Imrem: We are to blame for NFL's arrogance
Some might have thought that the NFL's week of horrors would have prompted some sort of backlash over the weekend.
Not that the pileups would completely total the league, but how about a mere fender-bender rendering a pause in its popularity?
So much for that theory.
The Bears-49ers game Sunday night did TV ratings that suggest Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson happened on another planet.
Count me among the compulsed who watched the morning's pregame shows, the early-afternoon games, the late-afternoon games …
And finally, of course, the Bears' rousing comeback victory over the 49ers.
Stadiums and sports bars were full of fans who weren't swayed by the video of Rice's punch to his fiancee's face and Adrian Peterson's alleged physical abuse of his 4-year-old son.
The events of last week hovered over the schedule like a toxic balloon that never came close to bursting.
NFL followers likely are more irritated by violence being squeezed out of the sport, ticket prices increasing at a rapid pace and Chris Berman.
Carolina's Greg Hardy is appealing a conviction for domestic abuse and was deactivated Sunday, while San Francisco's Ray McDonald is being investigated for the same offense and remained active.
It's difficult to assemble an NFL roster these days without a legal flow chart. Like, the Vikings deactivated Peterson on Sunday but say he'll be active next Sunday.
We might hate ourselves in the morning for our addiction to this coyote-ugly sport but have to live with the habit like smokers live with the potential for lung cancer.
It's doubtful that any spectator asked, "You think he punches his wife?" when a receiver caught a pass, or "You think he beats his kid?" when a linebacker made a tackle.
Once the ball is kicked off, the worries of the world are obscured by concerns over penalties and turnovers.
No wonder club owners can be cavalier about Roger Goodell remaining as commissioner.
The NFL doesn't need Capt. Renault from "Casablanca" to declare, "Round up the usual suspects."
They're still at their customary posts - in the huddle, in the stands, in executive suites and in front of their TVs.
Like it or not, the NFL is comfortably below the fray. Fire Goodell if he lied about not seeing the punch video? More likely the league will do what Mike Sielski suggested on Philly.com:
"The NFL has been peddling its glorified-gladiator image for so long that if Goodell and his lieutenants had seen the video their instinct probably would have been to run it in super-slow motion against stirring orchestral music, hire Morgan Freeman to provide narration, and sell advertising for it. It's their default course of action, and it usually works."
It usually works because America is captivated by football and tends not to care how many scoundrels are playing it and how many rogues are administering it.
Dozens of millions of fans agreed with the "Fox NFL Sunday" narrator who kicked off the program by saying, "It's sure good to have football back."
Never mind that it took awhile to get to football as pregame shows focused on Rice and Peterson.
"We put up with a lot in the name of our Sunday thrills," Sielski added on Philly.com. "It's just that, after this week, it's fair to ask whether we're reaching our threshold - whether, when it comes to the noise and nonsense of the National Football League, we're getting closer to deciding that enough is enough."
Sad to say, not a chance. Not judging by games where Vikings fans wore Peterson jerseys and Ravens fans wore Rice jerseys.
All this confirms that we can blame only ourselves for the arrogant NFL still being the arrogant NFL.