In a sport where players run through other players, tackle, scrap, and dog pile onto one another, hard to believe that a couple of them take the violence off the field, right?

Well, at the top of the football food chain is the National Football League. In the past, the NFL was never really the pinnacle of excellence when it comes to credibility and moral codes. They allegedly covered up the effects of concussions in order to protect the league’s image. These allegations have come back and bit the NFL where the sun does not shine. The Aaron Hernandez case brought up the discussion of where the NFL and NCAA find their players and whether or not they care if the player has a bad upbringing or a questionable personality or temperament. But despite the players suing the league and the Aaron Hernandez case, they both pale in comparison to the darkest time in NFL history.

February 2014 marked the time when everybody saw the TMZ video of Ray Rice dragging his then fiance out of an elevator at an Atlantic City casino. Despite there being no footage released at the time of inside the elevator, there was no forgone conclusion, but ask everybody and their mother what happened and they would say he knocked her out.

Fast forward to July 25, five months after the video’s release. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspends Rice for two regular season games for the video stating upon what he saw from the footage. He never said what exactly he had seen but whatever it was; it wasn’t what the public watched. The public watched a man drag his girlfriend out of an elevator with no concern for her well being and an alleged sorry excuse of “she passed out from drinking too much.”Most viewed a two game suspension as a complete udder disregard for women by the NFL.

Roseville Varsity Football coach Melvin Richendollar said, regarding the NFL’s hastiness towards the issue, “I don’t think the NFL had all the information, and if they did and their moving that slow, then that is sad.”

Those of you that view a two gamer as justified, here’s a stat for you- Ray Rice hits his wife (two games) versus smoking marijuana (four games). Apparently, the NFL is telling its players that they can hit the Mrs., but don’t you dare smoke a joint. Not only did Goodell do a poor job at handling Rice, his team’s coach, the Baltimore Ravens’ John Harbaugh, expressed how badly he feels for Rice and how great of a person he is back on July 24. I guess that’s what you do when the guy is still wearing your team’s uniform, but he still could have said “we are currently getting to the bottom of this” or something.

After facing scrutiny by everybody, Goodell changed the policy of domestic violence to six games for one incident, and a possible life ban for a second. While a step in the right direction, it was only a Band-Aid placed on the large gash that Goodell originally created. Considering the policy was placed on Aug. 28, it only took 11 days for the wound to become re-opened.

TMZ released a video on Sept. 8 showing the in-elevator footage of Rice. To make the summary short and sweet, he spat on her, cold cocked her and then dragged her out. This time, the NFL was quick to react and they immediately suspended Rice indefinitely. The Baltimore Ravens sent Rice packing as well. But the league was not off the hook. Nope, they were then called on as to seeing the tape of him hitting her back in February. This incident immediately brought back the talks of lack of care the NFL shows towards its female fans. But wait folks; there is more… and this time, not Rice.

Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy was accused of physically and verbally abusing his wife. He also apparently threw her onto a couch full of automatic weapons. As I’m writing this, I am seriously shaking my head in disbelief at this story. Although that is not what the focus is on, the only thing the NFL needs is to bring gun control into their world. The thing that gets me with this case is that the NFL isn’t doing anything about it. Although the Panthers suspended him for multiple weeks, they are the only one taking action.

The next guy isn’t shocking, as it has happened before. Viking’s running back and arguably the best running back in the league, Adrian Peterson, was exposed for beating his four-year-old son with a switch (a loose branch from a tree).This case had caused people to initially take sides between classic parenting, which involved hitting and spanking your kids for discipline, and new age parenting, which is applied mainly today and doesn’t involve hitting your kids-with switches at least. The NFL yet again has not done anything about it but the team has. Despite originally suspending him for a game, the Vikings owners said they would allow the jury in his court case to review his whether or not he’s guilty. The photos of Peterson’s son were released as well, showing the brutal marks caused by the running back. This made all of Peterson’s original supporters, including me, cringe and admit that he did take the punishment too far. He said he does it because he loves his son and wants him to learn right from wrong, and I get that 100% but it’s not the same when you leave scars on your kid. Another cause of these photos is that he will now have to watch the Viking games out of uniform as Minnesota reversed its reversal of his suspension. He is now doubtful to even return to the NFL for the rest of the season.

The last one I have yet to mention is Jonathan Dwyer of the Arizona Cardinals –yet another running back- has been charged with domestic abuse. This time its Rice and Peterson rolled into one. He had hit his woman and his 18-month-old child. He broke his wife’s nose by head-butting her in his Phoenix apartment late July. The Cardinals have now placed him on the non-football injury list for the charges. There is little to no chance for a return. The fact that Dwyer is probably the least likely to come back out of all of the alleged abusers is ridiculous, and the reason he is, is simple. He isn’t a star. He is just a back-up and they don’t get second chances.

This whole debacle is just downright ludicrous, so here’s a message to the NFL and its bumbling commissioner; get this taken care of quickly before the greatest empire inside of America starts crumbling from the top-down.