NFL Providing the Real March Madness This Year

If there was any lingering doubt about which sport dominated the American landscape, then the last two days has ended the debate. Good news or bad, the NFL rules.

It has relegated baseball's spring training to a footnote. It has taken the spotlight from the NCAA tournament, which has become mundane and boring without any help. More about that in another article.

The Super Bowl may have been played six weeks ago, but the NFL continues to steal the headlines. First, it was the Peyton Manning free-agent tour that culminated with Manning signing with the Denver Broncos.

That was a feel-good fest compared to developments less than 24 hours after Manning was introduced in a Denver news conference.

Manning said all the right things and even volunteered what great shape the NFL is in because of all the classy and professional people he met when visiting teams on his free-agent list.

Of course, it isn't all peaches and cream in the NFL as we soon discovered. Commissioner Roger Goodell brought the hammer down on the New Orleans Saints for perpetuating a bounty system on defense where players were paid bonuses for knocking opponents out of games.

The Saints had been warned in the past about a practice that continued for three years under defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who left after the 2011 season to take a similar position with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Now, the franchise that didn't have a home after Hurricane Katrina virtually sank the city of New Orleans and recovered to win a Super Bowl has been dealt a crippling blow to its championship aspirations for next season.

The Saints would have had a chance to become the first team to play a Super Bowl in its own stadium.

But it is difficult envisioning that now with coach Sean Payton suspended without pay for one season by Goodell. Assistant coach Joe Vitt received a six-game suspension, general manager Mickey Loomis was suspended for eight games and the Saints will forfeit their second-round draft pick this year and next.

Williams is suspended indefinitely, which means at least for the 2012 season, before his case is reviewed by Goodell.

Fans might argue that at least no players were punished, but that would be underestimating the value of a coach like Payton, who also is the mastermind behind the prolific offense run by Drew Brees.

And Goodell hasn't shut the door on punishing players either.

The commissioner has come down hard not only because safety has become the keynote of his tenure, but because he has no tolerance for the fact the Saints lied to him about curtailing the bounty system.

Look what he did to Michael Vick who lied to Goodell about his involvement with dog fighting.

Add to the mix the fact that Brees isn't happy with the franchise player tag he received a few weeks ago in lieu of a new contract and the Saints are now in chaos.

But the real madmen of the NFL are the New York Jets, who acquired Tim Tebow, the now-expendable quarterback of the Broncos, for a fourth-and-sixth-round draft pick this year.

That deal is temporarily on hold because of a clause in Tebow's contract that the Jets either overlooked or weren't aware of.

And it is widely believed that Tebow would rather be traded to Jacksonville, his home town.

Jets fans should give thanks if this deal eventually falls apart.