America’s favourite sport endures its worst ever week

This has been the NFL’s worst week.

In the span of five days, America’s favourite sport bombarded fans with a video of one player punching his wife, details about a former MVP hitting his son with a tree branch, reminders of two more lingering domestic violence cases — all being overseen by a commissioner, Roger Goodell, who has looked ill-suited to handle any of it.

Friday also brought news that speaks to the oversized violence of the game: One story about a study that showed nearly three in 10 ex-players face Alzheimer’s or moderate dementia; and another about the long-awaited implementation of a policy to test for human growth hormone.

Both those items might have been front-page news some weeks. Instead, they were virtual afterthoughts, while a sampling of some of headlines read: ‘Goodell’s Watergate’, ‘Goodell Shows Again that the NFL has Sold its Soul’, ‘Protect the Shield or Cover His Butt?’

“As unusual a week as I can remember in 40 years around the NFL,” agent Leigh Steinberg said.

“What should have been as positive a week as they have, with opening weekend and a lot of good games, turned into a destructive minefield of negativity.”

Last Monday, TMZ released a video of Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice punching his fiancee in an elevator, prompting Goodell to go beyond the league’s new, hastily reworked domestic-violence policy and suspend Rice indefinitely.

On Friday, Minnesota Vikings star Adrian Peterson was charged with child abuse for using a switch to discipline his son.

In between, Goodell’s reputation has been savaged in part because of his claim he hadn’t seen the Rice video until this week, even though The AP reported the video had indeed been sent to the NFL in April.

The league hired former FBI director Robert Mueller to look into the NFL’s handling of the case.

Two other players with domestic violence cases open, Ray McDonald of the San Francisco 49ers and Greg Hardy of the Carolina Panthers, are expected to suit up while their cases are open. Hardy has been convicted by a judge but is appealing.

The National Organisation for Women wants Goodell to go. But so far, that hasn’t happened. And though Americans may be suspicious of Goodell, they show no signs of turning off — the CBS broadcast of Thursday Night Football drew over 20m viewers.