What do the National Football League and Author James Frey Have in Common?

They both lied! Only back in 2006, James Frey got scolded so publically by Oprah Winfrey that his book, ‘A Million Little Pieces’ nearly stopped selling and Mr. Frey has been pretty quiet ever since. So why does the NFL get to lie to the entire public about a video so vile and face no repercussions?

Let’s see – I call it ‘cultural brainwashing’. Clearly the NFL has us all so enamored with the sport that we’re willing to allow the entire league, and its Commissioner to get away with this! How is this able to happen? Well, my theory is that it all starts the day after the Superbowl. Why? Well, the day after the Superbowl is the first day of the NFL’s true marketing strategy (which is genius, by the way) because there is this collective hangover, followed by this kind of national depression that sets in – there’s no football game next Sunday. Which allows them to manipulate our emotions and sulk all spring and summer, awaiting opening day complete with performances by Pharell Williams and other artists we love.

During the ‘off-season’ – at least that’s what they call it even though the NFL is never really ‘off’ – we collectively pine away for the fall. Maybe the NBA playoffs are a bit of a substitute, but not really. We really can’t wait for ‘our team’ to take the field sometime in September – well actually August if you think about it.

In writing terms, it would be like the time you read the last page of that ‘Harry Potter’ book – maybe it was ‘The Chamber of Secrets’ or maybe it was ‘The Goblet of Fire’ – whatever! We all reacted the same way when we closed that book… “Man, I can’t wait until the next book!” So we ‘Muggles’ went online and checked into Amazon.com every week to find out when the next book was being released. We watched the movie EVERY SINGLE TIME it came on the ABC Family Channel. You know you did. Don’t lie to yourself.

Well, the NFL kinda works that way except… if J.K. Rowling were to have admitted she plagiarized the story we’d be outraged and call for her to NEVER write another book! So why does the NFL get off the hook? Yeah, that’s the question, isn’t it?