The NFL is so popular, even when it does something wrong, it’s not wrong.

And the National Football League has done a lot wrong recently.

But, hey, who cares, right? It’s the most popular game in this nation. By a lot. It’s a multi-billion dollar business, a machine that shows no sign of slowing.

Still, objective observers can see all is not well in Roger Goodell-ville.

Issue No. 1: Safety. And I’m not talking about the two-point variety.

Player safety is a hot-button issue, as it should be. On the surface, the league is taking steps to try to curb the concussions and other injuries that have robbed so many current and former players of a good quality of life, or just their life in general.

While I applaud the effort, the execution could use some work.

There is no possible way to prevent concussions. You just can’t do it. The players who play this game are just too big and too fast and what has made the league so popular — the gladiator-type interaction of ball carrier and tackler — is just too much a part of the game to curtail.

Hopefully, helmet technology will advance faster than the technology that makes these 250-pound linebackers run like 170-pound receivers.

Issue No. 2: Hypocrites. The NFL constantly contradicts itself.

They preach player safety, yet want the Pro Bowl — an exhibition game — to be competitive like a regular-season game.

And now, with the teams being drafted, you have a situation where a teammate can injure another, as almost happened when Chiefs’ linebacker Derrick Johnson laid out Chiefs’ running back Jamaal Charles.

Imagine the backlash had Johnson taken out Charles’ knee? Ugly.

The NFL also pushed for an 18-game season not long ago.

Issue No. 3: The rules and the officials who (sometimes) enforce them.

The NFL rule book can barely fit into a 120-page PDF file. You have to be Stephen Hawking to be able to decipher all the properties that go into what is a legal catch.

Officiating the game has become too complicated and the action too fast.

To make matters more complicated, officials in the NFL are not full-time. They work as teachers and businessmen and plumbers during the week and then officiate a game on the weekend.

The NFL needs to make these guys full time and pay them handsomely. They can spend the week like the players do: studying film, practicing and getting better.

It would be like Peyton Manning delivering Papa John’s pizzas during the week and then playing on Sunday.

Well, he kind of already does that.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.