Now that the 2014 NFL season is over, commissioner Roger Goodell can kick back, relax, and bask in the popularity of his league after the Patriots and Seahawks provided a thrilling, suspenseful, unforgettable Super Bowl. Right?

Of course not. What are you, crazy? This is the NFL, where the action — and stream of negative publicity for the league — never stops.

The offseason is already off to a rip-roaring start. One team is being investigated for two years’ worth of cheating, another is being investigated for having improper communications during games, two players already have been arrested, one busted for marijuana and another indicted on animal cruelty charges.

Additionally, one star player, Cleveland’s Josh Gordon, has been suspended for a season for not complying with his strict no-alcohol orders from the NFL. Another notable player, Johnny Manziel, checked himself into rehab last week.

Oh, and there’s still that little Deflategate matter hovering ominously over the league. Ted Wells and his investigators still need to interview Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, and any of the Patriots — which should be fun with the players quickly dispersing across the country and Belichick already on vacation in Florida.

A look at the stories that will keep Goodell and the NFL public relations staff busy for the next few weeks until the combine:

• Hearing the noise in Atlanta — In an act of rule-breaking that seems much more egregious than what the Patriots did or didn’t do with those deflated footballs, Falcons owner Arthur Blank admitted last week that his team had been pumping fake crowd noise into the Georgia Dome to make it tougher on opposing offenses during the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

The NFL is investigating the Falcons, but Blank has seen enough to acknowledge his team’s guilt. The NFL can fine the Falcons and dock a draft pick as a penalty.

“I think what we’ve done in 2013 and 2014 was wrong. Anything that affects the competitive balance and fairness on the field, we’re opposed to, as a league, as a club, and as an owner,” Blank told the Associated Press. “It’s obviously embarrassing, but beyond embarrassing, it doesn’t represent our culture and what we’re about.’’

What’s amazing is the fraction of attention being paid to this story relative to Deflategate. Perhaps it’s because the Falcons weren’t a playoff team either season. Or because the cheating still didn’t help them that much, with a 6-10 home record during that time. Or maybe the Falcons just don’t register on the national media radar.

But Noisegate is a much more egregious form of rule-breaking than Deflategate, and the penalties should reflect that — if the Patriots are even punished.

• Communication issues in Cleveland — The NFL’s third ongoing “integrity of the game” investigation is in Cleveland, where the Browns are being questioned for sending illegal communications from the press box to the sideline.

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer and multiple reports, a “high-ranking personnel member” sent text messages to coaches on the sideline during multiple games, which is prohibited. The personnel member was identified as Browns general manager Ray Farmer, who was texting offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains about play calls.

While a GM communicating with his coaches about play calls during a game doesn’t seem like the most horrific crime, the NFL takes it seriously, as it has strict rules against using cellphones on the sidelines, mostly for anti-gambling measures. The Browns are facing a potential fine and loss of draft pick, while Farmer could be facing a multiple-game suspension, according to the Plain Dealer.

• Player trouble — What happens when approximately 2,000 males ages 22-35 have three months of free time and a little cash in their pockets? Trouble. And it happened quickly for four players this offseason.

Packers defensive tackle Letroy Guion, who had 3½ sacks this year, did his best Scarface impression last week, arrested for felony possession of marijuana and felony possession of a firearm after being pulled over in his truck in his hometown of Starke, Fla. Police found 357 grams of marijuana in Guion’s truck, plus $190,000 in cash and a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun. Guion reportedly has a permit to carry the gun in Minnesota.

Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson was arrested Tuesday in Washington, D.C., and charged with simple assault after getting in a fight with a pizza delivery driver. According to a police report, Jackson became enraged at the delivery man because he briefly parked in Jackson’s assigned spot to deliver a pizza.

Cowboys running back Joseph Randle, who made news for shoplifting underwear and cologne from a department store in October, did it again for the wrong reasons. According to Kansas TV station KAKE, police responded to a domestic violence call at a Wichita hotel involving Randle, two women, and a child. The police didn’t find a weapon or evidence of domestic violence, but did issue Randle a citation for unlawful possession of a controlled substance after finding “a small amount of green botanical substance” in the hotel room.

