Cycle of infamy

The power and glory of the National Football League is on full display this weekend in Nashville, where the Shield took over the town for the NFL Draft, turning the mundane non-event of dividing up talent from its collegiate farm system into an Event.

One by one, young men have paraded across that big stage for the requisite bro hug from commissioner Roger Goodell. Teary parents are interviewed. Mel and McShay talk about what great kids/prospects/athletic talents the young men are.

It's the NFL's annual closeup, and it always shows its best side. And it obscures, or has this weekend, a side that's not nearly so photogenic.

Buried in all the draft hype, see, another NFL story was going on, and it wasn't one ol' Rog would be so inclined to embrace. Away from the glare in Nashville, something else was going on: A criminal investigation in Kansas City, re-opened after an audio tape of Chiefs' wide receiver Tyreek Hill surfaced.

On it, Hill's fiancée and a man alleged to be Hill discuss how their 3-year-old son broke his arm. Hill denies doing it. His fiancée allegedly asks why, then, did his son say "Daddy punches me,"

On the tape, Hill allegedly tells his fiancée she needs “to be terrified of me, too, (expletive).” His fiancée is allegedly heard telling him their son says, “Daddy punches me,” and that Hill has him “open up his arms and you punch him in the chest. And then if he gets in trouble, you get the belt out.”

I don't know how much of this is genuine. But the authorities thought enough of it to re-open an investigation of Hill for child abuse.

What I do know is how the NFL will deal with this, if precedence matters at all. Hill will be suspended for a few games. The Chiefs will likely cut him loose, as they did running back Kareem Hunt after Hunt was caught on a hotel surveillance video kicking a young woman while she lay on the floor. Some time will pass, the furor will die down, and someone else will sign Hill, just as the Browns signed Kareem Hunt.

Eight games into this coming season, Kareem Hunt will be playing again.

However many games the NFL patty-cakes Hill with, he'll be playing again, too.

I know this because Adrian Peterson, who beat his son with a switch so severely the child's testicles were bruised, is still playing in the NFL. So if Hill did, in fact, punch a 3-year-old in the chest as punishment, he'll still have a home in the league.

The Blob says this proves the NFL apparently has a soft spot for candy-asses, because only a candy-ass punches a child or beats him with a switch. Real men don't.

It also proves the NFL has a soft spot for obscene talent, too.

Tyreek Hill, see, is the fastest man in the NFL, and an absurdly gifted wide receiver. Weapons that valuable don't come along every day. And so someone will sign him, just as someone signed Adrian Peterson and the Browns signed Kareem Hunt.

Professional football is, after all, a business. Moral considerations will always run a very poor second to profitability and market value.

A home truth that's playing out in all its glory in Nashville this weekend.