Conspiracy Talk Is Nonsense (1 Viewer)

[BayouCajun]

This was not some hard to see Blown call by these Refs. The sideline Ref was looking right at the play. This P.I and Helmet to Helmet hit by Robey-Coleman as he was so early getting there, no way you do not decide to throw a flag because it is NFC Championship game. That is a bogus and stupid argument if I ever seen one.

The NFL has never had this many problems in the past with Refs till Rodger Goodell has taking over as NFL Commissioner. That is a fact and it has been getting worse every year. Then knowing you have two refs on the Official crew who happen to be from Los Angeles area officiating a game, must less an NFL Championship Game, which decides who goes to SB is outright negligence on the part of the NFL and reason for all the conspiracy theories which is not just coming from Saints fans, But Nationally as well from NFL fans, Reporters and players from other NFL teams.

And yes, the NFL does have a possible motive for the outcome. Los Angeles is one of the largest TV markets. The Rams currently building a Multi-Billion dollar stadium and they having trouble getting fans in a stadium they playing in now with majority of fans being from the visiting teams. How much money is NFL due to gain from a Rams-Patriots SB Game where you now have two largest TV market teams going head to head? Also how much can Bookies make, if a game can be decided by Corruption deciding outcome of a game? Not saying this is what happened, But it sure having hard time passing the smell taste right now and that includes Nationally.

 

[UptownFuz504]

I don't disagree. Drew didn't play to the finest standard he has set.

But why is it that if you are in a one score game in the playoffs the Refs will job you about 80% of the time?

I have no answer for that my good man

 

[Yatman]

An outright disbelief of conspiracy -- or at least collusion -- is irrational. A minimum of three officials clearly saw the fouls yet none took action. The crew obviously disregarded their rules-based obligation in order to effect a desired outcome.

That the crew was self-directed or instructed by someone else to do so is evident. None made any effort to call the obvious fouls.

Whether or not they were charged to "not decide the game" is irrelevant. They are duty bound to be objective and call fouls as they occur.

 

[Chopper Man]

At the very least it is a very bad look for the NFL to have two officials with very close ties to Los Angeles on the crew that chose not to make the game altering call. To me it is a harder argument to prove the NFL's innocence.

 

[RajCaj80]

Nothing you said is wrong but the greater point that I was trying to make was that bad coaching put us in the position to have the no call happen. If Payton just runs the ball, there’s no missed call. Drew isn’t off the hook either. Just take the sack man

You should NEVER have to beat both the team you're playing, AND the officials. As soon as that becomes an expectation of a fan base, what are you even fans for?

The Rams made mistakes, the Saints made mistakes....the NFL (for the most part) is pretty tight in terms of performance & talent, and sometimes winning the game doesn't mean that you blow the wheels off the other team.

Last night, despite all the mistakes that were made before that 3rd down play, the Saints played well enough to win and, if fairly officiated, would have won the game on the next set of downs. Anything that happened after that should be irrelevant.

 

[Super44]

It will take a few days before we can begin to have serious discussion of the Saints season that just ended and the team going forward. At this time, there is too much anger and disappointment over the non-call at the end of regulation. The pass interference was egregious; had the call been made, given the time in the game, the Saints' win-probability was certainly greater than 90 percent; and one or two officials should never again officiate an NFL game.

However, the talk of conspiracy on talk-radio and on this forum is nonsense. What happened yesterday was that the officiating crew decided that it would basically let the teams play and that it did not want to decide the game by calling a major penalty in the final moments (though ironically it decided the game by failing to call blatant pass interference in the final moments).

Had there been a league conspiracy to put the Rams in the Super Bowl, the officiating crew would not have waited until the final two minutes to make a non-call--there would have been adverse calls against the Saints (and we had only three or four penalties) earlier in the game, and there would not have been the pass-interference call against the Rams in the beginning of overtime (which seemed like a make-up call).

Further, a conspiracy involves numerous people. The likelihood of all remaining quiet in this era is small.

But most important, why would the league engage in a conspiracy to put the Rams in the Super Bowl? Yes, the league likes the idea of a Los Angeles team in the Super Bowl because the television ratings will be marginally higher nation-wide, and perhaps substantially higher in the southern California markets. And the Rams need all the help they can get in selling PSLs and tickets, and generating interest in the team. But discovery of a conspiracy to put a certain team in the Super Bowl through officiating would be catastrophic: It would kill the NFL's business model, reducing perhaps by half the billion-dollar plus valuations of the 32 franchises, and irreparably affecting tickets sales and television contracts nation-wide. For 31 of the NFL owners, the financial gain of Los Angles playing in this year's Super Bowl is marginal and short-term. But a conspiracy to put a certain team in the Super Bowl, if discovered, would irreparably damage the league and the investment of all 32 owners. Only someone brain-dead would even have entertained the possibility of such a conspiracy for more than three seconds.

