The NFL is in the news cycle for some pretty serious topics these days, extending beyond football: concussions and CTE; domestic violence; police brutality; and social inequality.

They are not easy subjects to tackle — ones that no other professional sports league deigns to address. Yet the NFL’s words don’t always match its actions. As we’ve seen recently, the league often says one thing but does another.

Let’s start with the ever-polarizing issue of national anthem protests and its ringleader, Colin Kaepernick. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has stated several times that the league is not “blackballing’’ Kaepernick, and the fact that he is not on a roster yet is because of football reasons.

“I want to see everyone get an opportunity, including Colin, but those decisions are made by football people,’’ Goodell said last week on FS1. “And I’m still convinced that he’ll get that opportunity when the right opportunity comes along. That’s what our league’s all about.’’

Kaepernick isn’t being blackballed by the league office, or by some intricate plot orchestrated by the 32 teams. But it’s clear at this point that the teams view Kaepernick as too toxic — even though he is clearly better than any of the starting quarterbacks with the Jets and Jaguars, better than most of the backups in the league, and would be a good schematic fit as a backup for Russell Wilson, Dak Prescott, or Tyrod Taylor.

But Tom Coughlin wants nothing to do with Kaepernick in Jacksonville, the Ravens cowardly gauged public perception and asked us to “pray’’ for them before deciding not to sign him, and the Colts would rather enter the season with Scott Tolzien under center than a quarterback who took his team to the Super Bowl.

Domestic violence abusers, drug users, and drunk driving perpetrators get second and third chances without many people batting an eye. Kaepernick is certainly not perfect, with his pigs socks and baffling decision last fall not to vote. But he also has shined an important spotlight on racial inequality, and he is donating $1 million of his own money to various social causes. This, according to the 32 teams, apparently is worse than punching a woman.

If Goodell really wanted to see Kaepernick get an opportunity, he would have leaned heavily on a team and made it happen. It happened with Michael Sam in 2014, when the Rams drafted him in the seventh round as a favor, and then the Cowboys picked him up for their practice squad. It was bad business for the NFL for Sam not to get an opportunity, and the league made it happen.

But Kaepernick remains unsigned, and it makes Goodell’s words ring hollow.

The NFL also says it cares deeply about concussions and head trauma. The NFL certainly has invested significantly more money and scientific research into understanding these issues more than any other pro sports league. And the league’s concussion protocol is the most detailed and significant of any of the other sports.

But more transparency is needed for the NFL’s protocols to be taken as anything more than public relations.

In Thursday’s game against the Chiefs, the Patriots reported that Danny Amendola left the game with a “head’’ injury. There was no mention of the word “concussion’’ and no mention that he entered the protocol, even though he clearly left the field with the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant. The same thing happened in the preseason with Deatrich Wise, who also left a game with a “head’’ injury. There is even less transparency during training camp — if a player leaves practice with a concussion, teams are under no requirement to disclose it.

For the NFL to truly show it cares about concussions and player welfare, it needs to require teams to stop the semantics and to publicly disclose when players are getting tested for concussions and entering the return-to-play protocol, even during practices in May and August. Giving updates on the player throughout the protocol would be beneficial, as well.

The NFL also says it takes the issue of domestic violence seriously. The league suspended star running back Ezekiel Elliott for six games, even though the evidence is shaky and the lead investigator recommended no suspension. Elliott won an injunction on Friday to be able to continue playing until the court case is settled.

But the NFL’s decision last week to suspend former Giants kicker Josh Brown for six games laughably shows the league’s true intentions — to win a public relations game, and to win its current lawsuit.

The new domestic violence policies, formed in the wake of the NFL’s embarrassing handling of the Ray Rice situation, call for a six-game baseline suspension. Last year, for reasons still unexplained, the NFL handed Brown only a one-game suspension, even though he admitted in letters, e-mails, and a journal that he had abused his wife. Brown, 38, has been out of the league since last October and has almost certainly played his last game. But the NFL still felt compelled last week to suspend Brown for another six games, under the guise of new documents released by authorities that were previously withheld.

