As the NFL winds down its season with the Super Bowl this Sunday, it cannot be over soon enough. Never in the history of professional sports has one league had more that went wrong on and off the field than the National Football League in 2014-15.
The leadership lacked credibility at the top. They continue to try to railroad former players who suffer from concussions and other debilitating injuries due in part to the league’s failure to inform the players of the risks involved in playing the game. Owners continue to extort cities. Off-field issues by players was a staple on front pages. Attendance was down (again), and the play on the field was poor in many cases.
Yet people continued to turn the TV on to watch and follow the train wreck that was oncoming.
Now that the deflated ball issue has consumed both sports and news, the league continues to do damage control on maintaining what credibility it has left by conducting an “investigation” similar to what came with the Watergate hearing that bagged former President Richard Nixon. It looks like they have a fall guy in New England … and he is the ball boy. Why would you think anyone higher on the totem pole would be in the mix? We are lucky that the team’s receptionist was not implicated, or should I say not yet?
Seattle Seahawk Richard Sherman seemed to be spot on in claiming that no real harm would come to the Patriots because of the glaring conflict of interest between Patriot owner Robert Kraft and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. That is how this league has worked for years.
My question is: How much are they going to have to pay this ball boy and his likes to take the fall and keep his mouth shut? Surely if he is accused, he would have a key to perhaps other indiscretions by the Patriots. So I hope the he gets enough to keep his mouth shut, because anything the Patriots and the league say about this person should come with ample compensation.
Some claim the Patriots’ issues here are overblown. They are either Patriot fans or media members who just want to play the game, no matter who did what. It’s like when the steroid issue overtook baseball and many buried their heads in the sand and still claimed these inflated athletes were Hall of Fame material.
The one thing the NFL has is the ability to control what is said. Their behind-the-scene tactics can make just about anything go from the front page to a whisper. The scandals this year – remember Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson? – had a way of going away. In the Rice case, the NFL kept their hands clean by commissioning an internal investigation by a law firm that had a relationship with an NFL team and previously the league itself. Yet we were supposed to believe them because they rolled out some big names intended to lend credibility. Sorry, no sale.
I am not sure if there is a sports league that has a worse image problem these days. The NFL has become borderline comical. I understand that the league rakes in billions of dollars each year, but you cannot buy the truth.
Speaking of the truth, how about the Rams doing St. Louis a favor by announcing that they will play home games in St. Louis in 2015? I guess a parade is forthcoming. I’m can’t buy into this, because the Rams have said very little that gives me the impression that they really care about St. Louis and their future here. The same lease situations exist in San Diego and Oakland, and they have gone along with it for the most part. By the way the Rams ownership has handled things recently, I am not sure if the same will apply in St. Louis.
St. Louis has its own set of issues. The stadium plan is severely flawed, there is no real leadership on this matter, and the notion that Governor Nixon can exercise gubernatorial powers is about as comforting as his handling of Ferguson. No, I am not all in on the Rams and how either side has handled things, and I am not as optimistic as others that this will get fixed. The parties involved have dissolved any sort or legitimate hope that St. Louis will come out of this mess with a good look.
To say I have moved on from the NFL would not be true. I have great respect for the game and those who have made the sacrifices. But St. Louisans who are football fans deserve better than what has been doled out. Many of the front office people are outstanding at what they do, while others have perfected lying and misleading into art forms – and everyone is busy counting money.
