Did you ever notice that his most obvious errors come in close games nearing playoff times, and favor the team from the larger market. Funny how that works.

It is a machine of many moving parts, not just the NFL, but the owners, the sponsors, the affiliated businesses that feed off the frenzy by dealing with every aspect of marketing the sport and its merchandising. And the tendrils don’t stop with the professional teams, it dominates the entire higher educational establishment in this country, and extends all the way to the base of a massive, nationwide farm system attached to American education like a parasitic organism, from colleges to high schools and even further–all the way to Pop Warner. And the fans share as much of the blame as the fat-cat suits that gorge themselves on this limit- and pointless industry. Bread and circuses, the Blues and the Greens, the whole decadent structure has centuries of “tradition” behind it.

Greedy bosses, strutting coaches, self-important administrators, spoiled thug stars, crippled players; domestic violence, shattered knees and brain injuries are just the tip of the iceberg. Penn State football proved that even serial child rape wasn’t enough to keep the coaches and fans from trying to cover up and looking the other way, wishing the critics would just go away and leave their precious football alone. Remember those State College students rioting when they found out their beloved pervert coach was busted by the vice squad and the whole PROGRAM was revealed as a nest of vipers desperate to keep the blood and money flowing indefinitely, no matter who was destroyed.

Hey, don’t get me wrong. I love watching the game. Its just the people in it that I can’t stand.

Now that we have established that, a serious episode of domestic violence is preceded by minor episodes. And there are no innocent victims. Both people involved have been in a dangerous dance for a long time before it erupts into a major incident.

Now, one party knows it is coming. Usually looks forward to it as a demonstration that they still matter.

If a second incidence of violence occurs, it is the fault of the “victim”. If they don’t get the hell out, knowing what is going to happen, they are equally the problem.

Even a dog will bare it’s teeth, then growl before it bites. If someone insists on petting it and gets bitten they bear some of the responsibility.

And if they do it again, they bear a lot more of the responsibility.

“Should” the dog bit them. Hell, no! And if you know it will, and you come around the second time, I don’t think you can yell “Victim”.

How can it claim a right, duty or obligation to reach inside their homes, read “castles”, and govern their behavior?

I know they can, they do, and I don’t know that I believe it is proper. No matter how justified.

But this only tends to counterbalance the fact that organizations like the NFL (and yes, the NRA) are primarily machines for making money, and they have considerable resources available to devote to the public relations effort whose major purpose is to deflect negative public opinion and allow them to continue uninterrupted their mercenary activity.

Its all public relations–propaganda, lobbying, litigation, advertising. Guys in suits.

I guess its like war, there may be a good side and a bad side, but in the trenches, they’re pretty hard to tell apart.

Enter Jesse Jackson. He’d offer to mediate. Meeting with the principles, Jackson would explain that the problems would go away if Proctor and Gamble just purchased some needed products from Acme Provisioning, a minority owned company, and acquired some services from Universal Services, another minority owned company.

P & G would do so and Jackson would work tirelessly to alleviate the tensions, and in variably do so. What was never publicized is that Acme would be owned by Jackson’s aunt and Universal by his brother’s wife.

Jackson worked that scam over and over and over.

I would not be surprised to find something similar in the NFL situation.