Ten things we learned in the NFL: Week 1

Welcome to GridIronic, the logical extension of my longwinded FB ramblings of yesteryear... Why are we just starting now you might ask? Well, because A) I don’t believe in over-hyping the season like some other sources and B) Preseason football isn’t football. In fact, it isn’t even close to football, so we are just going to pretend it doesn’t exist. Sound good? What’s that? Oh, yeah, right…you want my opinion about Johnny Football? Well, he hasn’t played in the NFL yet, so I’ll be calling him Johnny Clipboard, or Johnny Bench(warmer) until further notice, if we refer to him at all. ‘Nuff said? So, without further ado- here’s this weeks Ten things we learned in the NFL- Week 1. 1. There’s an elephant in the room, so we will obviously start there. There is a huge problem in our country with violence of all types. Particularly, domestic violence, which is often overlooked, disregarded or ignored systematically. The laws to protect victims are insufficient and repeatedly subject victims to increasingly dangerous situations, or simply can’t protect them until the abuse has reached an extreme level of physical violence (such as a left-hook knockout punch in an elevator). For some reason, both the Ravens and the NFL were going to give Ray Rice a slap on the wrist for knocking his wife (then fiancée) Janay out cold. The revelation of the elevator video from TMZ stopped the presses and forced the NFL and the Ravens to do what they should have done in the first place, as they clearly knew what had happened. In a sport like football, which glorifies violence itself, we must be prepared for outbursts of physical contact in the heat of the moment from the men who play the game, but that does not mean that we should trivialize or ignore that violence when it occurs away from the playing field. Too often we have heard of crimes being swept under the rug by good old boy networks in power claiming that these crimes, many of them against women, are simply “boys being boys” or “family situations”. At all levels of the game, from the ignored sexual assault by Steubenville, OH. high school players, to the citywide whitewashing of Jerry Sandusky’s molestation of young boys at Penn State, to the NFL and the several current cases of domestic abuse happening with current players at this very moment, the game and those who are involved in it are being put before the safety of those around them. Make no mistake, we MUST learn from this, grow beyond it and eliminate those who commit crimes as well as those who create an environment where violence, sexual assault and other crimes are washed away for a few points on a score board. Everyone has a right to earn a living, but criminal acts have consequences and those consequences need to exist for the good of society. Taking away a man’s multi-million dollar football contract isn’t taking food out of his family’s mouths, it is simply returning them to the plane of existence where the rest of us live, struggle and survive. Additionally, I am particularly troubled that the Harbaugh brothers have both shown themselves both to be men of little character who put their needs on Sunday before the health and safety of those in their community. From John’s inexcusable support of wife beaters Terrell Suggs and Ray Rice, to Jim’s horrendous handling of Aldon Smith’s total breakdown last year and his current wife beater Ray McDonald (currently not under suspension and scheduled to play this Sunday), these are not leaders of men to be admired. To me, that’s a shame, as they both had the opportunity to do the right thing several times over, but chose repeatedly not to, choosing instead to both hide behind a farce of a system which has neither the inclination, nor the motivation to actually punish these men in an appropriate manner. The latest revelation that the NFL and its investigators had access to the elevator footage, plus audio, from a source in the police department is damning enough that it should force Roger Goodell to step down, unless he just keeps lying to protect to protect the “shield”, and his own ass… After that, there’s nothing else happening in week 1 of the NFL that really merits any conversation in my opinion- but here are nine more things to think about, just in case you might like some distraction from fallen heroes and a sham of a legal system. 2. What the hell were the Patriots thinking trading away Logan Mankins, the Pro Bowl guard that covers Tom Brady’s aging butt for a mediocre tight end and a 176th round draft pick? That trade might have cost the Pats the division (they are now in sole possession of last place in the AFC East for the first time since…uhmm…well…anyone?), much less a potential Super Bowl run if the O-line doesn’t figure out how to protect Tom Brady, who no longer even has what we like to call “limited mobility”. An injury on the O-Line or to Gronk will very likely doom this team to mediocrity, Brady and Hoodie or not… 3. Megatron. Seriously? 164 and 2TD’s. And he was being violated (badly) by the Giants secondary all night long. Wow. This guy makes Matthew Stafford look like a top ten QB by catching balls that no human should be able to…if he’s on your fantasy team and Eli Manning is NOT your QB, start spending your winnings now. But don’t get fooled, the Lions will still squander his efforts, missing the playoffs or choking in the first round. 4. The champs look as likely to repeat as any SB winning team in the last two decades. That dismantling of Aaron Rodgers and the Packers was a lot more convincing than anyone expected, with lots of folks (myself included) planning on seeing the Packers giving the Seahawks a reality check. Instead I saw a well-coached, disciplined Seattle team that seemed to handle a future Hall of Fame QB and newly vigilant refs with equal vigor. The proof? A total of only four penalties in the game. Impressive, since the zebras were looking to make an example of them. 5. The battle for the NFC South is going to be straight up awesome, and at least one very worthy team will be playing golf too early come playoff time. The same could be said of the NFC West. I’m pretty sure some crazy tiebreakers will get involved at the end of the season to decide who wins these divisions and who gets the wildcards. 6. The battle for the NFC East might be the saddest spectacle in years. Philadelphia might lock up his division by week 13. Seriously. The Giants, Cowboys and Washington all looked lost and out of their league, which…perhaps, they are. 7. Peyton Manning is a machine. That Bronco’s defense, however, is not. Andrew Luck started to make old man completion percentage look really, REALLY uncomfortable on the sidelines in the second half (though not nearly as uncomfortable as the Dolphins made Brady look). 8. Vikings and Lions atop the NFC North? Is this real? Is this the year? Sorry, but that’s fool’s gold. The winner of that division is 0-1 right now. Neither of those teams has what it takes to go the distance. The Lions look good, but they actually made the Giants look better than they are. Sad but true. 9. With the amended drug policy in the works, it could mean that both Wes Welker and Josh Gordon could be in uniform far sooner than we expected. For the Broncos, this might be a slight boon to their chances, but I think even without a concussion prone Welker, they are in the driver’s seat in the AFC West. The Browns on the other hand…a reversal here could be a serious reversal of fortune…Gordon is just as important to them as Megatron is to the Lions, and they are in a very, VERY winnable division. If he comes back, that division gets weird in a hurry. 10. Let’s be honest folks, the NFL is in a serious state of disarray. The demand for football is such that it would take an earthquake to derail the money train at this point, so I’m not suggesting that the sport will go the way of the dodo this season or next, but didn’t we say the same thing about baseball a generation ago? As the generation that made football America’s game gives way to a generation that prefers Futbol to Football, who knows what might happen. The fan base for baseball eroded slowly over time, and I don’t think it’s impossible to predict that with frustration over the inherent dangers of the game, coupled with rampant drug abuse/cheating and other criminal malfeasance in all levels of the sport, football might gradually suffer the same fate.