As a patent defense move, NFL patenting football?

Incomplete reception

You've all been following this fight between Apple and Samsung, right. Someone sues the other guy. The other guys sues back in Germany. They then sue in Australia. Not happy enough, someone sues the other guys in England. And to just make reporters read a foreign language newspaper, they also sue in Korea.
But do you know what this is really about? It's about design patents. What is that you say? Well, it's about how things looks and how if I come up with a design, I should be able to protect it from other people copying it. Problem is, design patents can be pretty vague. And it's about right to say that Apple is saying it has a design patent on a box with rounded corners.
Did you know that there is something called defensive patents? Yes, there is something like that. It's when you patent something so that nobody else can patent it before you. You then use this against anybody else suing you for patent violation. So if you have a design for a pink polka-dot elephant with a short trunk, you should do that.
But seriously, this is about business. Soon people are going to patent everything they can think of. Not only new stuff, but even old things. Even when you've made something, you can still patent it. If you can patent a box with rounded corners, you can patent anything.
It's not hard to see big businesses like the NFL deciding to do defensive patents. The NFL could patent football as a defensive patent. Why? There is no guarantee Apple won't patent a "game where two teams alternatively try to move the a ball across a 100 yard playing field using opposing strategic formations... on a mobile device". And they'll get it, too. They'll even agree to fair licensing to other companies which already make "football" equipment. So no need for sport equipment manufacturers to change "football jerseys" into "football t-shirts". Just pay the licensing fees.
Of course, the rest of the world is going to be upset. And they'll bring it to court. But some judge in south Texas will probably decide in the NFL's favor. In the process, he'll likely

• dismiss US Soccer's motion because they don't use the name football
• disqualify FIFA from from filing because their representative in the U.S., U.S. Soccer, is disqualified
• grant Telemundo an exemption for the of the word "futbol" as a favor to his gardener. 

Think that's crazy? Try making a football helmet today and see how quickly the NFL lawyers's letter reach you. But it's not crazy. It's ok. It's ok because it's business.