Opinion: From the racism in the NFL’s head coaching hires and to the current cases of sexual assault, the league can’t seem to stay out of the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

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This summer the NFL found itself entangled in yet another scandal that had little to do with the actual game of football. Deshaun Watson, the Cleveland Browns’ quarterback, has been accused of sexual assault by 24 women, and unfortunately — to no one’s surprise — the NFL’s punishment for Watson does not fit the crime. 

The NFL first agreed to suspend Watson for the first six weeks of the season, but after a league appeal due to negative public blowback, Watson will now be suspended 11 games without pay and fined 5 million dollars. However, I still don’t believe a $5 million fine and an 11-game suspension for a player with a $230 million contract in a 17-game season will have the impact the NFL seems to think it will. 

While there is currently media and public outrage against the league and their punishment policies on cases like Watson’s, the truth is that once the season starts this storyline will be slowly forgotten in the sea of more current NFL news. Watson will likely rejoin the Browns, and with fresh legs, he could possibly even play them into playoff contention. 

However, while the Watson case may become old news, it must be remembered that the case is only a single example in a long string of events that demonstrates the deep-rooted problems of the NFL. A problem was made increasingly clearer when the NFL decided they valued Watson and his season average of 26 touchdowns more than the voices of 24 women. 

Atlantic Sports writer Jemelle Hill explains, “This is typical behavior by NFL teams, which are notorious for vouching for the character of players with a deeply worrisome history when in truth the only trait that they really care about is whether that player possesses the necessary drive to compete and to win championships.”

From the racism in the NFL’s head coaching hires and the blacklisting of Colin Kaepernick to these current cases of sexual assault, the league can’t seem to stay out of the headlines for all the wrong reasons. And with these countless wrongdoings by the league amplified by the horrific nature of the most recent scandal I can’t help but be left questioning my following of the NFL. 
Growing up, sports were ingrained in me and the culture of my family; on any given Sunday in our house the distinct sound of Greg Papa screaming “Touchdown Raiders!” could often be heard. The influence of sports on my life was so prominent that I became a journalist with the goal of one day interviewing the stars that flooded my screen as a kid. 

But where does this leave me now? As a woman in today’s society, I can no longer blindly pray at the altar of a sport that disregards the experiences and pain of the female victims whose league so easily turned its back on. 

Many would argue that boycotting the sport or effectively attempting to “cancel” the NFL is the most obvious solution. Unfortunately, statistics have shown that this will do little to make the league feel the weight of their wrongdoings. 

Some analysts predict that the NFL’s revenue will hit an all-time high in the upcoming season, and tv network ratings show that despite recent years’ mishaps, NFL games have increased their ratings by over 10% in the past year and also accounted for 91 of the top 100 telecasts on television during the season.  Throughout good and bad times, the NFL’s popularity and ratings have never wavered. As NYTimes journalist Jay Kang explains, “The point is always the same: Scandals come and go, but the NFL will always grow.” 

So while the effectiveness of cancel culture and its results are heavily debated in our current time, it isn’t a plausible solution in the case of such a large institution like the NFL. With this being said, myself and other football fans can only hope the outrage will lead to improvements in this long-standing part of our American culture. Seeing as a boycott of the league will do little to punish the NFL, the unfortunate truth is that internal league change is currently the only clear path to a better future for the sport.