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Besides your wife's weight, there's one other thing in life you should probably never joke about: Fantasy football.

Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew found that out that hard way this week. During an interview on SiriusXM Radio, the subject of NFL players -- specifically MJD -- playing fantasy football during their actual games came up and Jones-Drew shared this story.

"Greg Jones -- see he's not on the team anymore -- perfect example: I was playing against him," MJD said. "And we have our equipment guys keep us up on [the fantasy scores] during games. You know who you have and you see when you're not on the field obviously, but … I think if Womens Michael Crabtree Jersey I scored, I was going to win."

Just to make sure we're all on the same page here: Jones-Drew was playing then-teammate Greg Jones in fantasy football and if MJD scored a touchdown in the real game, his fantasy team was going to beat Jones' fantasy team.

"We got onto the 1-yard line, and they were like, 'We better call this run play.' I'm like, 'Greg, don't do it.' And he looked at me and he winked. And I was like 'Greg. It's not time to play. This is bigger than that. Let's not do this.'"

Asked by the hosts what Jones' wink meant, Jones-Drew replied, "He wasn't going to block the guy."

MJD's insinuation here is that Jones was going to miss a block to win a fantasy football game. Less than 24 hours after the interview, Jones-Drew took to Twitter to insist that the story was a joke:

Jones-Drew was on Wednesday's SiriusXM show as part of a celebrity fantasy football draft, a draft where MJD was the No. 1 overall selection. Of course, we should probably point out that Jones-Drew had the No. 1 overall pick.

It was just six years ago when the NFL was immersed in one of its worst public relations nightmares ever.

Mike Vick pleaded guilty to federal dog fighting charges and would be banned from the sport for over a year. Also that year, Pacman Jones was suspended for a season after a strip club shooting. It was the first time in nearly half a century players were suspended for anything other than substance abuse.

The catalyst was Roger Goodell. The commissioner had constructed a new personal conduct policy for the NFL that resulted in harsher suspensions for players. It was a dramatic shift for the league as Goodell took actions that had rarely been done before.

Goodell was able to enact a harsher punishment model because of one indisputable fact: He had the moral authority to do so.

But now there's been a shift in how the NFL is handling problem players. It is leaving it up to the clubs.

A number of player arrests have again battered the image of the NFL with the most prominent being something potentially worse, it can be argued, than the actions of either Vick or Jones. The homicide accusations against former New Michael Crabtree Red Jersey England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez headline now what, in many ways, is a worse period -- at least in terms of image -- than it was in 2007.

Yet Goodell has been strangely quiet. As far as I can tell, there are no new initiatives being planned by the league. It's difficult to believe the league won't address this PR nightmare, but so far they have not as opposed to 2007, when Goodell took rapid and highly public action.

So where is Goodell?

His absence is purposeful and by design and represents a dramatic yet largely unnoticed shift by many outside of the sport.

It's become clear based on interviews with people across the NFL that Goodell has been silent because teams are increasingly the dispensers of discipline, not the league office.

This is something that Goodell has wanted and it might have been his vision all along. Six years ago, Goodell set up the punishment infrastructure, and was also the punisher. Six years later, with that infrastructure firmly in place, teams are now taking the punishment lead. Goodell can monitor instead of being the hall monitor.

Teams know what Goodell wants and they are now doing it themselves.

Teams have always been a part of the discipline process, obviously. But this is still a shift and a smart one. Discipline flows easier and more rapidly when teams are taking the lead.

The examples of this are everywhere. The Patriots released Hernandez without almost any league involvement. The same happened when two Denver Broncos executives were busted for driving drunk. The Broncos instituted punishment, not the NFL. In the past, Goodell would have been front and center.

What happens from here? This is likely to continue. Goodell will still be involved, but the NFL will continue to allow this newer process of having franchises take the lead while Goodell remains in the background.

Because this isn't 2007 anymore. This is the future.