When the sponsors get involved, you know the NFL is in trouble

If you’ve been paying any attention to sports news for the last couple of weeks, you know that the NFL has a crisis on its hands.  A crisis of star players who have been caught committing a range of violent acts:

  • Minnesota Vikings running back Andrian Peterson has been indicted on charges of child abuse.
  • Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was caught on surveillance video last summer hitting his then fiancé so hard she was knocked out.
  • 49ers defensive tackle Ray McDonald was arrested on suspicion of felony domestic violence in August.

And these are just a few of the recent charges.  In the case of Rice, he was initially was suspended for just two games, but was eventually kicked off the team after a second, more explicit, video of his attack surfaced.

The problem the NFL is facing is that it seemingly does not want to discipline players any more than they have to, because, you know… winning games.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has been accused of doing too little, too late, but until recently, there doesn’t seem to have been any consequences to the league for letting accused abusers play.

And it really isn’t a surprise.  After all, the NFL is the most popular show on television, and no one wants to do anything that interferes with that success, least of all the broadcast networks that carry those very profitable games.

abstatementBut today something happened that may get the league’s attention.  Anheuser-
Busch — the brewery that makes Bud Light, the most popular beer in America; the company that spends $1.2 billion on advertising as the official beer sponsor of the NFL — issued a statement that it was “not yet satisfied with the league’s handling of behaviors that so clearly go against our own company culture and moral code.”  As the sports blog Deadspin points out, the company hasn’t threatened to do anything yet; but when you get a $1.2 billion sponsor expressing unhappiness, something’s gonna give.

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