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Here’s something interesting that might help put the well deserved criticism of the NFL in perspective.

A survey by professors at the University of Illinois at Chicago found that religious people are no more morally better than the non-religious. Both groups reported engaging in around the same number of moral acts or good deeds. Being conservative or liberal made no difference in the results.

That has some implications in and of itself worth exploring, but for a later time because there was another interesting discovery in the survey.

While people reported committing more good deeds than bad ones, they said they hear about bad deeds more often than good ones.

I suppose this confirms the old adage that bad news travels fast, good news sometimes not at all.

When I saw this report I immediately thought that it might be fair to say a word about the fact that there are some good people playing professional football these days (and in other professional sports).

Jason Witten is one of them. He’s more than an all pro tight end for the Dallas Cowboys, He was the 2012 recipient of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award, mainly for his work in trying to stop domestic violence, something he witnessed in his own home growing up. Jason founded the SCOREKEEPERS program that utilizes male mentors working with children living in battered women’s shelters to demonstrate positive male behavior. He does many other community service things as well.

Jason Witten is one of the really good guys. So is Chicago Bears corner back, Charles Tilman, who won the Man of the Year Award last year for all his community service work. Another one is Peyton Manning, quarterback for the Denver Broncos. He is among the most respected players in the NFL both as a man as well as a player. And by the way, he is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Tennessee where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in four years.

Of course, Walter Payton himself whom the NFL honored by naming this award after him was from all accounts a very special man. Nicknamed “Sweetness” for his smooth running style, as well as his personality, Walter reached the pinnacle of success in both college and the NFL, but was known as much for his work with inner city youth and the hearing impaired as he was for football. His death from cancer in 1999 was not only a loss for the NFL, but for the whole world.

Certainly I could name more NFL players who have been successful in life as well as football.

So while I still believe the NFL is a corrupt organization that needs a top to bottom change in leadership and values, it is good to remember that there are still good people as well as good athletes in the league who are models of the kind of person all of us would want our children to grow up to be like.