Much has been made of Deflategate ahead of Super Bowl XLIX.
It is a big story, one that was worth reporting. Could it be that a cheating scandal launched the New England Patriots into America’s premier sporting event? What about “the integrity of the game?”
Many have asked whether the NFL’s quick investigative response to the deflated footballs accusation was motivated by the public relations nightmare that was its handling of the Ray Rice domestic violence case. It is more than likely that the NFL is on high alert in this regard, but is this really what the NFL cares about?
Robert Sullivan made that point for TIME:
As with so many words above and so much else spinning in my head, this might seem confused. Of one thing I am convinced: This soft-football thing is much ado about nothing, a devouring of cyberspace. Today, even more than yesterday, we don’t seem to know what “nothing” is anymore, if it seems to constitute the story.
Watch what happens in the next several hours. If Roger Goodell slams the Pats, it’s all about himself . . . and Ray Rice. Of one thing, and one thing alone, I am sure.
It’s more likely that, in the NFL’s calculations, a cheating scandal could do more harm to the sport than the external actions of players and the subsequent failure to discipline them adequately.
It’s true, even in the aftermath of the Ray Rice scandal, ratings have never been higher. Nor did Adrian Peterson’s child abuse case affect viewership. Americans don’t and won’t stop watching football.
In the long term, however, one could argue that nothing can do more harm to the NFL than violence itself — and not the violence that’s intrinsic to the sport. Some have speculated that concussions could mean the end of football. Malcolm Gladwell even asked, infamously, in The New Yorker “How different are dogfighting and football?”
But the NFL has a crime problem far bigger in scope than Deflategate and concussions. Once the Super Bowl and Deflategate hullabaloo ends, violence off the field is the major issue that needs to be addressed.
Intentionally or not, NBC Sports backs up this point in the way they’ve structured their website. They have verticals for each of the four major sports in America: ProFootballTalk, HardballTalk, ProBasketballTalk and ProHockeyTalk. ProFootballTalk is the only one of these verticals that has a “police blotter,” which chronicles every run-in players have with the law.
Below are a series of graphs that illustrate the NFL’s crime problem in numbers, starting in 2000.
Say what you will about the “No More” ad campaigns against domestic violence and sexual assault that started airing after the bungled Ray Rice case, but it’s a message that needs to be conveyed. They’re admittedly awkward, and not the kinds of commercials people want to see on TV during a major sporting event. For that reason, many have questioned the effectiveness of the ads.
But for the first time, such a commercial will air during the Super Bowl.
Whether the ads are effective or not isn’t really the salient point. The point is that they exist and are a reminder that, indeed, the NFL has bigger fish to fry than Deflategate.
“Unfortunately, over the past several weeks, we have seen all too much of the NFL doing wrong. That starts with me,” Commissioner Goodell said in September, addressing the Ray Rice case. “The same mistakes can never be repeated.”
He also vowed to “get it right.”
The ball is officially in his court. The integrity of America’s Game depends on it.