Only the naïve can’t connect the dots — the NFL is going to court over Elliott’s suspension, and felt compelled to shore up its inconsistency with Brown to try to convince a judge that Elliott’s six-game suspension is merely standard protocol and part of the powers granted to Goodell by the collective bargaining agreement.

When it comes to racial inequality, concussions, and domestic violence, the league’s responses always seem to revolve around the same theme — covering its own posterior.

STAYING CLOSE TO HOME

A few notes on the Patriots

■ During the 2017 season, the minimum pay for practice squad players is $7,200 per week, which comes out to $122,400 for the season if a player makes it all 17 weeks.

But teams are free to pay their players above that rate, and the Patriots have done so with several players as an enticement to keep them in New England.

Per NFL Players Association records, defensive end Geneo Grissom is making $36,176.47 per week, which extrapolates to the same $615,000 he’d make if he were on the 53-man roster. He is the highest-paid practice squad player in the league.

Running back D.J. Foster, offensive lineman Willie Beavers, and defensive tackle Angelo Blackson are each making $15,000 per week, or more than double the practice squad salary. And receiver DeMarcus Ayers is getting $10,000 per week.

Receiver Cody Hollister, offensive lineman James Ferentz, and safeties David Jones and Damarius Travis are getting the standard $7,200. The salary for defensive back Jomal Wiltz, signed before Thursday’s game, is not yet known.

■ Interesting to hear Rex Ryan say last week on Adam Schefter’s podcast that losing Chris Hogan to the Patriots last offseason “drives me crazy, because that was the one player I definitely did not want to lose.

“Not only was he really our best receiver that year, remember, he was third, I think, in the league in yards per reception, he averaged over 17 yards a catch. So that was impressive, but he was also our best special teams player. This kid’s a great football player, a great competitor, and a great athlete. You know, obviously, he was a multi-sport athlete in college and you don’t want to lose these guys.’’

But realistically, Hogan was a luxury that the Bills weren’t going to pay. Former general manager Doug Whaley invested high draft picks in Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods, and assumed he was going to keep his job for several years and retain his key players. Paying more than $2 million-plus for a third receiver didn’t make sense for the Bills at the time, especially with a quarterback in Tyrod Taylor who isn’t much of a pocket passer. Hogan wouldn’t have been as valuable for the Bills as he is for the Patriots.

■ Going on injured reserve is extra costly for some of the Patriots’ younger players. Their contracts state that if they go on IR, their pay gets knocked down.

Rookie defensive end Derek Rivers will make $348,000 this year instead of $465,000 because of his salary split. That’s pretty good money just to rehab all year, but no one likes losing out on $127,000.

Receiver Malcolm Mitchell also loses out on some money. His salary drops from $540,000 to $363,000 for going on IR, with a provision that he gets to keep making his $540,000 rate if he appears on the Patriots’ 53-man active/inactive roster for one game this season. But the Patriots placed him on IR before Thursday’s game, so he loses out.

Mitchell will make $21,352 for each week he is on IR. But if the Patriots bring him back from IR (teams are allowed to bring back two players), his weekly rate will bump up to $31,764.

ETC.

It’ll be long road for the Dolphins

The NFL made the right move by postponing the Dolphins-Buccaneers game until Week 11, when both teams conveniently had byes. Playing the game in South Florida on Thursday would have felt tone deaf while the rest of the state prepared for a massive and potentially deadly hurricane.

And moving the game to a neutral site — say, Atlanta or Charlotte, both of which are on the road this week — wouldn’t have felt right, putting an extra travel burden on the teams and forcing players to worry about a game instead of the safety of their families and homes. Raising money for hurricane relief sounds great, but how many tickets would realistically be sold to a neutral-site game between teams that aren’t major draws?

With one “right’’ decision out of the way, the NFL should make another one — moving the Dolphins’ Week 4 “home’’ game in London against the Saints back to Miami. The Dolphins will now open their season at San Diego, at New York, and at London in consecutive weeks, followed by a home date with the Titans in Week 5. Teams often have bye weeks after London, but not the Dolphins.

