The NFL fraternity is getting very desperate for this story to die...

And knows it won't.

Just happened on an article on ESPN.com (more specifically, it's local Boston area) on a letter that Chad Ochocinco sent to Roger Goodell.

I think the letter speaks for itself on the frankness and desperation on the part of the pro-football fraternity, knowing that the game probably is about to die.

This first part of the letter is Chad talking:

"Many of you know I have a father son relationship with Roger Goodell. I love him and just had to reach out to him with all that is going on. We are at a crucial point in the history of football. The foundation of the game is in jeopardy based on all these factors and the future of the game is going to be shaped by him."

The letter follows:

"Dear Dad,
I know it has been a rough week, so I wanted to reach out. Players dying, players suing and on top of that my peers are just going off on you in the media. It does not help that ESPN has all of a sudden become Medical TV with damn near every brain expert on the planet. This has got to be the worst week ever. Since no one is showing any support, I figured I would be the first. You are in one big ass catch 22 and quite frankly, I am not sure there is any solution. One thing I think can help is killing the NFL PR machine.
Y'all do a darn near perfect job at portraying this game as one played by heroes.
But let's be real dad. This is a nasty, dirty and violent game with consequences. Sign up or go get a regular job. Watch it or turn off the TV and go fishing with your kids. It is really that simple. I know there are probably legal and financial implications that prevent this blunt depiction, but am not sure if you have a choice. If you don't say it now, the mounting evidence being revealed publicly will say it for you very soon. In all, I love you and if anyone can lead us out of this mess, it will be you. Oh by the way, I have a deal for you. Am having a rebound year and plan to do a lot of celebrating in the end zone. Can my fine money go to supporting ex-players suffering?
Sincerely,
Chad"

Chad, I have little use for you on the field.  However, I think there are several points you make in this open letter to your Commissioner:

1) This has been a tough week for Goodell.  I believe that he is trying to tamper with the Seau family decision, and the money involved in letting the world find out (as most anyone should be able to discern) that football killed Junior Seau is not only the NFL's, but probably the lifeblood and societal structure which keeps many colleges, universities, and local school districts from throwing in the towel in this society.

Football, in my honest opinion, is the only reason we have many school districts (and probably more than a few colleges).  "Portraying the game as one played by heroes starts at a young age", and these "heroes" are coddled and allowed free reign over the intellectuals, differents, and their harems (for that last one, read that as the cheerleading and dance squads) has allowed football to take such a societal hold that the last three months since The National Super Bowl Holiday have been met with disbelief or outright ignorance by most people.

I have friends who gave hips and knees to this game.  I have three brothers who gave knees (personally witnessed the third on an accidental helmet to the back of the knee on the last game of his senior season!).

I fully expect my old high school, two or three years removed from the state semifinal, to shut down football either this upcoming year or next.  The districts won't be able to afford skyrocketing medical insurance prices.



How many more Dave Duersons or Junior Seaus or Chris Henrys or who knows who else before someone finally steps in on an institutional level and says "NO MORE"? 

Won't happen with the Sports Fan in Chief in office, but if he gets replaced?

2) Why shouldn't ESPN start getting real serious about the medical impacts?  If football goes down, so does the 24-hour sports network!  The entire concept will fail (not just the NFL Network, but the entire ESPN concept without football as a backbone of it's programming -- both BCS college and NFL professional!).

3) He is in a Catch-22.  Of course, any Commissioner of the NFL would, but even more so now:  If the truth (as outlined in books such as Interference and The Fix is In) were ever revealed about the National Football League, it would be gone.

That is why, Mr. Ochocinco, there is no (other) solution.  Your chosen profession is little more credible than prostitution, if people were to take a real look behind the curtain of your National Religion.

4) It is a nasty, dirty game with consequences, but those consequences have been magnified by players like Mr. Suh and Mr. Harrison and others committing enough dirty hits that the fines you speak of later reach a weekly six figures.  The fact is that ESPN is partially responsible, as the violent nature of the game, to the point of the dirty helmet hits being the most desirable.

Now, you have one franchise crippled by the revelation that they openly paid people to commit an offense in California called "mayhem" -- the denial of the use of one's body through an illegal act.

5) You are most certainly correct on the legal and financial implications that prevent the league from telling the truth.

I truly believe if the NFL is held to account in the courts (and not declared above all law through societal status), that the league is bankrupt and finished, so prevalent are illegal acts not only in the rulebooks, but on the statute books as well.

That takes out the casinos, much of Las Vegas,  probably most of the bar business on Sundays (and more than a few other similar ventures)...

Basically, it rewrites this country in one fell swoop.

And all for a lie.  Not only are many of the games seen as fixed, but now players are dropping dead at alarming rates which only professional wrestling seem to match.

And son, you ain't (and there is no one in the NFL as articulate as) John Cena.

6) He can't say the truth.  If he does, he loses the sponsors, he loses the support of the legislatures (for one example of how important that is:  He just used the Vikings to strong-arm the Minnesota Legislature out of probably a billion dollars in taxpayer money -- in a state where they damn near had to stop welfare benefits due to a budget impasse a year ago!), he basically loses the league.

You want to see how bad this is already getting, Chad?  From the Kansas City Star:

"During the last eight months, more than 2,000 former NFL players have sued the league, alleging that it withheld information that could’ve signaled to players that lingering mental debilitation would be a consequence of the game’s constant pounding to the head."

And Bounty-Gate could not have come at a worse time for all this.  EVERY DAMNATED ONE of those ex-players suing now should be able to receive the 50,000 pages of evidence vis-a-vis the situation with the Saints, which should, almost on the prima facie basis, prove that the NFL deliberately withheld not only the information of the dangers, but also withheld enforcing it's own rules and the law to prevent this kind of situation from occurring.

And it's not as simple as "getting a real job" or "going fishing with the kids".  Football has been put on a pedestal next to (if not superior to) God Himself in this country.  If we, as a nation, correctly ban football (at the rate this is going), there will be such a gaping hole in the country that nothing can fill it.

7) Yes, if anyone's getting you out of it, it's going to be Goodell -- mainly because of the time involved.  I think you get this season.  Whether you get next season, though, is going to depend on a number of factors, not all of which in your control.

Chad, I'd suggest exploring another line of work -- more seriously than your MLS foray during last year's lockout.