I am not going dismiss your points. But I will say this. By the NFL’s indiscretion of assigning an official from the L.A. area, can lead to this type of unfortunate situation. Was this official subconsciously thinking about what would happen to him professionally in his everyday job, if he had a game winning/losing call to make? He probably was in the predisposed mindset to not make a call or to make a call towards the Rams. I do not think he thought at that given moment to not make the call. It was predisposed in his mind he would not make a call against the Rams in this case. It is human nature.

 

[brungart]

So are you saying the league never gets involved with in game reffing? Because there are noted cases where the league has called in during half time of games to instruct the refs to reduce calling penalties. I believe it happened more than once this year and yes im too lazy to look it up but its out there

 

[Joodas Avila]

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but do see what everyone else saw. So, here's my log to throw on the fire: The LA teams were getting literally zero hometown love since returning. It's not what the NFL thought it was going to be, revenue-wise. How do you fix that? Send those teams to the Super Bowl. The Chargers pretty much eliminated themselves. So when the Rams were just close enough to possibly do it, the refs had their opportunity to gift them w/a "nudge" in the right direction so they could pull it off. Now, the NFL, LA, blah, blah, blah, all get what they want at the cost of the New Orleans Saints, the city, it's fan base, players, coaches, and staff.

 

[RJ in Lafayette]

I certainly think that an official from southern California could have subconsciously been influenced by geography in not wanting to throw a game-deciding flag in the last two minutes. That's human nature. But of course, my original post addressed a very different issue.

 

[starbuck2907]

Either the refs are incompetent or biased, or the NFL wanted LA in the Super Bowl.

Conspiracy is actually one of the ONLY three legit possibilities.

 

[insidejob]

Nothing you said is wrong but the greater point that I was trying to make was that bad coaching put us in the position to have the no call happen. If Payton just runs the ball, there’s no missed call. Drew isn’t off the hook either. Just take the sack man

Dude, Payton called a run and they stacked the box with NINE defenders. Drew audibled to a slant to Thomas that they connect on 99% of the time with their eyes closed. He just made a bad throw. Period.

 

[whodatsaint]

If the refs are not on the field to call penalties like this, what are they there for? This was clearly a decision to help the Rams.

 

[Andrus]

R.J. ...

I don't think there was conspiracy, and they did let them play for the most part. However, when something occurs that is so egregious, obvious, at such a crucial moment, and with such an obvious impact on the outcome of the game... it cannot go uncalled. This goes beyond "Letting them play". There is just no excusing it.

I just got back from New Orleans a couple of hours ago, so I am still catching up. The two refs that were standing near the incident... Were either or both the two Los Angeles area refs? Knowing that might help clear up some suspicion.

 

[zatsnzapps]

The two refs that were standing near the incident... Were either or both the two Los Angeles area refs? Knowing that might help clear up some suspicion.

From what I've been able to find, the two refs were Gary Cavaletto from Santa Barbara, and Patrick Turner, who went to college at Cal State-Long Beach and a former Pac 12 ref. I can't find if he still has California ties.

 

[SubmarineMike]

Are y'all gonna accuse this guy of being a paid shill for Roger Goodell too? LOL.

He's just posting his opinion like we all are.

We just blew a 13 point lead AT HOME in the playoffs. Refs didn't do that. We tried to deny it that the offense wasn't exposed and was just in a little slump. Turns out, they really weren't the same again for the rest of the year after that week 11 loss to Dallas.

There are many reasons we lost this game and the refs are not the main one. Great teams overcome bad calls. The Patriots didn't get any blatant PI calls last night in overtime and yet they still overcome that and won. We had so many chances before the 4th quarter to put that game out of reach. With a 13 point lead, we should've been doing something in the 2nd quarter to get another TD or two and finish the game. Then even after the non-call PI, we got the ball in OT and threw a pick.

No. We didn’t “blow” a 13 point lead. That is like saying the Rams “blew” a 0-0 tie at the start of the game.

The other team also gets paid to play.

We put up enough plays to win the game. Period.