I'm worried about The Who Dat! Nation (1 Viewer)

[Cage1]

It's not a matter of a boycott for me. It's that pro football doesn't have any appeal to me anymore. Just like when I learned pro wrestling is all staged. I just don't care to watch a stage show made to look like a competition.

I'll still smile if I ever read that the Saints won another Super Bowl, but I have no interest in investing my precious time and emotional energy to watching it.

 

[insidejob]

Can't argue with you. Feel like I'm on the same path.

I'm on the same path except for my inability to not watch and/or go to Saints games. I love my team and watching them play too much. The rest of the games? I haven't watched anything but Saints games for the past couple of years because I just have no interest in the NFL outside of the Saints. Before Goodell pulled the bountygate crap, I was all in for as much football as possible.

And as bad as that was, they've kept ruining the game more and more every year with these idiotic rules and refusal to use the technology at their billion dollar industry's disposal to make sure they get the calls right and there's a fair playing field. If the CFL, that generates pennies compared to the NFL, can get reviewed PI in real time right, why can't the NFL? Goodell doesn't want it so that the games are all called fairly and doesn't want the playing field to be level. He's turned it from sports entertainment to just entertainment. If all games and teams were treated equally, the league wouldn't make as much money as possible, and that's all he and most of the owners care about. At least there are enough smaller market teams who've gotten the short end of his league's stick recently to start more and more of an uproar with how he handles the league and apparently doesn't even care about its "integrity" at all anymore.

(Both the league and the Chiefs knowing about the Kareem Hunt incident since last February and not doing anything about it until TMZ got ahold of the video being the latest incident of domestic violence he's covered up as long as possible and done nothing about. He was never disciplined and the Chiefs never would have released him if they could have kept the video quiet. Roger was absolutely complicit in yet another cover up and fans and their respective owners are getting tired of the favoritism. He even went on and on about how wonderful Robert Kraft is yesterday - after they've been busted literally cheating multiple times since he's owned the Pats. It's more than just "not a good look.")

Sorry for the tangent that isn't really meant as a direct reply to just this post, but the overall theme of "the game" we all used to really, really love.

 

[Bill]

It's not a matter of a boycott for me. It's that pro football doesn't have any appeal to me anymore. Just like when I learned pro wrestling is all staged. I just don't care to watch a stage show made to look like a competition.

I'll still smile if I ever read that the Saints won another Super Bowl, but I have no interest in investing my precious time and emotional energy to watching it.

Thus the reason for this thread. It seems like there are plenty whoa re experiencing the same emotions you are dealing with. And you certainly have the right to feel as you do. I figured the results of these unresolved issues would have this affect on a lot of people.

No one can judge your decision to throw in the towel. I wish you well.

 

[insidejob]

Are you serious? A coach should never be put in a position where he has to request new officials because of where they live. That's what the league office is for. And what does this have to do with ref bias? Four of them are from the LA area, and they were allowed to officiate the game by the NFL, and 2 of them screwed up royally to benefit the LA team, to the point that it's been the primary topic of discussion nationally in the days leading up to the SB!!!

You may be right. Two refs in perfect position to see the play botched the call at the same time and missed 3 penalties. Or maybe I'm right, along with many others who think this goes beyond that and that something more sinister happened. The sad part is that we'll never know the answer.

Sorry, but he's got to be literally trolling at this point.

An aside, it was just two missed calls on that kill shot to Lewis. Face guarding is legal in the NFL as long as they don't make contact with the receiver, at which point it's DPI.

 

[JRead2]

You're right. It's impossible for some to claim the game was completely 'rigged' because the Saints still had the upper hand in the game right up until the moment that Drew got his face rearranged on that interception heave in overtime.

But it sure will be wonderful to have the Fraud Bowl over and done so we won't have to keep reminding ourselves who should have been playing the Patriots if the officials in our game hadn't been lobotomized prior to kickoff.

I just need to go into a football coma until about May.

I'm 99.9% convinced it was rigged. I think lots of games are rigged. Don't get me wrong, I don't think they do anything blatant to guarantee a specific team wins, but I think they try to make calls (or no calls) during the game, to give the "preferred" team an advantage. It doesn't always mean the "preferred" team wins, but it does make it a little easier for them. With that being said, they got lucky with the NFC Championship. The opportunity for a no-call presented itself, and they took it. At the time, I'm sure they didn't realize how blatantly obvious the penalty actually was, but in the end, they got the desired outcome.

Now, the question remains of how I will respond. Well, I'm still all in. I will renew my season tickets. I will fly down for as many games as possible. I will spend money on MY team -- the Saints! I'm actually excited to see us bounce back, and show the world we can beat every team, every ref, and the NFL czar, enroute to next year's championship.

 

[VPCajun]

I think it's safe to say that Vinovich's crew won't call a single Saints game in 2019. At least not a game in the dome. And this wasn't Vinovich's usual crew. It was one of those stupid "All Star" crews thrown together for the playoffs with guys who've called very few games together. Why they don't just grade the crews as a whole and put the top rated crews into the playoffs and Super Bowl in tact as they were the whole season has never made a lick of sense to me.

