The
NFL is pure gold. The league goes
through the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson scandals last season along with
allegations (which broke just before the Super Bowl) that the Patriots cheated
by using underinflated balls in the AFC championship game against the
Colts. People reacted to all this by
making Super Bowl XLIX the most watched program in American TV history.
Two
weeks after a draft extravaganza that brought some 200,000 fans to downtown
Chicago comes the NFL report on “Deflategate”:
Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady probably knew about the soft balls. That likelihood will net Brady a four-game
suspension at the start of the season (vs. two games initially for Rice
knocking his fiancée out cold in an elevator).
Anti-Patriots’ fans are ecstatic (except for some who think New England
should have been stripped of its title a la the Jackie Robinson West Little
League team) while Patriots’ fans are livid.
I doubt any of this will affect pro football’s popularity.
What’s
the old saying, panem et circenses? We do seem to love our bread and circuses
(and beer). That would make Roger
Goodell the new Caesar, in power for as long as he can satisfy his praetorian
guard of team owners. I guess history
really does repeat itself.
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