Imrem: Games like this keep us coming back for more

This was supposed to be the season that Americans turned away from the NFL.

As a variety of scandals onfolded, a good guess was that nobody would being watching by the time Super Bowl XLIX was played on Sunday.

But then along came the New England's 28-24 victory over Seattle, and it's easy to understand how this league maintains its appeal.

This game had everything, including an unfortunate unsportsmanlike brawl in the final seconds. Not even ugly punches could diminish the spectacle, however.

The fallout from the Deflategate investigation stalking the Patriots is still to come. But for now, for however long, the talk will be how XLIX stands as one of the most exciting Super Bowls.

Go ahead, insist that any victory by the notorious Patriots is tainted by past indiscretions. Concede, however, that they just won one heckuva football game over one heckuva football team.

The drama, the suspense, the unpredictability were examples of why TV networks pay so much for these unscripted programs.

Few scripts could match what transpired in University of Phoenix Stadium.

This Super Bowl featured two heavyweights exchanging haymakers, figuratively for nearly 60 minutes and literally for a few seconds.

My goodness, if the Seahawks won their MVP might have been Chris Matthews, a wide receiver who not long ago was selling shoes at Foot Locker.

As it turned out the game's biggest play was an interception by the Patriots' Malcolm Butler, a bit player from little known West Alabama.

Then there were the stars of stars, too, like Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, Rob Gronkowski, Marshawn Lynch, Darrelle Revis, Richard Sherman and other world-class athletes making world-class plays.

The world would be a better place without the NFL's health risks, cheating and off-field transgressions but a worse place without football the way it was played in XLIX.

No wonder the sport continues to plod along as the most popular in America.

Super Bowl television ad space sold out at $4.5 million for 30 seconds, tickets to the game were going for $10,000 on the secondary market, and the game's pulsating finish likely drew one of the largest TV audiences of all time.

So let's get real here: The only segment of the population that didn't watch the Super Bowl were numerologists occupied with calculating what number XLIX is.

Others fought through snowstorms to attend private parties and public taverns to celebrate with friends and strangers the national holiday known as Super Sunday.

Concussions be dinged. Cheating be danged. Domestic battery be darned.

Even if as a country we want to we can't turn away. Curiosity compels us to see whether the NFL heaped more wreckage upon the pile.

So we follow this league. We care what Marshawn Lynch won't say next. We care how much air isn't in the Patriots' footballs. We care about how much more of a fool Roger Goodell can make of himself.

But mostly we care about the NFL because of games like this Super Bowl … a package of action movies, horror movies and gangster movies all in one evening.

You thought this was the season the NFL would be buried under a collection of controversies?

Think again.

If Super Bowl XLIX was any indication, the league figures to continue growing in popularity despite itself.