"the Left" didn't get the NFL - the NFL is dying from its own greed and false patriotism. Professional football, more than any other sport, has worn a mask of huge flags, mawkish displays of patriotic emblems, using uniformed troops as decorations - but at the heart of it, it's a kid's game turned into a money-making extravaganza, not anything even vaguely involved with supporting our country.
All the Colon Kaeperniks of the world did was lift the veil and expose the rotten, false core of the NFL for all to see.