The real money tied to the NFL isn't the fans in the stands, team memorabilia, or even the ad revenue, it's the money bet on the games. All the wrong people are pissed off which doesn't bode well for a group of mostly thugs with habits and secrets they can go to prison for.
One money trail to the people in charge showing they paid a team to shade the score or manipulate a ref even one time in the past twenty years (you know someone has that kind of proof for leverage, too) and the whole mess will change hands nearly overnight for a dime on the dollar right along with the college football it depends on collapsing.
It's the old, "If we can't control it, it doesn't need to exist" attitude in spades.
JMHo
I believe you are correct, character, the folks involved lack character. NFL, National Felon League.