This has been a tumultuous week in the world of American sport, a week in which the most powerful man in the most popular sport in the most sport-obsessed country in the world has been fighting for his corporate life.

For the last eight years Roger Goodell, the $44 million-a-year commissioner of the NFL, has presided over a league that has the riches of a Rockefeller and the moral compass of a Soprano. Criminal behaviour by players has always been a feature of NFL life but over the last month a domestic violence case in which Ray Rice, a star player with the Baltimore Ravens, was caught on CCTV camera knocking out his then fiancee (and now wife) with a single punch. The video of the incident, first revealed by the gossip website TMZ, is truly horrific viewing.

Rice was convicted in court but it is the leniency shown by Goodell that has scandalised a nation. The player was suspended for just two games.

Talk about a perfect media storm. The story has dominated the network news programmes, never mind the 24-hour sports network of ESPN. Goodell was last seen in a televised press conference on Friday, begging for a nation's forgiveness.

Into this American sporting maelstrom steps the Ryder Cup. To say the greatest team event - perhaps the greatest event - in golf has been overlooked Stateside would be something of an understatement. The mainstream media and the middle-American public might be hard pushed to confirm it is even taking place this week, far less identify where.

In all honesty, such Ryder Cup indifference might have prevailed even without the NFL scandal. In the pre-Tiger era, golf in the States was a "niche" sport. Now Woods' career appears to be in decline so, too, is the interest golf has for the casual sports fan. Still, the former world No 1's non-appearance at Gleneagles this week will undoubtedly have an adverse impact on television ratings. His absence at any golf event always does.

It is also true that the US team's performances in recent Ryder Cups has not endeared them to the public. This is a nation that loves winners and the Stars and Stripes have produced very few of those in the last 20 years.

Of course, Tom Watson is one such winner, having captained the last American team to win on European soil, at the Belfry in 1993, but even his return has failed to stir interest, except amongst the small but dedicated army of golf devotees.

Even then, the Stateside aficionados are not looking forward to this week at Gleneagles with much optimism. For one thing, the scars of Medinah in 2012 are still fairly raw. If the US team couldn't finish off the Europeans from such a position of strength at the start of that (in)famous Sunday afternoon, what chance do they have of beating the Europeans on their own turf?

More worryingly, the team who will travel to Gleneagles are far from the best the US might have put together. Is there anyone on the European team who will lose any Saturday night sleep should they be left facing the prospect of facing Webb Simpson in Sunday's singles? Likewise, Jim Furyk - a money-making machine on the PGA Tour, no doubt, but a man whose woeful Ryder Cup record belies a tendency to buckle under pressure.

As for those who won't be in Perthshire, Woods is absent, of course. So, too, is Dustin Johnson, arguably America's best golfer, who is on enforced sabbatical from the sport to deal with "personal issues".

But the most ominous absence is that of Billy Horschel, winner of last week's $10 million finale of the FedEx Cup series and the in-form American player of the moment. Watson made his picks three weeks ago, before Horschel found his magic. Would he have made a difference? We will never know though we can assume, having watching him out-duel Rory McIlroy over the final two rounds last weekend, that his vertebrae is a bit more sturdy than that of Furyk.

Johnny Miller, the former Open champion and now the pre-eminent television golf analyst in the States, is in no doubt that Horschel would have been an upgrade on some members of the US team. Not that he is completely dismissing Watson's men. There is merit in being the underdog and there is merit in having rookies - Watson has three, in Jimmy Walker, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed - who do not carry the baggage of previous defeats.

"The rookies could make or break the US team," Miller said. "There are guys that could be magical, like a Larry Nelson when he first went in the Ryder Cup, or a Lanny Wadkins. I think it's these young guys, including Rickie Fowler, maybe those four guys might be the difference versus the veterans. I'd play them right away."

The chances are Watson might do exactly that. For all his reputation as a "golfing gent" he is a pragmatic man with a ruthless streak. He is more preoccupied with winning than with protecting the egos of his veteran team members. If that means the likes of Furyk making way for a younger, hungrier player like Reed, then Watson will not think twice. But will it be enough to pull off an upset? American patriots will say yes, but their more rational compatriots concede the answer is probably no.