And the worst incident of them all involved former Ravens defensive tackle Terrence Cody, who was indicted Monday by a Baltimore County grand jury on 15 charges, including seven animal cruelty charges related to a bullmastiff that died, six charges involving an alligator, and two drug charges.

The indictment alleges that Cody intentionally tortured and inflicted unnecessary suffering on the dog, then “intentionally cruelly” killed it. Also that Cody illegally imported a live alligator into Maryland and failed to provide proper food, water, veterinary care, space, and shelter. And the drug charges are related to possession of marijuana and paraphernalia.

All in all, another banner week for the NFL.

HIGH AND MIGHTY

Famers Rice and Haley gang up on Patriots

Message to Jerry Rice and Charles Haley: Maybe it’s time to stop talking and sit out for a play or two.

The Hall of Famers — Haley was inducted a little more than a week ago — have been quick to convict the Patriots over Deflategate and haven’t been shy about dispensing opinions.

But what’s that saying about glass houses and throwing stones? Rice and Haley should become familiar with it.

Back on Jan. 22, Rice said on Jim Rome’s radio show, “I’m going to be point blank, I feel like it’s cheating . . . I’m not saying the outcome of the game would have been different or anything like that because they got beat, 45-7, but they still had an edge.”

But unbeknownst to Rice, there’s this thing called the Internet, and it often keeps a record of things that are said and done. And on Jan. 17, in an interview with ESPN, Rice admitted that he chose to bend the rules during his playing days, too.

“I know this might be a little illegal, guys, but you put a little spray, a little stickum on them, to make sure that texture is a little sticky,” Rice said.

Stickum was banned by the NFL in 1981, and Rice’s career began in 1985. So when Rice skirts the rules, it’s all in harmless fun, but when the Patriots do it, it’s “point blank” cheating?

Haley, meanwhile, just wants all of Tom Brady’s accomplishments thrown out.

“Joe [Montana] didn’t have to cheat. I’ve lost all respect [for Brady],” Haley told the Talk of America radio network. “When your integrity is challenged in the game of football, to me, all his Super Bowls are tainted. You have to say this just didn’t happen overnight. Who wants that shadow over them? I could be wrong. But I realize there were 12 balls deflated and 12 ain’t. Then you’ve got [Bill] Belichick coming on three different times trying to explain it . . . You know something is wrong.”

Haley won five Super Bowl titles with the 49ers and Cowboys in the 1980s and ’90s, and while those teams were never accused of “cheating,” Haley might not want to play the morality card. This is a guy who famously presided over the Cowboys’ “White House” in the early ’90s, where drugs, strippers, and all kinds of depravity were common.

Understandably, Rice and Haley are mostly sticking up for Montana, their former teammate, as the greatest quarterback of all time. But they sound like fools in doing so.

RUNNING GAME

Union election coming up on docket

Only one candidate has officially entered the NFL Players Association’s election next month for its executive director position — incumbent DeMaurice Smith. But several more are expected to throw their hats in the ring before the deadline 10 days before the vote. The annual meeting and vote will take place in Hawaii March 15.

Former 11-year defensive tackle Sean Gilbert, a close family friend of Darrelle Revis, has been openly campaigning for the position for the past year-plus. Detroit attorney Jim Acho, who helped create the NFL’s “88 plan” to help retired players suffering from dementia, also has expressed an interest in running, and has support from former University of Michigan players Larry Foote, LaMarr Woodley, and Mike Martin. And there are rumors of a fourth candidate running for the position, as well.

NFLPA president Eric Winston, a nine-year veteran who played with Seattle and Cincinnati this season, explained to us last week that for a candidate to get on the ballot, he has to get at least three nominations from the 32 player representatives (each team has one — for the Patriots, it’s Matthew Slater).

At the meeting, Winston said each candidate will be given plenty of time to explain his platform and speak with the constituents. Then when it’s time to vote, a candidate needs a simple majority — 17 of 32 votes — to win the position.

