The commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, has gone underground, waiting for the storm to blow over. Meanwhile, Adrian Peterson has managed to push Ray Rice out of the news, Jonathan Dwyer gets himself arrested and immediately suspended by the Arizona Cardinals, the Carolina Panthers still don’t know what to do with Greg Hardy and Ray McDonald is getting the full support of the San Francisco 49ers.

There are rules and regulations for everything in the NFL, but sometimes it seems like an overload of cases, all showcasing the same specific ugliness in society and in this league, which happens to be a reflection of society in many ways, is causing the judicial system in this league which is usually harsh and quite quick to react, to fall apart and find itself unable to respond accordingly to each and every new report that comes out.

What is the Adrian Peterson situation? He’s suspended with pay. Pretty much pushed away from the team while the whole issue of one or maybe two and who knows how more cases of violence against his own kids, which he isn’t denying, but actually justifying as an act of discipline. The NFL? It’s letting the team handle this issue. The Vikings meed up initially, but as their owners said, it’s never too late to get things right.

The hot subject right now is Dwyer. The running back has been deactivated, arrested on chargers of aggravated assault against a 27-year-old female and an 18-month-old child at Dwyer’s home in southeast Phoenix on July 21 at 8 a.m. and July 22 at 4 p.m., according to the Phoenix Police Department. The Cardinals had time to see how the league, teams, media and public were reacting to each case specifically. They had the knowledge of how not to mess up and avoid any kind of controversy.

Greg Hardy? After mulling the decision for quite some time, he has been placed on the NFL’s commissioner exempt list until his domestic violence case is resolved. He can be around the team but can’t practice with his teammates, waiting for his Nov. 17 date set to hear his appeal of a July 15 guilty verdict for assaulting and threatening ex-girlfriend Nicole Holder.

And there’s Ray McDonald. He has been accused of hitting his pregnant fiancee, but the 49ers are letting him play. His head coach has spoken for him and so have a few from the front office. In short? Bedlam, as each team sees as it fits with very similar cases. The NFL under Goodell has been about saving face, hypocrisy and brushing the ugly stuff under the rug while pushing away those they couldn’t hide anymore. Now it’s hitting the front office in the face with the force of a Brian Dawkins tackle. So far they haven’t been handling it like you’d expect from such a huge and seemingly successful organization.

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