The Show Must Go On, Part III: Today, we came two steps closer to the end of a national institution...

... the institution of the game of American football.

(However, if you read this post, please read the RETRACTION I put on the next post regarding something I had said which has been proven inaccurate.)

Today, two more steps were taken:  One which indicates the high cost of continuing the institution, and the other which indicates the utter and complete callousness of those in charge at the professional level.

As many people probably know by now, Junior Seau is dead today by a gunshot wound to the chest.  It is almost certain that bullet was self-inflicted.

Seau joins a growing list of people (Andre Waters, Dave Duerson, Chris Henry, and numerous others) whose deaths can be almost solely attributable to the game of football.  Seau was only 43.  He was my age.  Seau was only out of the league for two seasons, and he never, according to Wikipedia, formally retired.

And yet it is now clear that something happened which he, in no way, could accept.  And it appears to have ominous similarities to several other football players with only recent histories of violence before untimely death:  Those may recall that, about 18 months ago (seven months after his last game), Seau was arrested for an investigation of domestic violence against his girlfriend, and then probably attempted suicide then after taking his SUV off a cliff.

Anyone who is choosing to take a fair and reasoned examination of the costs of football has to take a look at the mounting number of lawsuits against football and the amount of (crocodile) tears that are being shed.  One has to take an open look, if there's a "moment of silence" before the games in the first week, just how many people we are actually having that moment of silence for.

Junior Seau was probably one of the most respected defensive players in the league -- certainly, one of it's highest profile players.  And, at 43, his brain basically orders him to exit.

This, on the same day that the NFLPA and Roger Goodell agree to and announce the action which should be the end of the fucking National Football League.

They announced such piddling penalties against only four players on the New Orleans Saints for Bounty-Gate that it is now obvious and apparent that the entire 2012 New Orleans Saints season MUST fall under The Show Must Go On.

The New Orleans Saints franchise should've been expelled from the National Football League (for at least one season) because of Bounty-Gate, and it is no less than, at the least, ironic, that on the day that Junior Seau probably kills himself due to repeated blows to the head:

• Johnathan Vilma, the recognized leader of the defense and admitted contributor to the bounty fund, is banned for an entire season.  He is only eligible for reinstatement after the Super Bowl.  Vilma has been given the NFL equivalent of a life ban -- banned for one season, and then he has to show cause that he should be allowed to return.
• Anthony Hargrove is suspended a half a season for admitting his role in targetting former quarterback Brett Favre in the infamous and tainted NFC title win.
• Will Smith, a defensive captain, suspended four games as a contributor and organizer of the bounty fund.
• Scott Fujita, as a contributor to the fund, got three game.

ALL FOUR SHOULD BE BANNED FROM THE LEAGUE, NO APPEALS, FOREVER!!  THROW EM OUT!

But for Roger Goodell and the NFLPA to wash it's hands of this stain on organized culture (much less organized sport), and then, on the day that a player who played the Saints during this time blows his chest out, give such a piddling penalty that it makes one wonder where the motivations even lie here...

There should be 31 teams next year.   And, damned soon, there will be ZERO.  Anyone who is suing the National Football League for damages caused by the league's clear unwillingness to take real action for player safety needs only the information from the Bounty-Gate investigation (FIFTY THOUSAND PAGES of it!) and the complete limp-wristed approach of the league to literally get a BLANK CHECK from the courts.

The Saints should be bankrupted and disbanded, their assets sold off to pay for the lawsuits -- and that's just on players to which it could be tied.  There are literally HUNDREDS of these lawsuits, and the only way that I could see judges dismissing them is to basically treat the players the same way as the fans have been treated.  The fans have zero rights vis-a-vis the games they watch, which see Mayer vs. Belichick, Patriots, and National Football League.

The only way this league is continued, the only way organized football continues at this rate -- is to grant that the institution of football is beyond all sense of law.  With it's cultural reach, that's not a large stretch by which to see.

I'll have more on this later.