Something is rotten in the National Football League.  I started to smell it a few years ago when almost weekly news items detailed arrests for NFL players that never seemed to go anywhere.   This year we have Ray Rice getting a slap on the wrist for knocking his fiance out, which only got upgraded to a long-term suspension and release from the Baltimore Ravens when video of the actual attack was released by a tabloid website.  Commissioner Goodell has sworn that he had no idea the attack was so horrific, and that nobody in the NFL had seen the video from the elevator until it hit the news.  I guess he gets his intel from the same source as President Obama.

Next, Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings is in hot water because of an indictment for child abuse in Texas.  It seems that Peterson took a switch to his four-year-old son and beat him badly enough that the child was bleeding* from multiple wounds on his legs, buttocks, and other body parts.   But don’t worry, my beloved Vikings are planning to bring Peterson back on Sunday against New Orleans.  Well, I guess a one game suspension for drawing blood from a preschooler is pretty stiff, now isn’t it?  And now, we learn that there is another pending case in which Mr. Peterson is accused of harming a child badly enough to draw blood.

Peterson and Rice are just two very public examples.  The list of NFL players who have gotten in trouble with the law is long, and to be honest, disheartening.

I don’t know why these men do these things, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t care.   I’ve been watching professional football since before I could ride a bike, but I’m starting to have second thoughts.  I’m under no illusion that the players of my youth were angels, but I never remember things like this going on.  Whether they like it or not, when an athlete steps into the spotlight, he becomes a role model for young men and boys, especially those without good father figures of their own.  They are richly rewarded for their hard work, but for that we should expect better behavior.

The NFL needs to clean house.  I’m not a fan of zero-tolerance policies, but Commissioner Goodell and the owners need to tighten the screws before they start to lose us as fans.  We are the ones that buy the tickets and the merchandise, and we are the ones that watch the games and the commercials.  If we turn away in disgust, the multi-billion dollar not-for-profit that is the National Football League will burn to the ground.  This will require more than a change of leadership, rather it will require a change of culture in the NFL, and possibly a purge of those elements who do not wish to act like decent human beings and those who tolerate bad behavior.

Players who are accused of crimes need to be suspended until their cases are adjudicated.  Players who commit serious crimes need to be fired.  Coaches and owners who put up with this behavior and look the other way need to be asked to leave and not come back.  As fans, we need to vote with our feet and our wallets until we start to get the players we deserve, not the thugs we’ve been getting.

Oh, and Minnesota, since you’ve decided to start Peterson after a one game suspension for putting his kid in the hospital with bleeding welts all over his lower body, as a lifelong Vikings fan, all I can say is this:  Geaux Saints!

*Warning:  The photos linked to from that page are ugly.

Thanks to LabRat for helping me verbalize something that’s been rolling around in my knoggin for a while.