A year that began badly is ending badly for the NFL. It’s a cliché to say that there are no winners here, but there are no winners here, just liars, cheaters, abusers and deniers.

It’s fitting that the Baltimore Ravens should be the ones to tip off the Indianapolis Colts to the New England Patriots’ use of deflated footballs, which makes it easier for the quarterback to grip the ball and the receivers to catch it. The Ravens, after all, are the people who gave us two troubled Rays – Lewis, who pled guilty to obstruction of justice in the fatal stabbing of two men; and Rice, who coldcocked his fiancée in an Atlantic City elevator, setting the year of crisis in motion. (The Ravens also win the award for tweet of the year when they had Mrs. Rice say she was very sorry for her part in being coldcocked by her husband.)

Bitter losers and no lovers of the Patriots, the Ravens seemed only too happy to pass along knowledge of the Pats’ cheating ways to the Colts. But the Ravens aren’t to blame here anymore than the Adderall-using Seattle Seahawks are or Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is. Rodgers, to borrow from his State Farm Discount Double Check commercials, likes to pump (clap) footballs up. Which begs the question: Was someone on the Pats trying to achieve yogic balance by deflating theirs?

Several wrongs cannot make a right. The only questions that really matter in this Nixonian narrative is, What did the Patriots know, and when did they know it? ...

Both Rafael Nadal and Michael Phelps took big steps in revealing a little more of themselves this past week.

Rafa – on the comeback trail again as he prepares for the Australian Open – was named spokesmodel for Tommy Hilfiger. If his underwear ads turn out to be half as sensuous as his videos for Armani – stripped down to ripped jeans under a waterfall – well, then, all I can say is “Rrrrrrrrrrr.”

Michael, who knows a thing or two about stripping down, found himself in an emotionally vulnerable moment, pleading guilty to drunk driving. He was given the maximum sentence of one year in prison, which was suspended in favor of a supervised probation that includes random drug and alcohol testing and mandatory attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. ...

A season in hell for the NFL

Rafael Nadal and Michael Phelps: The big reveals