Football Roundup: Good, Bad, and Ugly

Things are getting ugly for the NFL, which has gone into full-on "damage control" mode. What's a commissioner to do?

 By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

Every week, editors Jeremy Conlin and Joe Parello bring you the good, the bad and the ugly from the pro and college football weekend that was.

The Good

Patriots Defense/Special Teams

Probably the two best performance from any units on any teams - they sacked Matt Cassell six times, picked him off four times (including one with a sixty yard run-back), a blocked field goal that was returned for a touchdown, and to add some icing to the cake, they averaged 16.5 yards on punt returns (they only received two kickoffs and both went for touchbacks). The Patriots dominated field position and only surrendered 217 yards of offense - that's how you win by three touchdowns despite only gaining 292 total yards on offense yourself and committing 15 penalties for 163 yards (in their defense, two of those penalties for 58 of those yards came on a meaningless drive at the end of the game, up 30-7 with under two minutes left). The Patriots average drive start point was their 42 yard line and started three drives inside Minnesota territory. The offense sputtered - they only scored 10 points on those drives, and if you take those away, plus the blocked kick return touchdown, this was a much closer game. But the defense tipped the scales.

-JC

Bob Lobel: The NFL Shield Now Protecting Wife Beaters and Child Abusers

By Bob Lobel (@boblobel)

It was billed as the National Felons League (NFL) decades ago. Must have been a reason for that, right?  

Of course there was, and that was before the days of privacy and very little hard reporting. Well, they have pushed the envelope again, considering “the very bad, God awful, really stinking, lying and cover up week” they just went through. And it is not over by any stretch of the imagination. Usually, the crisis management people employed by every team and by the league itself will tell you to wait out the news cycle, and it will all go away. 

But really, how much damage has been done to America's favorite sport?