But of course, this is one move the NFL won’t make. The “International Series’’ is one of the NFL’s marquee events. Tickets were sold and events were planned months in advance. The Dolphins will just have to suck it up.

If nothing else, these hurricanes highlight the need for the NFL to add a second bye week to the regular season. It would provide much-needed rest for players to deal with injuries and would allow for more schedule flexibility in case of weather disaster or other unforeseen circumstances.

A second bye would also allow the NFL to have more of its players healthy and rested for the playoffs, provide an extra week of content (who doesn’t want an extra football Sunday?), and could help push the Super Bowl back to Presidents’ Day weekend, which would be fantastic.

Instead, the Dolphins and Buccaneers will now have to play 16 straight games without a bye, putting the players at a higher risk of injury. And it affects competition, too. The Dolphins were supposed to be coming off a bye for their Week 12 game at New England. Instead, it will be their 11th game in a row.

Kick in the teeth for Janikowski

Of all the contract squabbles this season, the strangest has to be what just went down with the Raiders and longtime kicker Sebastian Janikowski.

Janikowski, in the final year of his contract, was supposed to make $4.05 million this year. Last week, the Raiders asked him to take a pay cut. They even brought in three other kickers for tryouts. Janikowski is also dealing with a back injury, which on Saturday landed him on injured reserve.

In the end, Janikowski signed a new deal . . . for $3 million. The Raiders, already $13 million under the cap, gained an extra $1 million, and saved $1 million in cash. Janikowski, who will have to miss at least eight weeks, can make $250,000 of it back if he makes at least 83 percent of his field goals (he hit 82.9 percent last year).

That seems like an awfully miserly thing to do to a player who has been with the organization for 18 years. Janikowski still is a consistent performer with a huge leg, and it’s not like his salary was preventing the Raiders from making other roster moves.

NFL Network couched the move as money the Raiders can now use on disgruntled left tackle Donald Penn, but an extra $1 million? Come on. Janikowski should have told the Raiders to flip off, but in the end he decided that he’d rather still be a Raider.

Extra points

Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers has been committed to the San Diego community for his entire professional career, and he said that he wouldn’t uproot his family and make them move to Los Angeles this year in light of the team’s move. And Rivers is taking his promise seriously. Rivers is making the commute from San Diego to the Chargers’ practice facility three days a week — up to two hours each way — and he’s riding in style. Per the San Diego Union-Tribune, Rivers customized an SUV into a mobile film room and hired a driver so he can study tape and prepare for games during his ride. The total cost of the SUV was about $200,000 (plus driver fees) and includes a 40-inch TV and reclining seats similar to first class in an airplane. Rivers and backup quarterback Kellen Clemens study film together on the ride. “This allows me to get home in the 6 to 7 hour, which is when I got home the last 11 years, and it allows me to watch all or more of the film I watched before,’’ Rivers told the newspaper . . . Interesting to see Saints coach Sean Payton last week become the 11th member of the league’s competition committee. Payton and the Saints have had an icy relationship with the league office since he was suspended for a year over Bountygate, but it apparently has thawed. Bill Belichick has also had a thorny relationship with the competition committee over the years, particularly when Bill Polian started creating rules directly impacting the Patriots, but Payton is one of Belichick’s closest friends, and maybe the committee will start listening to some of his recommendations . . . The Twitter account @ACLrecoveryCLUB tracks all ACL injuries across the NFL and reports that 30 players suffered torn ACLs during training camp and the preseason, including the Patriots’ Julian Edelman, Cyrus Jones, and Derek Rivers. That number is up significantly from the 22 suffered last year and is the most since there were 31 in 2013. As we like to say, nothing good happens in the preseason.

Entering Week 1, there were 17 teams that kept three quarterbacks on the active roster and 15 teams with two. That’s 81 quarterbacks, none named Colin Kaepernick.

Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @BenVolin. Material from interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.