Mike Freeman's 10-Point Stance: Can Anything Derail NFL's Popularity?

1. How long can the staggering popularity last?

The number: 114 million. 

That's how many people watched the Super Bowl. Read it again: 114 million.

The population of the United States is 320 million. My math stinks, but that ratio is, um, high.

Up and up and up go the numbers, like a rocket. But something interesting happened just as the ratings were released.

Word came that one of the most popular names in the sport, Johnny Manziel, had checked himself into a rehab clinic. That news broke just hours after the Super Bowl. Then, just hours after that, TMZ reported that Hall of Famer Warren Sapp, one of the more well-known analysts, was arrested on charges of allegedly soliciting a prostitute.

It capped the worst year in NFL history—a year marred by scandals over a star back attacking his then-fiancee, a star back beating his own child and an assortment of other horrible acts by NFL players.

Most NFL players are good men. Some are not. That small faction has generated ugly headlines, and still…114 million people.

There has never been anything perhaps in the history of sports like this, where so many negative headlines are generated, and yet the ratings just keep growing. Player beats somebody up? Ratings grow. Player busted by cops? Ratings. Increasing science that shows playing football destroys the mind? Ratings, ratings, ratings. On and on it goes.

So the question becomes: When will the ugly acts affect the NFL's popularity? It's only a matter of time before what happens off the field affects that popularity. When? I don't know.

Jason DeCrow/Associated Press

But there simply isn't a corporate model that can withstand a Ray Rice and an Adrian Peterson and a Deflategate and still continue to grow. It cannot happen. At some point, the ratings have to suffer.

I've spoken to players, team officials and league officials who wonder the same thing. Trust me on this: There are some people in football waiting for the other cleat to drop. They are wondering the same thing.

The number…114 million.

How long can this last?

2. Dumbest call of all time

The Seahawks not using Marshawn Lynch on the half-yard line will go down as one of the most egregiously bad calls in the modern history of the NFL. Interestingly, it's not the first time Pete Carroll has made such a crazy call. He did something similar at USC, but he also did something similar almost 20 years ago. There's something about goal-line situations and Carroll. He hasn't seemed to learn from those mistakes all these years.

3. League reactions to blown call

They began coming in minutes after the Patriots won the game.

Text from a head coach: "You have got to be kidding me."

Text from assistant coach: "You have got to be f-----g kidding me."

Text from former team executive: "What the f--k?"

Text from assistant coach: "Carroll will never forgive himself. He'll be kicking himself for the rest of his life."

4. It just gets worse and worse

According to the math of Time's Brad Tuttle, the dumbest call of all time cost Seattle players $3 million.

5. Conspiracy theories are sometimes true

Read this from the great Dave Zirin. Just read it.

6. Where does Belichick rank?

I don't see how he isn't the best coach in history. Yes, I get Spygate. Yes, I get Deflategate (if proven accurate). But none of that detracts from one huge fact: Belichick has dominated in the salary cap era. Bill Walsh didn't have to worry about a salary cap. Neither did the great Don Shula or Paul Brown or Chuck Noll. To reach six Super Bowls in an era with a mechanism such as the cap, designed to destroy dynasties, is impossible. It just can't be done. Except Belichick did it.

The Ted Wells investigation could complicate Belichick's legacy (and Tom Brady's), but we are still seeing the best coach to ever do it.

7. The other Chris Matthews

This shout-out from a former teammate of Matthews' is fantastic, one of my favorite post-Super Bowl moments. Matthews is another example of how NFL players not highly regarded out of college, from Tom Brady picked in the sixth round to others in the Hall of Fame who were never drafted, can still make a mark. 

8. Sapp fired

Just…damn.

9. Charles Haley gets in Hall

This is one of my favorite pictures of Charles Haley, one of the fiercest defensive players I ever covered. He wasn't a good guy, but he was an awesome player, and putting him in the Hall of Fame was long overdue.

10. Happy NFL season

This past year was inspiring, vile, putrid and wonderful. This was the NFL's year from hell, but the Super Bowl showed why this game remains king. For now, at least. For now, the scandals don't seem to bother fans. At all. And the games remain splendid. But, again, at what point will the scandals have an effect?

What a year. See you at the combine.

Mike Freeman covers the NFL for Bleacher Report.