"Just watch. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. When you try to take it too far, people turn the other way. I'm just telling you, when you've got a good thing and you get greedy, it always, always, always, always, always turns on you. That's rule No. 1 of business."
-- Mark Cuban on the NFL, March 23, 2014
When Mark Cuban said "the NFL is 10 years away from an implosion," it was this moment he was trying to warn us about.
By the hour, the lines of ineptness, incompetence, supreme arrogance and the loss of absolute power seems to blur. One after the other. Until, by the time you read this, all of those lines may have totally disappeared. And we can finally see the NFL for what it really is.
On the cover of Tuesday morning's Red Eye, a free daily newspaper published by the Chicago Tribune, one image said it all. The image: the NFL shield. The words: "Still A Fan?"
And that was before Goodell's CBS interview. Before The Associated Press filed stories that refuted and contradicted almost every word that came out of Goodell's mouth. Before the allegation that an NFL executive had actually received the tape months ago and left evidence in the form of a voice message confirming the video's arrival to their offices with a "You're right, it's terrible." Before they set up what they're calling an "independent" investigation by former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III, except his law firm often represents the NFL.
Before whatever happens next.
Could this be the tipping point? Will this be the tipping point? The beginning of the downfall? Is the NFL's cultural reign of America over? Or is it about to begin a slide down a slope so dirty because it is so covered with its own filth that it can't crawl its way back to any sort of respectability?
How is it that the NFL has failed to figure out that it has a problem?
It's not as if there were no red flags. Jovan Belcher, who in college was a member of Male Athletes Against Violence, killed the mother of his baby, Kasandra Perkins, and then shot himself in the parking lot at the Chiefs' facility. Did the league address the issues that might have caused this dramatic behavior switch or start an education campaign against domestic violence?
No, it did not. So when Ray Rice was arrested for domestic violence, some played the victim-blame game and a minor penalty was bestowed minimizing its import. Until a video came out that couldn't be denied. The shock expressed amazed some who wondered what the league thought happened in the elevator. The "best" reactions were professions of ignorance about domestic abusers.
"It will never be the same," current Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said in response to viewing the Ray Rice video in full and how he will evaluate players. "I have to admit, my awareness is different than it was and will never be the same. Hopefully, we can head off any issue that could come up in the future."
Which unfortunately is what the NFL (apparently, allegedly) attempted to do: Head off an issue. And it failed.
Everything we wanted to believe about what the NFL stood for now hangs unbalanced, teetering on the edge, ready to fall. To the point that calling the recent actions surrounding the league's entire handling of the Ray Rice crime a breach of trust is an insult to the phrase "breach of trust."
"The current leadership of the NFL cannot be trusted to fairly, genuinely implement policies that address domestic violence," Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in a statement that echoed the concerns outlined by 12 Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee. Saying that there is a "burgeoning, insurmountable credibility gap," Blumenthal went further, "The NFL has an obligation to do better, and a position of public trust -- benefiting from broad antitrust exemptions granted by Congress, and hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer benefits."
So true. Inarguable. Damn.
The evidence builds against the NFL. Sports, lies and videotape. Reports claiming that 56 NFL players have been convicted of domestic violence, and only a total of 13 games have collectively been missed by those players. According to a USA Today database, there have been 19 arrests (21 if you include warrants) of NFL players in 2014 alone. Going back to 2000, 85 arrests out of 713 total arrests of NFL players were on domestic violence charges. And that's not including Colts owner Jim Irsay and Chiefs assistant coach Adam Zimmer for their recent DUIs.
And this is how a sports league becomes a $10 billion religion.
This could easily be the "enough is enough" point of contention that challenges the loyalty of the fan base. It could lead to a conclusion that of all the professional sports we love in America, the sport we love most is the one that is toxic and least in line with our core personal values.
And from the looks of things, it might be in the process of happening -- just spend some time in social media.
"Scandals involving athletes in the NFL as well as other sports are hardly new," Roger Noll, a professor emeritus of economics at Stanford University, explained via email. "And thus far have not materially affected the popularity of sports.
"What is new is revelations that owners and the league office seem to be callous about unacceptable behavior. Whereas domestic violence is a serious issue, the impact of the Rice case is enhanced and made potentially of greater significance because it comes after cases such as the New Orleans Saints case [intentionally hurting players on other teams], the Miami Dolphins case [doing nothing about racial abuse within a team] and other cases of violent acts in which a team and the league [were] slow to act or did not seriously punish the player. I suspect most fans realize that occasional bad acts by players are inevitable, but what they may be less willing to overlook is behavior by management that does not take bad behavior seriously."
And this is what it has come to. Not because of Ray Rice, because of everything management has done or failed to do.
Nothing is bigger than the league? Well, yes it is. And this is it. All of this is it.
The order of priority: Profit over principle. It's the business of football's ethics and morality, women's physical safety and lives be damned.
Are we still fans? That answer is much closer to "no" than it is "yes." And that's something no one saw coming.
Except Mark Cuban, of course. But remember, we're still 10 years away from when the real NFL implosion is going to happen.