The NFL is in crisis mode right now. I do believe attention needs to be given to these matters … if issues like the Ray Rice abuse or the Adrian Peterson child abuse incidents are ignored, it allows the problems to continue, or at the very least go largely unquestioned outside of those in the inner circle of the athletes involves. 

Having said that: the sports world has been consumed by these issues for the entirety of this season so far. It’s a shame it’s happening like this: turn on sports talk and you, 90 percent of the time, hear nary an opinion on why the Seahawks lost to the Chargers or what the Saints need to do to fix their ailing defense. We hear little about the Bears comeback win last Sunday night over the 49ers. College football is completely ignored, and baseball’s pennant races are being treated as little more than a scoreboard nuisance, something that bleeds time away from the current debate at hand.

Heck, this is paragraph three of my column: I’m contributing to it!

My stance on it is, it’s important to become and stay aware of these matters, to question them and to debate them. That said: five players out of the league’s 1,696 players are in the news for abuse (including the Cardinals’ Jonathan Dwyer, the Panthers ‘ Greg Hardy and the 49ers Ray McDonald). There are certainly more cases going unreported; there is no evidence, though, that we’re tuning in to watch a league of criminals every Sunday. 

I think it’s important to keep in mind the mental discipline and hard work it takes to reach that level of play. As in any profession, you’re going to find bad apples and those who do wrong. But these cases are, in my mind at least, almost certainly the exceptions vs. the rule. 

It doesn’t hurt my feelings at all to see Roger Goodell’s feet held to the fire on this. Mr. Moral Authority decided years ago he’d be the arbiter of each case, the judge, jury and executioner, and now he’s stuck juggling anvils. 

But again, we should discuss these things without becoming consumed by them. Sadly, I’m finding the latter frame of mind, in these cases, is quickly becoming the rule, and not the exception. 

River region NFL rookie watch: Last week, I mentioned how former Lutcher star Jarvis Landry was earning more playing time in Miami in the slot receiving role.  This week, Landry hauled in four receptions for 49 yards, tied for the most receptions and second in receiving yardage among Dolphins players.  With Knowshon Moreno now out, the Fins might need more production from their underneath receivers, so perhaps Landry will earn even more opportunities as soon as this week.

Meanwhile, the Houston Texans took Hahnville’s Alfred Blue out for a spin in a game the team dominated at Oakland. 

Blue rushed 11 times for 40 yards in the first extended action of his young career. 

Houston ran the ball 46 times in this one — it’s what they want to do, and it appears if Arian Foster isn’t taking the handoff, the team sees Blue as the next in line to do so.