There are dozens of reasons why the NFL deserves to go away, to be banished from our sight forever. There are at least two reasons why that won't happen.
Tradition and Peyton Manning.
The Oct. 8 PBS show "A League of Denial" was a journalistic masterpiece. If you haven't seen it, find it. It is everywhere on the Internet. It should be.
It was two hours that can be oversimplified in one sentence: For years, the NFL knew its players were suffering head injuries that would bring serious long-term damage, yet it denied that, stonewalled the players seeking help and spent millions to muddy the truth.
Many readers still respond to every written word about this with the predictable: "These guys knew what they were getting into. Why should we feel sorry for them?" That's wrong. They knew they were playing a rough game, that there would be bent fingers in their elder years. They did not know that many serious brain injuries would accompany those bent fingers.
The PBS show was devastating to the NFL, which deserved to be devastated.
When Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Lakewood), questioning Commissioner Roger Goodell during 2009 congressional hearings, likened the NFL to Big Tobacco, we had no idea that she had hit the right keynote. After the PBS show, we know.
What a despicable label to have pinned on you.
How do you suppose that will sit when the rich NFL owners next gather to chat about how things are going. These are people of high standing and repute in their communities. All know the value of goodwill in business, because it helped make them millions.
But now, a masterpiece of documentation and reasoned journalism has joined them at the hip with … Big Tobacco. Bye-bye goodwill.
Were the owners complicit or fooled?
Cleaning-house time, a necessity now, will probably move forward slowly and quietly in the NFL. People who internally championed the public relations camouflage and "lie, deny and hope they die" strategy will be finding positions elsewhere.
Just think how you would feel if you were one of the 32 owning entities signing off on that recent $765-million payout to old, injured players, and doing so with no admission of responsibility. That sure worked well.
A few weeks later, a public television expose makes you all look like fools. Your $765 million is exposed for what it really was — blood money with no Band-Aid. You write a check for $765 million and still get the image of Big Tobacco.
Those who hate reading about this stuff usually feel that way because there is a nagging little voice somewhere in the back of their mind that says: Gee, maybe they'll shut the NFL down, and I love the NFL.
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