Winston said he won’t favor Smith over any of the other candidates. Winston’s agent is Drew Rosenhaus, who is one of the biggest allies of Smith and the current NFLPA leadership.

“I’m going to stay neutral,” Winston said. “This union has always been operated in a transparent manner. I think we’re a better, and frankly more powerful, union because of it.”

The location of the vote is interesting. Winston said the NFLPA chose Hawaii so the player reps can bring their families and make a vacation out of it. And historically, the NFLPA has often held these meetings in a warm-weather locale — Hawaii, the Bahamas, Florida, etc. But Hawaii is not exactly easy or cheap to get to, and the candidates have to pay their own way, serving somewhat as a barrier to entry.

“I think it’s easy to say, ‘I’m going to run for this,’ ” Winston said. “But are you going to be a guy that gets to Hawaii and gets the nominations? At the end of the day, that’s what we care about.”

ETC.

Marshall’s behavior nothing to rave about

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Brandon Marshall’s interview with Ravens coach John Harbaugh on the sideline at the Super Bowl raised some eyebrows.

The Ravens’ website posted some bizarre stories during the Ray Rice fiasco, and it had another headline last week that raised our eyebrows: “WR Brandon Marshall asked John Harbaugh about playing for Ravens.”

The story explains that Marshall, the first current player to also work as an analyst on Showtime’s “Inside the NFL,” interviewed Harbaugh on the sideline at the Super Bowl. “I said, ‘If I played for you, would you let me do ‘Inside the NFL?’ ” Marshall said. “He said, ‘Oh, absolutely.’ He knew I was taking a lot of heat for doing the show. But when you are the first in the space to do something like this, you are going to get a lot of pushback and we [the Bears] had the worst year possible.”

First of all, Bears fans have to love hearing Marshall, who has a reputation for causing locker room problems, speak openly about playing for another team, even in jest (there’s truth behind every joke). Secondly, why would the Ravens’ website, of all media outlets, post this story? If I’m new Bears GM Ryan Pace, I’m not wasting any time in filing a tampering charge.

Extra points

The speedsters at this month’s combine have even more incentive to burn up the track in the 40-yard dash than simply improving their draft stock. adidas is offering a free sports car — a Porsche 911 Carrera — to the three fastest players in this year’s 40-yard dash who also sign with adidas before the event. The cars are valued at approximately $83,000 each, and are wrapped in a cheetah print that matches adidas’s new line of cleats. Last year, adidas gave $100,000 to now-Saints wide receiver Brandin Cooks for running the fastest 40 at the combine . . . Great observation by longtime Minneapolis sports columnist Sid Hartman, who noted the haul gained by the Patriots in the 2013 draft-day trade that netted the Vikings the 29th overall pick. The Vikings got a talented but still unproven receiver in Cordarrelle Patterson, and Patriots fans are never happy when the team trades out of the first round and misses out on an electrifying talent such as Patterson. But the Patriots got the better end of this deal. With the picks they received from the Vikings, the Patriots got linebacker Jamie Collins (52d overall), cornerback Logan Ryan (83d), wide receiver Josh Boyce (102d), and a seventh-round pick that was traded for running back LeGarrette Blount in 2013. Boyce has been a bust, but Ryan has been a decent contributor in two seasons, while Collins is a budding star. And, yes, Blount left for Pittsburgh before returning this season, but he wouldn’t have come back if not for the trade and his positive experience in 2013.

Fortunate son

Finally, wanted to thank everyone for reading this column and joining me on an unbelievable journey this season. Now in my sixth year as an NFL writer, it’s easy to take for granted how special it is to cover a Super Bowl champion and to work in such a passionate sports market. That point was driven home at the Super Bowl while having a conversation with renowned Houston sportswriter John McClain, who has been covering the NFL since 1977, and 37 seasons later still hasn’t covered a team that has reached the Super Bowl.

Ben Volin can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BenVolin. Material from interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.