The Pharisaical National Football League

The NFL is a (ludicrously profitable) business. The commissioner, Roger Goodell, made $44.2 million last year. He earns most of that 44.2 million for keeping up the image of the league. Despite all his efforts, the façade has begun to crack. Now, after the most tumultuous few weeks in NFL history, there is no façade left.

First, it was the video of Ravens running back Ray Rice knocking his then-fiancée out cold. The NFL gave Rice a mere two-game suspension after a video of him dragging his fiancée into an elevator surfaced. Although Goodell denies it, many believe the NFL knew of the more egregious video—of Rice punching Janay (now) Rice in the face and knocking her out cold—and chose to ignore it. Then Adrian Peterson, considered by many to be the best running back in the league, admitted to child abuse. More scandals followed. Finally, the league is taking meaningful action, but its motives seem less than virtuous.

These events, and the league’s tepid responses, are appalling in themselves. But what makes all this all the more disconcerting is how strictly the NFL regulates things that matter infinitesimally less than does domestic abuse. Indeed, players are fined thousands of dollars for heinous errors such as wearing the wrong kind of nasal strip, not having the right kind of hand towel, and using the wrong color athletic tape (if you want to know more, or want to be entertained, google “NFL uniform violations” or any variation thereof).

Some things are more important than football. A lot of things are more important than what kind of nasal strip a particular player wears while he plays football. I have written before about how image-obsessed the NFL relative to racial issues; these recent events have offered even more evidence of this imbalance. As players commit horrible crimes and sustain life-altering head injuries, the league regulates how long their socks must be. Caught up in minutiae, it has missed the more important things.

Welcome to the NFL, the league run by Pharisees.