BountyGate, replacement refs, Junior Seau’s suicide and even predictions of the sport’s imminent doom because of the concussion issue.
Needless to say, the NFL has enjoyed better offseasons.
Against that dreary and rather ominous backdrop, the league heads into the regular season tomorrow night hoping the excitement of dominant quarterbacks, an eruption of scoring and a host of telegenic rising stars can change the subject for a sport that — despite the gloom — is still by far the most popular in the country. And getting more popular.
A peek at some of the more prominent NFL story lines set to play out over the next five months:
AIR RAID
The adage “run the ball and stop the run” seems about as relevant as the Wing-T in today’s NFL. If you didn’t think it was The Age of The Pass Offense in pro football, then last season should have erased all doubt as one storied passing record after another fell on what seemed like a weekly basis.
Drew Brees obliterating Dan Marino’s nearly 30-year-old NFL mark for passing yards (Brees finished with a whopping 5,476 yards, or 392 more than Marino) was just the high point of an air explosion that included a record number of 300- and 400-yard passing games and an all-time league high of 459.4 net passing yards per game.
Defenses couldn’t come close to keeping up (and the offense-centric rules certainly didn’t help them), so the unsurprising result was an all-time league record 11,356 points scored.
The average of 44.4 combined points per game was the highest in 46 years, and for the first time in NFL annals three teams — Green Bay, New Orleans and New England — scored more than 500 points.
ARMS RACE
One team cut a four-time NFL MVP to make room for Andrew Luck, while the other practically mortgaged its future to draft Robert Griffin III. With that as the backdrop, it’s safe to say the expectations for Luck and RG III aren’t just big, they’re massive.
The quarterbacks taken 1-2 in the NFL Draft last spring are indeed carrying a lot on their respective shoulders, with Luck tasked to replace Peyton Manning in Indianapolis and Griffin charged with lifting a once-proud franchise and its rabid fan base out of the abyss in Washington.
Befitting the No. 1 overall pick, Luck has the taller task of the two with the Colts coming off a 2-14 finish and jettisoning Manning and a host of the other key figures who had directed them to nine consecutive playoff trips. The strong-armed Stanford product certainly looked up to the task
in the preseason, with Luck showing poise and accuracy more befitting a 10-year veteran. Griffin appears to have the better supporting cast, especially on defense, but the Redskins still have major questions at running back and along the offensive line.
The reigning Heisman Trophy winner — who prompted the Redskins to give up three first-round picks — likes to wear Superman-themed socks. At least this season, Griffin might need to channel his hero to lift Washington to the top of what looks to be a rugged NFC East.
PEYTON PUZZLE
It seems there are only two questions about Peyton Manning: “Does he still have it?” and “Can he stay healthy?”
Four neck surgeries and an entire season spent on the sidelines have left the entire league wondering whether the Broncos landed The Holy Grail or just a very expensive booby prize when they won the frenzied free-agent fight last spring for the four-time NFL MVP. Manning looked like his old self at times in three preseason appearances while completing 71 percent of his passes, but he also suffered three interceptions and has yet to really air it out to prove his arm strength wasn’t robbed by all the neck procedures.
And an even bigger concern: whether Manning can hold up at age 36 behind a questionable line that allowed 42 sacks last season despite running an option offense with Tim Tebow for more than half the year. Manning has never been sacked more than 29 times in any of his 13 glittering NFL seasons.
One thing is for sure about Manning’s Denver star turn, though — whether it kills or flops, the whole world will be watching.
RULES TWEAKS
The NFL has been big on rules changes recently, but this wasn’t one of those years.
All turnovers will now be subject to replay review (meaning coaches won’t have to burn challenges), and the unnecessary roughness rules have been expanded to include more players. The league also will use its modified overtime rules in the regular season this year after limiting it to the playoffs the past two years.
The bigger changes in 2012 will come in the roster and transaction rules. The trade deadline has been pushed back two weeks to just after Week 8, and teams can now designate one player to be able to be activated off injured reserve in midseason.
REFFIN’ ROULETTE
As hard as it is to believe, the NFL seems content to go into the regular season with replacement referees whose cast would include — we’re not making this up — a reject from the Lingerie Football League.
An exhibition season filled with embarrassing mistakes and not-ready-for-prime time errors by the replacements weren’t enough to prompt the owners to lift their hard-stance lockout of the regular officials in a dispute over expanded crews and pensions.
The league so far is gambling that the public won’t notice the difference, even though they have had to fill their replacement ranks with small-college conference castoffs, beer-league vets and even one reportedly dismissed by the Lingerie League.
For their part, the regular refs are hoping a crucial blown call (or five) by the replacements in games that count will get the owners back to the bargaining table. The fans and the players, meanwhile, will be caught in the middle if the dispute reaches the regular season.
SAINTS FORGE ON
No team was more eager for the games to start than the Saints after one of the most tortured, controversy-filled offseasons of any team in recent memory.
New Orleans will be without its head coach, its GM, its top assistant and its defensive leader for all or part of the season after the NFL uncovered what it said was a widespread bounty scandal involving the Saints the past three years.
That March bombshell set off a string of suspensions, fines, accusations and court battles that lasted throughout the summer and reverberated throughout the league. As a result, coach Sean Payton and ex-Jets linebacker Jonathan Vilma were suspended the entire season, while several other players, coaches and executives received shorter bans.
About the only bright spot for the Saints during it all was the belated signing of Brees in July to an extension that made him (at least for now) the highest-paid player in the game.
bhubbuch@nypost.com