Armour: No PR nightmare that the NFL can't make worse

PHOENIX – Take a PR nightmare, any PR nightmare, and the NFL will find a way to make it worse.

This season alone could serve as an entire case study for what not to do in a crisis. Whether it was its woeful handling of the Ray Rice, Greg Hardy and Adrian Peterson domestic abuse cases, its brass-knuckled dealings with the players union or Deflategate, the NFL somehow managed to bungle it every time.

"If I were them," Arizona Sen. John McCain told USA TODAY Sports, "I would review my whole PR scheme."

Indeed, it is mind-boggling to look back at the biggest issues the NFL faced this year, and see just how badly it botched them. Let's review:

DOMESTIC ABUSE

NFL DRAFT HUB: Latest NFL Draft mock drafts, news, live picks, grades and analysis.

Roger Goodell couldn't have looked more out of touch with his initial response to the cases involving Rice and Peterson. He initially suspended Rice for two games, less than the Baltimore Ravens running back would have gotten if he'd been busted for a DUI, and later defended himself by saying he had no idea of the severity of what had happened.

Never mind that it didn't take a Mensa candidate to watch the first video – which showed Rice dragging his unconscious wife out of the elevator – and know something very bad had gone down.

"I think these controversies would have gone away a lot easier if they had approached them from, 'How are the American people going to react to seeing the video of a professional football player knock out his wife?'" McCain said.

Instead, it took a firestorm of fan outrage – and concern from sponsors – before Goodell and the NFL realized they might need to view domestic abuse of women and children a little more seriously.

Even then, it would be weeks before Goodell did anything other than hold painfully awkward news conferences and make vague promises to "get it right." The NFL couldn't even manage a quick PSA for its game broadcasts, going weeks before finally airing one that had been produced previously by the "No More" organization.

(Don't get me started on the fact the NFL was still asking fans to "Help us start the conversation" in Week 17.)

MUELLER REPORT

When The Associated Press reported that someone had sent the NFL a copy of the second Rice videotape months before it aired on TMZ, contradicting the claim by the Ravens and the NFL that they'd had no knowledge of it, Goodell announced an "independent" investigation.

And by independent, I mean one with connections to the NFL.

No one has questioned the integrity of former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller. Far from it. But when the public already thinks you're hiding something, it's best not to give them any more reason to be suspicious. Hire someone who is completely objective.

Oh, it's probably also better if owners would hold off on votes of confidence until the investigation concludes. Call me crazy, but expressing unwavering support for Goodell didn't inspire confidence that the NFL was interested in anything but covering its butt.

PLAYER DISCIPLINE

Even when the NFL got something right, it still went wrong.

Toughening the player conduct policy was absolutely the right thing to do. It was long overdue, too.But pushing the changes through without the cooperation of the NFL Players Association only ensures there will be (more) lawyers.

The players don't trust Goodell to be fair, as we saw when Peterson refused to meet with the commissioner and the NFL's team of experts. An arbitrator's decision to overturn Rice's indefinite suspension because she felt Goodell overreached only furthers the mistrust.

The sole focus, for both sides, should be on repairing the long-term damage that abuse does – to both victims and abusers – and preventing it from occurring in the future. Instead, the new conduct policy has drawn the battle lines in the turf war even deeper.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

On consecutive plays, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and tight end Heath Miller took vicious hits to the head and wobbled off the field. Within minutes, however, both were back in the game.

Did I mention this was a playoff game?

The NFL swears nothing is more important than safety, and it's doing everything it can to protect the long-term health of its players. But it sure does make you wonder when, week after week, we see players take nasty blows and never miss a snap.

DEFLATEGATE

How hard is it to determine the chain of command of the footballs used by the New England Patriots during the AFC Championship? Sloths move faster than the NFL's investigation into Deflategate.

It's no big deal or anything. It's just the integrity of the game at stake – to say nothing of the reputations of Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the Patriots, one of the league's premier teams. Yet every day, the NFL fiddles while some new allegation or innuendo drags everybody a little further into the mud.

Investigator Ted Wells announced Monday that the investigation will run "at least several more weeks." He also said it would be best for all if everyone just stopped talking about it.

Good luck with that.

Perhaps he's unaware, but Tuesday is Super Bowl Media Day, when reporters – and I use that term loosely for some of them – from around the world get an hour with both the Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, able to ask pretty much anything they want.

Just imagine: Belichick getting the same question over and over for 60 minutes. Or Marshawn Lynch getting an hour of quality time with the media that he loves so much.

Nope, nothing could go wrong there.