NFL Enters a Very Important Offseason

courtesy of the black sphere

We are just over one week removed from what might eventually go down as one of the five greatest Super Bowls of all time, and already the NFL and its warden are scrambling to take back control of the pen.  After a disastrous season for commissioner Roger Goodell, which actually began right around this time last year with the Ray Rice elevator incident, this offseason feels very much like a make or break moment for the man at the helm of a multi-billion dollar industry and it’s not off to a great start.

Before Gronk could find his way to a post-Super Bowl kegger, the NFL found its dance card full of PR nightmares.  There are the questions that surround the future of running backs Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson, both former occupants of NFL-owned pedestals.  How will Goodell handle their reinstatement and which teams and cities will undoubtedly take a chance on them?  There are the numerous domestic violence investigations that continue to hang over the NFL like a breast-cancer-awareness-ribbon-shaped cloud of irony.  There is the murder trial of former Patriots TE Aaron Hernandez; which couldn’t have picked a better (or worse) time to begin and will likely result in the fact that the current Super Bowl Champions employed a killer in their not-so-distance past.

These very serious issues are now the bedrock of a foundation that includes slightly less reprehensible, but still ethically and criminally culpable acts.  You’ve got DeflateGate; which will continue to be “investigated” by the same crack detectives who so ceremoniously botched the Rice investigation and will therefore result in little to no evidence of any wrong doing (which will be an absolute joke).  You’ve got one of the pillars of the community of NFL owners admitting that his team pumped in fake crowd noise through their stadium speakers during home games for the past two years.  And then there are the spectacles that are simply the lives of NFL players such as Josh Gordon, D’Quell Jackson, Joseph Randle, Terrance Cody, and of course Johnny Rehab…I mean Johnny Football.

I’ve probably only scratched the surface of the smorgasbord of issues that the NFL has on its plate right now, but that only serves to highlight my point that this offseason is extremely important for “the shield” and it’s devoted handler.  Between the off-the-field hijinx that give the sport a bad name, and the on-the-field health concerns of the players that accentuate the hypocrisy of the league’s public messages, this seems to be the closest we’ve been in a while to a possible decline in the popularity of professional football.

I’m certainly not predicting the fall of the empire here; that would be naive and a bit short-sighted.  I am however, suggesting that the casual football fan is getting fed up with what they are seeing and hearing about a sport they have not yet committed to.  I’m suggesting that it is becoming harder and harder to enjoy a sport that makes you feel ashamed and a little dirty in doing so.  People like me, who love football for the history of the past and study the intricacies of the present, will continue to support the game.  People like that guy in your office who complains about how his 12 fantasy football teams all suck, but continues to drop a couple hundred bucks on FanDuel every week will continue to support the game.  But if the NFL wants to continue to grow and continue to make billions, they need to take a serious look in the mirror asap.

These next few months, despite the lack of action on the field, will have the NFL in the spotlight as the world sees how it copes with the bruises it has inflicted on itself.  This is the winter of Roger Goodell’s discontent.  Bundle up Commish; it’s going to be a cold one.