Roger Goodell thinks those meanies in Congress and the media aren't being fair to the NFL

The NFL thinks that its concussion problem is really a PR problem. There's reality and then there's the NFL version of reality. Guess which version Roger Goodell was presenting in his comments about the latest concussion research bombshell?

Needless to say, the league thinks that it's doing a very good job addressing the issue of player safety, and that it isn't getting a fair shake in the press when it comes to pulling its funding from certain NIH studies about head trauma.

"I think where we are remiss, is making our case for what we are doing and our sensitivity regarding concussions and what we are doing," Cowboys owner and upstanding human Jerry Jones said. "We need to say that more often, and we need to say it louder, and we need to not hurt it with being the wrong messenger."

You know what a good message to have is when every media outlet from the New York Times to ESPN and even Congress is turning up all kinds of shady dealings, self-serving science and downright incompetence: transparency. Nobody's getting fooled that the football is 100 percent safe, but the NFL somehow thinks it can make the game that way and, worse, they think they can keep telling people that.

EIFERT OUT TO START THE SEASON: Tyler Eifert could miss the start of the season because of an ankle injury from the Pro Bowl. As if you needed another reason to cancel the Pro Bowl. It's a tough blow for the Bengals and Andy Dalton, who'll miss his No. 1 touchdown target.

PAID LIKE A TOP DEFENDER: Tyrann Mathieu wants to be paid like top defender. It sounds like "highest paid safety" won't necessarily cut it.

ANTONIO BROWN IS GETTING FASTER: Steelers WR Antonio Brown improves his 40-yard dash time six years after being drafted. Think Brown's stint on Dancing with the Stars distracted him from his full-time job? Think again.

SUPER BOWL LOCATIONS DECIDED: NFL owners selected Super Bowl locations for 2019 through 2021 on Tuesday. Atlanta and its new stadium gets the big game in 2019. Miami's refurbished stadium hosts a year after that, and Los Angeles gets its payoff for an ugly relocation process in 2021.

WHAT ABOUT GREEN BAY? Green Bay isn't going to host a Super Bowl, but they might get the 2019 NFL Draft. Is Title Town ready for all those Jets fans?

LACY IS A FREAK: Eddie Lacy's workout was so tough he had trouble sitting down to go to the bathroom. The guy who created P90X served as Lacy's personal trainer, overseeing a pretty big change in the Green Bay running back's body and his love for "China food."

CHANGES TO THE REPLAY RULES: NFL tweaks its replay rules again. The league made a few additions to what can be reviewed and gave the central officiating center a little more power over the process.

A WEIRD STAT ABOUT THAT PASSING LEAGUE THING: No. 1 receivers were more productive in the 1960s than they are now. If you break it down by the ratio in average passing yards gained by a team's leading receiver to the number of team passing yards, you see something surprising in the current era, one dominated by the passing game. There's a very simple explanation for it.

LAS VEGAS THE UNITER: For some strange reason, Raiders owner Mark Davis thinks a move to Vegas would unite members of Raider Nation.