Hub Arkush: Are NFL owners ruining the game?

One year ago, the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons gave us one of the greatest games in the league’s history.

It is not unreasonable to believe the Philadelphia Eagles and the defending champion Patriots could match that performance again this Sunday.

While there are certainly some concerns about ambiguous rules, the quality of officiating and a perceived increase in the number of serious injuries, to name a few of the topics we’ve observed and debated this season, most would agree what ails the NFL is not the quality of the game or the abilities of the athletes who play it.

If reasonable people could agree on what a completed pass was, and we could find a way to protect the players from the dangers of serious brain injuries, the game itself would be in the best hands it’s ever been in.

Please hear me, I am not belittling the concern we should all share over Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.

But much like society embraces an athlete’s choice to step into a boxing ring, a race car, climb aboard a thousand-pound bull or stand in front of a 100 mile per hour fastball, it is not up to us to indict another man or woman for facing those dangers or making that choice to embrace a sport or profession that allows it.

The game on the field is in good hands — and may be getting better.

Off the field is another story.

In 2011, the NFL owners negotiated a deal with their players that allowed one man chosen solely by the owners to arbitrarily discipline and punish players for conduct away from the game with no semblance of due process or reasonable recourse irrespective of their innocence or guilt.

What the owners and commissioner have failed to recognize is that not only is it unfair to the players, but it also can punish their teammates and their fans, and it is quite simply un-American.

Certainly we are a nation of laws, but more importantly we are a nation where justice, fairness and due process are a part of our DNA, and if the game is to be healthy, changing that process can’t be a matter of negotiation, it is a matter of necessity.

Early in the 2016 season, one player elected to stage a protest against racial inequality in the administration of justice in minority communities by kneeling during the national anthem, and a few folks were offended, a few more applauded him and a few players joined him.

Left alone, the damage would have been minimal, but that is not what happened.

Please, while I have my own strong personal feelings on this subject, I know all of you do, too, and it is absolutely not my point or intent to diminish or debate anyone’s beliefs.

What we can all agree on is it has impacted the game in a way that benefits no one, and it now portends greater damage if we can’t find a way to move on with all of our beliefs being heard.

The owner of one team, allegedly “America’s Team,” authored a public attack on the commissioner not in the interest of the game but over a personal grudge, airing the league’s dirty laundry in a way never before seen — and to benefit nothing but his own ego — and he made the league look almost as petty and small as he himself appeared.

Another owner likened his players to inmates, and a third was forced to put his team up for auction after his incidents of sexual harassment were exposed.

There is more, but I suspect you get the point.

Do we really want the greatest sport in the world to become reality TV competition for The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills?

This one’s not on the players; they’re doing great.

But that’s where we’re heading if the people who own the game don’t start to focus on things other than their own checkbooks soon.

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