Brennan: NFL stays strong through controversial season
PHOENIX -- There is nothing about what's going on in downtown Phoenix that would indicate the NFL had a terrible year.
The dolled-up skyscrapers, the stacks and stacks of crowd-control fencing, the sponsors hanging from the rafters: This is it, America. It doesn't get any bigger than this; never has, never will. The Super Bowl is the biggest thing we do. And it's only getting bigger.
The NFL just had its worst year ever — and it looks as if the Olympics has come to town. Walk around downtown Phoenix and the street-fair celebration looks remarkably similar to that in Salt Lake City in 2002 or Vancouver in 2010.
In this land of the endless party, the Ray Rice elevator video means little. That is disturbing on so many levels, and a reality of the American love affair with football on so many others. The Super Bowl always is the highest-rated television show of the year, and the domestic violence conversation that the NFL led us to late last summer isn't going to change that.
In fact, the head-scratching controversy involving the New England Patriots and their underinflated footballs — such a fitting conclusion to this bizarre season — will only make this Sunday's Super Bowl more intriguing, and likely drive TV ratings even higher.
Controversy always brings more eyeballs. Who isn't hoping for an Inflate-cam behind the scenes hours before kickoff? Who isn't going to smile at the live report on the exact air pressure in the game balls? Who doesn't want to watch Tom Brady squeeze that first football?
This totally predictable disconnect is the thread that has run through this season: domestic violence is such an important national conversation for us to be having. Just don't bother us with it on Sundays.
If you spend even one day in this land of make-believe, you can envision a world in which the NFL could live this way forever. Fans are fans. They'll always let the league slide. Probably most sponsors will too, now that Rice and Adrian Peterson and the others aren't playing — at least until the next high-profile domestic violence case, which, sadly, is by all means coming.
So, what should the NFL do?
Ignore all the adoration and act like every day is Sept. 8, 2014, the day the video surfaced of Rice punching his then-fiancée Janay Palmer Rice. Circle it on the calendar. Never forget the crushing criticism that came from the news media in the days that followed.
The NFL already has done this in some significant ways. It made several important hires of domestic violence experts right away. It brought in more women at higher levels in the organization than ever before. It's not enough for the long haul. But it's a start.
The league also has begun to give significant sums of money to the cause of eradicating domestic violence. There should be more. But that's a start as well.
Some have demanded the resignation of Commissioner Roger Goodell over how he handled, and didn't handle, the Rice investigation. I am not one of those people. Today, Goodell is doing more on the topic of domestic violence than any other commissioner or leader in sports, nationally or internationally.
That might not be saying much since so many are doing so little. But no matter how ugly the journey was for Goodell to reach this point, he's here. Advocacy groups should recognize that he and his advisors have become their strongest allies.
What a study in contrasts the NFL is this week of all weeks. The league has seen nothing but tumult this season, yet fans couldn't love it any more than they do right now. A game of great promise approaches. As the parties roar on and the celebrations spill into the streets, the fans almost certainly will not dwell on the awfulness of the way this season began.
Nor will they understand that it just might be the best thing that ever happened to the NFL.
Follow Christine Brennan on Twitter @cbrennansports.
