NFL conspiracy article

And for me to not be a hypocrite, I have to add that for years, I have wanted the league to do just that. Tell the refs to stay out of every game. Only throwing flags on blatant and agreggeous fouls.

I can see those orders being given to the refs, and I can see that causing them some trouble implementing those orders. Danged if you do, danged if you dont. Sucks that it turned out the way it did.

I'm not defending the league nor the refs here, just stating the easiest explanation and the only one that checks all the boxes in my tick'd off brain. The league tried to tell the refs to call a game as it should be called, but with no experience doing that, the refs blew it.