The NFL 2018: It's Lonely At The Top

When you're the most dominant force in American professional sports and in pop culture, as the National Football League is, everyone wants to take shots at you.  As the 2018 season gets underway, the reputation of the league has been fielding body blows.  To wit:

• Colin Kaepernick, the man whose taking a knee during the "Star Spangled Banner" to protest social injustice cost him a football career, continues to haunt the NFL with lawsuits and with becoming the new face of Nike's "Just Do It" ad campaign.  The controversy refuses to go away as long as Kaepernick sits, President Donald Trump yells about how un-American he and other (black) athletes are, conservative fans confuse protesting with disrespect for Our Flag and Our Troops while burning Nike apparel, and TV ratings go down. 
• Meanwhile, as long as Kaepernick sits, the NFL continues to employ alleged domestic abusers.
• New rules involving penalties on violent hits and the phasing out of kickoffs for the sake of lessening on-field concussions has its heart in the right place, but is confusing the heck out of everybody from players and coaches to referees, fans and broadcasters.  A little clarity, please?
• The NFL has replaced Papa John's with Pizza Hut as the Official Pizza of the league.  No amount of sausage and pepperoni could save former CEO and TV spokesperson John Schnatter from the wrath he faced over his use of the N word.  But Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones still has his back.
• Terrell Owens is now a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  For reasons known only to Owens, he chose to have his induction ceremony in Tennessee instead of Canton, Ohio.  But then, T.O. has always marched to the beat of a different drummer.
• Johnny Manziel is back playing football, this time in the Canadian Football League.  After being benched by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Manziel was traded to the Montreal Alouettes, where he promptly threw too many interceptions and got injured.  But he's still turning his life around, right?
• Fox is the new home for the NFL's "Thursday Night Football" package.  CBS gets the Super Bowl in Atlanta this season.  Mike Tirico replaces Dan Patrick as host of NBC's "Football Night in America".  And ESPN's "Monday Night Football" trades in Sean McDonough (went back to college football) and Jon Gruden (went back to coaching the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders)  for Joe Tessitore and Jason Witten.

Other than that, things are great in NFL-land.  Here's who we see as eligible for the playoffs come January.

NFC
East  Philadelphia Eagles
West  Los Angeles Rams
North  Green Bay Packers
South  Atlanta Falcons
Wild Card  Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints

AFC
East  New England Patriots
West  Kansas City Chiefs
North  Baltimore Ravens
South  Jacksonville Jaguars
Wild Card  Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills