Baseball is known as America’s pastime, but football is America’s game. The National Football League games have made their way into families living rooms and have become a common occurrence every Sunday since October 22, 1939 when they televised for the first time a professional football game. What happens when football draws more focus for the off-field issues rather than the beauty of the game itself?

NFL players are looked up to and are considered role models as well. Kids and younger football players juke, spin, throw and catch pretending to be their favorite player or always choose that certain team on Madden. They impact these child’s lives. The problem is that, that impact can go both ways: negative and positive.

The week of September 8, 2014 might go down in NFL history as the darkest week in its entirety. However, it started seven months ago, and should’ve been resolved much sooner.

On February 17, 2014, Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was arrested on assault charges involving his then fiance Janay Palmer. The distraction and talk simmered down, but still continued until July 2014 when the NFL suspended Rice for two games. This case went about like any other case would go. That soon would be anything but normal when TMZ released the video of Rice hitting Palmer in the elevator on September 8.

Everything after that went up in flames after that. Rice was released by the Ravens, fans were burning jerseys of him and Roger Goodell was in hot water after denying that the NFL had not seen the video prior to TMZ releasing it.

To make matters worse, Cleveland Browns star wide receiver Josh Gordon was suspended for a DUI and marijuana use.

Carolina Panther’s pro bowl defensive end Greg Hardy has been deactivated due to the domestic violence charges hovering over him.

Just to add to the list, arguably one of the best running backs in the league, Adrian Peterson, was just deactivated as well due to the recent news of beating his son with a switch.

Now former role models, these gifted athletes have partially ruined their lives as well as every fan who looked up to them and enjoyed hearing their name on Sundays. This causes disgrace to them, the team organization and the entire NFL.

According to U-T San Diego, there have been 29 arrests of NFL players since last season ended. The most recent, on September 17, of Arizona Cardinal running back Jonathan Dwyer for aggravated assault on his wife.

If Goodell wants to get rid of the big black smear across the face of the NFL, they are going to have to crack down hard on more than just concussions. Drugs and domestic violence are becoming a much larger issue at hand. SportsCenter is flooded with reports of Peterson, Rice and much more. Very little good news is coming out of the NFL or whatever does, is overshadowed by the arrests and suspensions.