Hah!

I think Goddell will make it a point that Vinovich's crew is at the Home Opener of the Saints!

And...

Goddell will make those 2 clown refs a "special addition" to Vinovich's crew

 

[broccoli60]

After the game my intent was not to watch again unless both Turner and Cavalletto were fired and Vinovich reprimanded. The farce from yesterday tells me those won't happen and regardless of what the competition committee does no rule changes will happen.

I can't separate support for the Saints, my team since September 17, 1967, from support of the NFL. Sadly I think I've watched my last NFL game.

 

[VPCajun]

...But were those three officials ***trying to avoid deciding that game at that moment*** by not pulling out flags for an infraction that they might ordinarily have called in any other game situation? I truly believe that an affirmative answer to this last question is what is the closest thing to the truth.
...

[I don't know how to BOLD a BOLDED statement so I just added *'s... (Pun intended. Get it? Asterisks.)]

But, that is EXACTLY what those officials did by NOT throwing a flag.

They decided the game by not giving the Saints their RIGHTFUL penalty which would have put the Saints in firm control of the remainder of the game.

As we all know, Failure to Do Your Job can be worse than Doing Your Job.

[Reference my avatar with Goddell saying "Meh." to "Do Your Job"]

 

[rodgepodge9]

I've said it many times and I think a lot of people will end up finding the same feeling: I will still love the Saints but I will absolutely 100% not be able to be as emotionally invested in them anymore (which is the part that sucks).

Yes, I ll still watch the games. Yes I ll still cheer and get loud. But I ll have a very hard time getting my hopes up. This isn't just enduring last play miracles or being perpetually awful. This is something that was cheated from us.

The love has dimmed, which is bigger than it sounds because that intense love WAS the best part of it all. However I'm still here I ll still watch

 

[VPCajun]

There was another blatant helmet-to-helmet on Josh Hill in the first quarter that didn't get a call or a fine. Josh spent the rest of the game on the sidelines. There is no doubt the ref saw it/heard it/and saw Josh stumbling around immediately after the play.

We know the bolded above to be FACT - it was a ref that made Hill leave the field.

 

[Bill]

I've said it many times and I think a lot of people will end up finding the same feeling: I will still love the Saints but I will absolutely 100% not be able to be as emotionally invested in them anymore (which is the part that sucks).

Yes, I ll still watch the games. Yes I ll still cheer and get loud. But I ll have a very hard time getting my hopes up. This isn't just enduring last play miracles or being perpetually awful. This is something that was cheated from us.

The love has dimmed, which is bigger than it sounds because that intense love WAS the best part of it all. However I'm still here I ll still watch

Maybe your "intense" love has merely been whittled down to where everyone else already was.

I think you'll do just fine.

 

[VPCajun]

I still feel done with the NFL.

But the Saints are like a family member, so how do I quit on them, how do I not watch those boys like I have every snap they've played as a Saint.

Lots of cognitive dissonance on this.

Because sometimes enough is enough???

 

[Goatman Saint]

The lack of transparency by the league and the failure of Goodell to actually answer anything, along with the late fine (and it's inequity) have done nothing to convince me I should continue to spend time and money on what I see as a corrupt organization, regardless of my personal love for our team.

Said it perfectly. Stopped watching with Ditka, but as soon as he left I was back. Kinda gave up a bit with Haslett because of the undisciplined garbage that was being trotted out week after week. But as soon as he was fired I was back. After bounty, now this, I’m done until Goodell is gone

 

[26ISTHEMAN]

Sorry, but he's got to be literally trolling at this point.

An aside, it was just two missed calls on that kill shot to Lewis. Face guarding is legal in the NFL as long as they don't make contact with the receiver, at which point it's DPI.

#3 hitting a defenseless receiver in the head/neck area I think is still a penalty. Either way, there's no excuse for not throwing a flag, but that goes without saying.

 

[Saint Taysom]

I'm 99.9% convinced it was rigged. I think lots of games are rigged....

...Now, the question remains of how I will respond. Well, I'm still all in. I will renew my season tickets. I will fly down for as many games as possible. I will spend money on MY team -- the Saints! I'm actually excited to see us bounce back, and show the world we can beat every team, every ref, and the NFL czar, enroute to next year's championship.

1 of 2 things will happen next season... One being much more likely in my opinion than the other...

The Saints will remain one of the best teams in the league, only they will get the benefit of “letting them play” and fortuitous “missed calls” etc... on their way back to a deep playoff run. A sort of “payback” season from the NFL and their writers...

-or-

The Saints will be hammered and steamrolled by ref scrutiny and ticky-tack calls all season... en route to a losing season and no playoffs. Then more and more bandwagon Saints fans drop off, the media can ignore the Saints much more than they do when they’re good, and they can essentially flush this nightmare down their toilet.

Guess which one I feel is more likely?

CSP wearing the clown shirt will definitely not go unpunished.