NFL's Ugly, Miserable, Disgraceful Year from Hell May Almost Be Over

The NFL's Year from Hell is almost over. I think. I hope. Fingers crossed.

One way I know the league's worst 12 or so months in its history is almost complete is because we're focusing on football again. We're focusing on the stupid stuff, like PATs, but it's football. Not murderers. Not domestic violence. Not coverups and cheating. Football—on-the-field stuff—is almost back.

The talk about PATs is an indicator of this. It's one of the first times we've talked about pure football. Sure, the PAT stuff is a bit of a shiny object, a gimmicky way of shifting attention from deflated footballs and the Seahawks drafting this dude. But at least it's something on the field.

Changing the PAT rules was digested voraciously by the media because it's been a long time since we could talk about actual play.

I asked one of the best kickers of his generation, Jay Feely, who played for 14 seasons, about the new rules. As usual, I was fascinated by his take.

Feely said the new rules will lead to more injuries on the offensive line because of "60-80 additional plays in which they are in a compromising position." He said that offensive lines typically hate blocking on field goals.

Elise Amendola/Associated Press

Buffalo kicker Dan Carpenter echoed Feely's safety concerns. In an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio, Carpenter said (via the Buffalo News):

"

Being on field goal protection is probably the worst job in football. I know that. And I know all my linemen know that. Well now, they just went from a play where there weren't too many collisions to a play now where not only is the defense coming to take that one point off, but also to have a chance to add two more to their score. For a sport that was trying to cut down on collisions, I mean, I think that you're probably going to add a few more on those situations.

"

Feely added that coaches—other than maybe Chip Kelly—are likely to continue going for the safer field-goal option, saying going for two "puts the onus on them," and coaches prefer to "keep it on the players."

Me to Feely: "It strikes me as the league making this change is a shiny-object thing. Distract from other stuff. But I could be wrong."

Feely to me: "Or you could be right."

But Feely believes the NFL will eventually regret doing this. He gave a great example why: Imagine a late-December down-to-the-wire Ravens-Steelers game in Pittsburgh. The Steelers score with two seconds left to cut the lead to 31-30. Classic NFL game. But instead of chipping in the 20-yard kick to send it to overtime, in cold, windy, sloppy Heinz Field, the Steelers miss the 33-yarder. Game over.

"Which would fans rather watch?" Feely asked. "Which scenario is more entertaining? OT of course. That, however, is what the NFL just implemented. I think they will regret the change."

Wait...did we just talk about football? Not subpoenas or beating kids with a tree branch? I think we did. Well, how about that?

There's more evidence.

Ray Rice's charges were dismissed Thursday after he completed pre-trial intervention. 

And how about the NFL trolling the Patriots about PSI?

"

Precision. Strength. Intelligence. Head Coaches tell us what it takes to be a franchise QB: http://t.co/iAyZn8EmZF pic.twitter.com/bqCZBqs2QN

— NFL (@nfl) May 21, 2015"

We even saw the resumption of delicious coachspeak this week from, of all places, the Jets. Coach Todd Bowles, when asked if he had a reaction to Tom Brady's suspension, answered like he was asked to describe the ingredients in tomato soup:

That is wonderfully coach-centric. Huge indicator that football is returning to a normal orbit. 

Slowly, surely, the NFL is moving past all of the insanity and into a healing phase. I think. I hope. Fingers crossed.

There are still issues of course. There was some ugly news this week. Buffalo's Marcell Dareus was suspended this week for one game in 2015 for violating the league's drug policy. There was a second painkiller lawsuit. Not good, but that's nothing compared to what's happened in the sport recently.

The past year in football has been, to put it mildly, absolutely putrid. It began with Rice's punch in an elevator. That eventually led to the Robert Mueller investigation. Not to be confused with the Ted Wells investigation.

Jason DeCrow/Associated Press

There was a flurry of domestic violence arrests. Adrian Peterson beat his own child. There was Greg Hardy. There was Deflategate. Along the way, the actual play of football took a backseat. The NFL led cable news not because of touchdowns but because of scandals. Deflategate even partially obscured the Super Bowl.

The NFL is beginning to emerge from this horrible fog. Oh, sure, there are things on the horizon. Brady's suspension appeal and Hardy's appeal—but most of those cases have already been litigated and debated.

One year or so ago, if the NFL was a starship, it was fighting through explosive decompressions, and structural integrity was failing. Now, emergency power is restored and force fields are holding. Or something like that.

There can't be another year like the last one, right? Right? Right?

We're back to football, desperately so. So much that we're obsessed with PATs. Freaking PATs.

And we'll take it.

Mike Freeman covers the NFL for Bleacher Report.