The NFL is a cultural colossus. Could its mounting legal woes leave a mark? | Andrew Lawrence

The Super Bowl is a celebration of the NFL and its hold on the national zeitgeist, but recent lawsuits could loosen its grip

A month before the NFL's Las Vegas Super Bowl, a different sort of high-stakes football contest unfolded in the Supreme Court of Nevada. That's where the league was called to defend itself in a lawsuit from Jon Gruden - the disgraced NFL coach who stepped down from the Raiders after being exposed for sending racist, sexist and homophobic emails for nearly a decade while in the employ of ESPN. The revelation cost Gruden more than half the balance of his $100m Raiders contract, the league's highest coaching salary at the time, and it's long been the coach's contention that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell conspired to make him a pariah in the sport.

The Super Bowl is as much a celebration of the NFL as it is a stamp of its hold on the national zeitgeist and expanding influence abroad. (On Friday the league announced it will play its first ever regular-season game in Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.) But a flurry of recent lawsuits threaten to pierce the league's aura of invincibility. Doubtless for some, the litigation is evidence of a successful enterprise (from Microsoft to Trump Inc), part and parcel of a larger money game. On top of that, the NFL product has proven effective in distracting fans from alleged transgressions. Before they realize what hit them, the league's nuclear-grade legal team has either swept the matter under the rug or worn down the opposition. It's a playbook that's carried the league for more than 50 years. And yet one can't help but wonder if this Goliath isn't a stone's throw away from buckling.