Palladino: Worst Week Could Prove NFL Bulletproof
By Ernie Palladino
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We now plow into the days after one of the darkest weeks in NFL history, not knowing where the league is headed or how it will get there. It may prove itself bulletproof, it may not.
We do know these three things. Ray Rice's one-punch knockout of his now-wife Janay Palmer Rice resulted in Roger Goodell increasing his original two-game suspension to an indefinite one, a move Rice's lawyers are expected to counter by filing a grievance with the NFLPA. Seems there's this little by-law that says a player can't be punished twice for the same offense, which essentially what Goodell did to Rice.
Days later, Adrian Peterson turned himself in to Texas authorities for beating his four-year-old son bloody with a tree branch. He faces two years in prison for child abuse if convicted, but for now he will simply remain on the 53-man roster. The Vikings did render him inactive for Sunday's game against the Patriots, however.
Apparently, the Vikings were still weighing their options as of Sunday. In layman's terms, that means they planned to do nothing with the NFL's surefire Hall-of-Fame running back until circumstances and public opinion back them into a corner. Though Peterson admitted to the mother of his child that he indeed administered a heaping helping of old-school discipline -- a whooping -- it seems the Vikings would rather hang on to their star running back for a while, rather than cut him loose as the Ravens did Rice.
On the heels of this came the release of a study that said, not surprisingly, that playing football can lead to an earlier onset of ALS, Parkinson's and forms of dementia that include Alzheimer's than the general population. The study estimated that nearly 30 percent of NFL players will fall victim to these issues from their time in the league.
As damning as that sounds, consider that the NFL itself released this report. It didn't do it for altruistic reasons. It had no intention to warn anybody of the dangers of a high-contact sport like football. No, the report was released to support the notion that the league is doing enough in settling a class-action suit by former players with no cap for damages.
Add the independent investigation delving into Goodell's possible involvement in a cover-up of the Rice affair, talk that the one-time disciplinarian commissioner might quit or be fired over the controversy, and the continued play of Carolina linebacker Greg Hardy despite a conviction for beating and threatening to kill his ex-girlfriend in May, and you have one heck of a week.
You can throw in 49ers miscreant Ray McDonald, too. He continued to play despite allegedly assaulting his pregnant girlfriend last month.
These are dark times, dark actions, dark news, top to bottom. And the worst is not Rice. Not that anyone needs a pecking order for heinous activity, but the worst of the bunch was Peterson, and he's still eligible to play. Grownups, men and women, govern themselves by their actions. They have options. But a four-year-old kid has no alternatives. When their 217-pound daddy tells them to pull their pants down and get ready for a beating with a branch, they pull their pants down and take their whooping.
Domestic violence, child abuse, health issues, and a potential cover-up; the NFL has had better weeks. It will all pass, of course. There is too much money to be made -- from the front offices of teams and networks to the bar pools -- for it to truly destroy the league.
Yet, there is enough to damage it. What we may find out from this week is exactly how much the NFL can withstand.
It may well prove the league bulletproof. And that would be a shame.
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