The NFL's Lucky Break

The NFL got lucky this year. Heading into Super Bowl XLV the league was facing a potential nightmare scenario; and it almost happened.

No, I’m not talking about Christina Aguilera butchering the national anthem or the Black Eyed Peas attempting to perform their auto-tune-heavy songs without the aid of auto tune and, in the process, damaging the eardrums of all those within earshot; those two things actually happened.

The scenario the NFL avoided is one that was potentially far more damaging.

If not for Clay Matthews forcing a Rashard Mendenhall fumble that stalled a surging Steelers team early in the fourth quarter, the NFL might have been forced to crown Ben Roethlisberger as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time in the same season that they suspended him four games for a second rape accusation.

Prior to that fumble, Green Bay was on its heels. They had lost Charles Woodson, one of their two biggest impact players on defense (Matthews being the other) to injury, and the Steelers looked to be on their way to one of the greatest Super Bowl comebacks in history.

And, just as in Super Bowl XLIII, Roethlisberger would have been at the driver’s seat of the comeback. A victory last night would have given him his third Super Bowl ring in six years, the two most recent of which being dramatic come-from-behind wins.

In a sports environment that, when judging greatness, values championship rings above all else, Roethlisberger would have been placed only one ring shy of Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana, and right along side the NFL’s poster-boy Tom Brady.

The league would have been forced to enthusiastically sell Roethlisberger’s story as one of redemption, hoping that the memory of two rape accusations would be forgotten amongst the spectacle of the game; the great comeback, the awful halftime performance, and the commercials.

Hey, ESPN could just dig into their archives and replace the words “Michael Vick” and “dog fighting” with “Ben Roethlisberger” and “rape” on every story they ran during the 2010 season.

Even with all of that, though, I doubt the public would have bought it. Just look at how many people still can’t get over Vick’s dog fighting incident, a crime that most level-headed (read as: not PETA) Americans would consider far less heinous than those Roethlisberger was accused of.

Sure, official charges were never filed (I wonder what the rea$on for that wa$…), but that doesn’t mater. Just like the fact that Vick has gone above and beyond his sentence to do extra community service, speaking to kids about a topic I’m sure he would love to simply put behind him, doesn’t matter. Both Roethlisberger and Vick were found guilty in the court of public opinion. After you’re found guilty there, the real justice system is irrelevant.

But, luckily for the NFL, none of that happened. Mendenhall fumbled, the Packers won, and Roethlisberger slipped quietly off the field and out of the spotlight.

I think the NFL owes Matthews a fruit basket.