes.
