Unless we stop watching, the NFL won’t change its ways

Whether it was a block in the back on the final punt return not being called, or the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Joseph Ossai for hitting Patrick Mahomes out of bounds that was called, a few erroneous penalties once again grabbed all the headlines after the AFC Championship Game.
The gaffes by the officials ignited yet another “bad” news cycle for the NFL. Yet, despite all the hoopla over the calls, it won’t stop Super Bowl Sunday between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles from being a mammoth like profitable success for a league synonymous with horrendous officiating.
From the “Tuck Rule ‘’ game to the Dez Bryant non-catch to the infamous Nola No-Call -- despite the initial passionate pleas of protest from the Who Dat Nation -- bad officiating has not stopped the NFL as an unstoppable force of nature.
The NFL hasn’t fixed the longstanding issue by hiring full-time officials and holding them accountable because there are no dires consequences to do so. Football fans would rather rationalize the league’s incompetence than give up watching football which would show the league that change is needed.
Most fans tell themselves that those calls didn’t go against their favorite team and bad officiating is just part of the game, isn’t it? Plus, I got to buy four squares in the office Super Bowl pool.
It is the same misguided rationalization when it comes to all aspects of the NFL, and in particular for the more heinous and serious abuses the league has doled out.
Did the damning revelations of the league’s long standing negligent approach related to player safety -- in particular concussions -- stop people from watching?
Despite outrage from national media outlets and a big budget movie starring pre-Oscar slapping Will Smith, it did not.
I mean if Miami’s team doctor said Tua Tagovailoa was okay to play after a second concussion, then everything must be on the up-and-up, right? Plus, I am trying to have my four-way parlay hit on DraftKings but I am sure he will be okay.
Did multiple seedy and disgusting sexual claims against star quarterbacks like Ben Roethlisberger or Deshaun Watson stop people from watching? Or Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder and his abundance of disgraces, including toxic workplace environment, sexual harassment, financial improprieties and other scumbaggery dirtbag antics stop you from watching? Nope.
I mean, is predatory behavior in the workplace reprehensible and disgraceful? Of course it is, but you know some women are sue-happy gold diggers trying to take men down right? Plus, I need Deshaun to score me 20 points so I can win my fantasy football league.
How can we possibly expect the NFL to do better in all those arenas when we can’t stop being addicts ourselves? There are female Steelers fans who still wear Roethlisberger jerseys to games. That addiction to all things NFL has helped make it this country’s most lucrative and powerful pro sports league.
An unstoppable goliath that in 2021 signed a television-streaming deal with multiple outlets worth $110 billion.
Not to mention, U.S. adults love to bet on the league. A gambling industry trade group projects a record 50.4 million adults plan to place bets on this year’s Super Bowl, wagering a total of $16 billion.
So what incentive does the NFL have to change? None.
The league is essentially an abusive spouse with a drinking problem, and we the football fans are the ones that continue to enable them by turning a blind eye every time an empty liquor bottle rolls out from underneath the seat of the car.
The NFL will never truly embrace changing its abusive ways -- whether that is the mundane of bad officiating to the more serious nature of sexual harassment and player safety -- unless we force them to do so.
The only way that happens is if we stop watching, but it is a pretty safe bet that won’t start this Sunday or any Sunday.