NO PASTIME unites America like the National Football League (NFL). During the 2013 autumn season, 34 of the 35 most-watched shows on television were NFL games. Though non-Americans may puzzle over the game’s allure, football offers advertisers one of the last chances to reach huge, real-time audiences. Unlike golf (whose fans tend to be old, white and well-off), or NASCAR racing (whose fanbase lies in the white South), football spans racial, class and partisan divides. It is all the more striking, then, that football finds itself mired in so many divisive debates.

On September 8th Ray Rice, a running back, was fired by the Baltimore Ravens and dropped indefinitely by the NFL after video footage emerged showing him punching his future wife unconscious in a casino lift. Mr Rice had initially received only a two-game suspension after being indicted in March for the assault (charges were suspended after he agreed to counselling). The NFL has hired a former FBI director to probe allegations that it knew of the damning footage earlier than it admitted. Some fans think Mr Rice should be forgiven and welcomed back (see picture).

On September 17th Adrian Peterson, a Minnesota Vikings star, was suspended after being accused of beating his four-year old son with a tree branch, leaving open wounds (Mr Peterson says being spanked as a child has helped him in life). Team bosses had already suspended the player once then reinstated him, citing his legal rights (though sceptics noted that his team had just lost a game without Mr Peterson on the field). On September 17th Jonathan Dwyer of the Arizona Cardinals was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence.

Sponsors are not happy. Anheuser-Busch InBev, the maker of Budweiser beer, said on September 16th that it was “not yet satisfied” with the NFL’s handling of such things. Nike severed ties with Mr Rice and suspended a deal with Mr Peterson.

Maria Cantwell, a Democratic senator from Washington state and advocate for Native Americans, said she would ask Congress to remove the NFL’s tax-exempt status as punishment for allowing the Washington Redskins (of Washington, DC) to keep a name deemed racist by some. Both Republicans and Democrats have attacked sports-league tax breaks in recent years, without result. Earlier this month the NFL admitted that it expects almost a third of players to suffer health problems, such as dementia, from concussions suffered on the field. President Barack Obama said in January that if he had a son, he would not let him play pro football. Many parents feel the same.

Rick Burton, a sports-management professor at Syracuse University, sees a society that wants players held to higher standards of off-field behaviour than the public imposes on itself, while “we reward them for being violent on the field”.