MICHELLE NORRIS, host:
Well, there's no mistaking quarterback Peyton Manning and the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts. They played the New Orleans Saints in the NFL's first regular season game of the year last night, and the Colts seemed to pick up right where they left off last season - with a big win. The score was 41-to-10.
Joining us, as he does most Fridays, is sportswriter Stefan Fatsis of the Wall Street Journal. Stefan, the sight of Peyton Manning throwing touchdown after touchdown and appearing in commercial after commercial had to be a relief for the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, after one of the most troubling off-seasons in professional sports.
STEFAN FATSIS: Oh, yeah. Goodell just celebrated one year on the job and I can't imagine that he thought it would go the way it did, that he's have to make player behavior priority one after a string of incidents that has embarrassed the league deeply - assaults, gun charges, of course, dogfighting. A popular NFL news and gossip Web site called ProFootballTalk had a little feature where it tracks the number of days without an arrest of a player. And the longest stretch this past off-season was 27 days. And that shows how the NFL is a 24/7, 365 league. Nothing escapes scrutiny.
NORRIS: Well, there has been no shortage of bad news. Roger Goodell instituted a no-nonsense, personal conduct policy. He suspended several players, including Michael Vick on those dogfighting charges. That brought even more attention to the issue, though.
FATSIS: Yeah, it did. And I think smartly, on the NFL's part, it's a $6 billion business. The last two commissioners before Roger Goodell are going to be remembered for turning it into that. Goodell is going to be remembered for how he retained the public trust and preserved it. Player behavior is just a part of it. The commissioner, this week, suspended a player and an assistant coach who admitted to illegally purchasing human growth hormone, which is banned by the league. So you've got drug issues, still.
His other big challenge is going to be addressing how the league treats its retired players. And it think, frankly, that finding a way to fairly compensate disabled NFL players might wind up being the most significant part of Roger Goodell's legacy.
NORRIS: Even with all this, Stefan, NFL does seem, in some ways, to be almost coated with Teflon. The game start and it's almost like all these is forgotten.
FATSIS: We're just integrated in to the all-consuming passion for the NFL. I think more and more fans treat pro sports the way businesses treat them now, as content. So the travails of Michael Vick become material for jokes and satire. Fans revel in the games, who wins, who loses, but at the same time, they revel in the public sideshow of the NFL. That's far more prevalent than fans who say, I've had it. No more tickets. No more jerseys. No more TV. The NFL was just that powerful as a commercial enterprise.
NORRIS: And that may explain why the NFL has confidently started its own cable television network, expanded its Web site and slapped some pretty strong restrictions on the media in doing so.
FATSIS: Yeah. The biggest one is a new rule that bars news organizations from posting more than 45 seconds of video a day from NFL team facilities, practices, locker rooms, that sort of thing. The NFL was trying to herd fans to its properties like the leagues and the team's Web sites and to the NFL network, because more viewers there means more advertising revenue. And that makes perfect business sense. But there is a tiny risk, I think, of alienating he media and alienating fans.
The NFL network added eight live games last year, but it's locked in a bitter fight with the nation's big cable operators, and the TV networks don't particularly like the fact that they're going to have to go head to head competing for advertisers.
So the league doesn't always get its way and Goodell is going to have to navigate those business issues too.
NORRIS: Now, one quick turn to college football before we let you go, Stefan. Last week, you and my colleague, Robert Siegel, included the Appalachian State -Michigan game in a list of games that involved lambs being led to the slaughter. I care to comment on, I should say, that that was a dark day in our household.
FATSIS: Yes. You Michigan fans are still suffering, I am sure. But that is why we play the games. And this is arguably the greatest upset of all time, especially in this current college sports world, which is so clearly divided between haves and have-nots according to money. Appalachian State plays in what was, until this season, known as division 1AA as opposed to division 1A for the top schools.
Now, these divisions have had separate polls, rankings, and as a result of the upset last week, the Associated Press has announced that it will allow its voters, the writers, to vote for 1AA school. So expect next week to see Appalachian State up there in the top 25. That is if they get pass Lenoir-Rhyne College of Hickory, North Carolina. It's a long way from the big house.
NORRIS: Don't rub it in. Thank you, Stefan.
FATSIS: Thanks, Michelle.
NORRIS: That was Stefan Fatsis of the Wall Street Journal. He joins us on Fridays to talk about sports and the business of sports. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.