As we all know, the NFL season has recently come to a close and the most popular sport in America is now over until next year. Well, at least the games are over until next year. We are only a couple weeks into the off-season and the action has already skyrocketed. Don’t worry folks, the NFL drama never stops and next season will be here before you know it!
You would think Rodger Goodell (NFL Commissioner) and the NFL front office would be sitting pretty comfortably right now. I mean, it’s been less than two weeks since that epic Super Bowl XLIX, where the Pats topped the Seahawks in arguably one of the best Super Bowl finishes ever.
Unfortunately that doesn’t make everyone forget about all the shenanigans that went on through the course of the year.
Let’s start from the beginning, two NFL superstar running backs were dominating headlines: Ray Rice on account of domestic abuse of his fiancé (now wife) and Adrian Peterson for child abuse. Both were suspended for the season, with Rice never touching the field and Peterson only getting one game under his belt. This year was quite simply a mess, with one NFL player breaking conduct code after another. Rice and Peterson were just the two at the tip of the iceberg.
All sorts of chaos were going around the league including domestic assault charges, cheerleading lawsuits, DUI’s, possession of illegal substances, and even shoplifting cases. Yes, it may sound funny but apparently some of these athletes making millions of dollars have “sticky fingers.” At least that was the case for Dallas Cowboy’s backup running back Joseph Randle who was caught stealing underwear and cologne.
Even the Super Bowl was tarnished because of all the talk about “Deflate Gate” surrounding it. We are blessed with an exciting, competitive game that goes all the way down to the wire and all we can talk about at the end is how this year’s Super Bowl champs are potentially “cheaters.”
Not only that, a big brawl unfolded with under a minute left in the game on a quarterback kneel down play. This is completely unnecessary and makes for what many are calling a perfect ending to the NFL’s worst season ever.
This is referring to all the poor off-the-field encounters because the football itself was great! It is unfortunate that the misconduct takes away from the sport when the NFL is a giant organization with all the eyes on them. They need to set a better example.
This offseason is already off to a shaky start with the continued investigation of “Deflategate” and the new investigation of the Atlanta Falcons playing fake crowd noise at home games to give themselves an advantage.
There have already been four arrests of current NFL players for charges on drugs, animal cruelty, and assault. Another failed drug test by the Cleveland Brown’s extremely talented wide receiver Josh Gordon, while his young and very popular quarterback, Johnny Manziel, recently checked into rehab to kick his partying habits.
One thing for sure is Goodell and the NFL have a lot on their plates and a lot to prove to gain some respect back from their audience. There are plenty of great NFL athletes out there setting good examples and acting as role models in society. They just seem to go unseen because of all the attention being focused on the troublemakers.
Hopefully, at this time next year we will be looking back on the season on a much more positive note and focusing on the on-field performances as well as the great character of the athletes.
