Mark Cuban is someone whose opinion means almost nothing to me. He’s childish and arrogant, and likes to stick his nose where it doesn’t belong — basically, the Curt Schilling of owners.

But when it comes to Cuban’s most recent comments, there is something worth stopping to think about. Cuban went on Dan Patrick’s radio show and said that the NBA has a better image than the NFL right now, because, “it’s non-stop with the NFL … Every day it’s somebody different.”

Every league has its issues. The NBA recently suffered the Gilbert Arenas gun controversy, and the Tim Donaghy situation a couple years ago. Baseball is still trying to recover from the damage steroids have done to its image. The NHL’s Patrick Kane assaulted a taxi driver over 20 cents.

But the NFL seems to be king of off-the-field controversies over the last few years: Donte Stallworth’s DUI manslaughter, Marvin Harrison’s alleged shooting of two men, Tank Johnson’s weapons possession charge, the legal issues of the entire Cincinnati Bengals’ roster, Santonio Holmes’ drug charges, Plaxico Burress’ gun charges, Ben Roethlisberger’s rape allegations. That doesn’t even include the whole Michael Vick controversy, the Vikings’ boat party incident, the dozens of assaults at nightclubs or Albert Haynesworth stepping on a player’s head. It’s near impossible to go on an NFL player’s Wikipedia page without seeing a “Legal troubles” section.

So what makes the NFL so different from the other leagues? Why do so many NFL players seem unable to conduct themselves in a socially acceptable manner? First off, the “athletes are human, too” argument won’t work here. The other leagues aren’t hit with nearly the same level of bad publicity. Plus, it’s right to expect a certain level of responsibility from people being paid to represent a team.

A lot of the league’s issues come from the nature of the game itself. The NFL is an oddity in American sports: 16-game seasons, non-guaranteed contracts and, according to the Wall Street Journal, only 11 minutes in a game where play is actually going on — the other 49 minutes is just the clock running. The game is about passion and energy, emphasizing brawn and brute strength. Don’t misunderstand, football players also need a great deal of intelligence to be able to run plays, but the entire league is based on an image of power and aggression. It looks like those same traits are apparent while players are partying and drinking, leading to the shocking number of assaults at bars and clubs.

The short seasons and the often-cited parity in the NFL also mean that players will always find a place to go. Holmes just found a spot with the Jets, the Steelers could possibly get a first-round draft pick for Roethlisberger and Haynesworth signed a huge contract with Washington. Of course, this is true across all sports, but it is especially apparent in football. Talent will always trump character when it comes to trying to win a championship — or putting fans in seats.

The biggest cause of this lack of discipline is that the game is remarkably resilient. The bad publicity, unlike in other sports, almost seems to fuel the NFL’s popularity. This year’s Super Bowl between the Saints and Colts was the most-watched television program in history, according to the Nielsen Ratings. What incentive do players and owners have to crack down on bad behavior when they see stories like this? The sport is dictated by the fans, and if the bad conduct isn’t affecting revenues, then it’s more of a minor nuisance. It’s the same reason baseball wasn’t looking into steroids when McGwire and Sosa were putting on their home run show in the summer of ’98.

The legal issues we see in the NFL exist because the league has no reason to put a stop to them. MLB only put into effect the new, stricter steroids policy once it started to affect the sport’s popularity. The brawl at Auburn Hills between the Pacers and Pistons was just big enough of a story for the league to crack down on player conduct. Perhaps the NFL is too popular to ever reach that tipping point. But Roger Goodell better be careful, because if that’s not true, then the league is setting itself up for a huge fall. That, of course, means having to listen to Mark Cuban gloat, and that’s a fate worse than being in a club with an NFL player.