From Deshaun Watson to Dan Snyder, NFL can’t outrun scandal

The NFL circus is working exactly as the league needs it to work.

If you’re paying attention to the big headlines this week, you’re probably not seeing the ones taking you behind the curtain, the stories that repeatedly show what the NFL really is and really stands for.

Step right up and react to Carson Wentz being traded to the Commanders!

Pay no mind to Deshaun Watson’s legal case, which is hitting a critical phase Friday. It’s the day prosecutors will present evidence to a grand jury seeking criminal charges against Watson, who has been accused by nearly two dozen women of sexual impropriety under the guise of seeking therapeutic massages. It’s also the day Watson will sit for his first sworn deposition in the civil lawsuits against him and say nothing. His attorney has instructed him to plead the Fifth on every question.

Thirteen months ago Watson was seen as a squeaky-clean superstar quarterback on the rise. Since then, his image has been tainted by his alleged behavior. Yet some team will likely overlook all of this and acquire him anyway, because if the NFL has taught us anything, it’s that it cares less about women than it does about meaningful anti-racism work.

Gather ’round and discuss Aaron Rodgers’ reported record-breaking deal with Green Bay!

Ignore the latest in the Brian Flores lawsuit against the Miami Dolphins and the league, in which we discover that the Dolphins are trying to force Flores into private arbitration, which of course would happen behind closed doors and almost certainly involve an agreement by both sides to keep everything quiet. Flores has accused the Dolphins and other teams of systemic racism against Black coaches in their hiring practices, and claims that team owner Stephen Ross offered him money to tank games in 2019 so Miami could get the best-possible draft pick. Flores is also accusing Ross of setting up a meeting between…