NFL being like WWE in that officials controls games? (1 Viewer)

[BoNcHiE]

I don't doubt individuals refs have been gotten to; however, I'm skeptical of it being a league directed policy driven process. I just don't see how the owners of the smaller market teams would tolerate operating their franchises under a weighted system.

It happens in the NBA, where the smaller franchises are just happy to make money via revenue sharing and know they never stand a chance of actually winning. The NFL has the same revenue sharing setup. The things that aren't shared have to do with merchandise sales and a portion of ticket sales (66% I think + boxes). Everything else is shared, i.e. TV revenue which is the real money.

And no, I don't think it's as blatant or rigged as your sarcastic scene you laid out.

If the playing field were truly level, the parity of what teams are good long term and what teams never sustain success would be more varied among smaller markets. It's a salary cap league after all.

 

[faceman]

Does anyone remember the first NFL game in NYC after 9/11? The officials were so one-sided for the Giants and against the Saints, Tagliabue had to go down to the field to tell the refs to chill out.

.

I remember that game vividly. I also remember the blame the refs threads afterwards. The reality was Michael Strahan abused Kyle Turley like
a red headed stepchild.

 

[Randy Jones]

It is easy to accuse nameless or faceless people of collaborating in a corrupt system. I have noticed that a central theme here is that the refs are biased or corrupt subject to the direction of some central biased authority out to influence the outcome of games.

Keep in mind these people you are talking in any "system" are people like you and me. They live in our neighborhoods. They actually have real jobs the do during the week. The refs are also part timers.

A lot of these refs started out as high school and college refs. You may even know a few of them. Are they bad corrupt people? No. They're good people like most of us.

On top of everything else, it seems that because of bad calls made against certain teams, i.e, the Saints, the refs obviously must be corrupt. There has been a consistent theme on here for years that the NFL "out to get us." Many teams don't lose games because of the refs. They lose games because they play poorly. If the Saints were 4-2 instead of 2-4, this discussion wouldn't be happening.

The saints are losing because their defense is missing as many as 7 potential starters. 2 on the line, 3 of the lb's and 2+ Cb's. For Saints sake, we're down to starting UDFA's and has-beens at CB, LB and DE. In the past 5 years, we have had 4 turnovers at the DC position and turnover at multiple positions on the defensive side of the ball. There in lies the explanation.

 

[SoggyBottomBoy]

The burden of proof is on the entity making a claim.

For example, if I were to make a claim that gravity is caused by gnomes that live under the earth that pull invisible strings on all objects on the surface. The burden on proof is on me to prove the gnomes exist, not on my audience to prove the gnomes don't exist.

If NFL games were being systematically influenced, it should be easy enough to produce a statistical proof that it's taking place.

I don't doubt individuals refs have been gotten to; however, I'm skeptical of it being a league directed policy driven process. I just don't see how the owners of the smaller market teams would tolerate operating their franchises under a weighted system.

Owners meeting: OK, so we're all good with this year being New England's year? The story with Brady being suspended and still winning it all is just too good to pass up. We've also got the seeds planted to allow Dallas to finally break through to be next year's team.

Lerner: Um, what about the Browns.

Owners: Shut up Lerner, it'll never be the Browns year.

Lerner: OK *sad face*

All right. I didn't want to have to do this but I have 18,000 pages of evidence. I just don't want to show it and you can't make me. But I will tell you this, former prosecutor Mary Jo White has reviewed the evidence and stated that the factual basis for the alleged game fixing is “quite strong.”

 

[Surviving Saint]

It is easy to accuse nameless or faceless people of collaborating in a corrupt system. I have noticed that a central theme here is that the refs are biased or corrupt subject to the direction of some central biased authority out to influence the outcome of games.

Keep in mind these people you are talking in any "system" are people like you and me. They live in our neighborhoods. They actually have real jobs the do during the week. The refs are also part timers.

A lot of these refs started out as high school and college refs. You may even know a few of them. Are they bad corrupt people? No. They're good people like most of us.

On top of everything else, it seems that because of bad calls made against certain teams, i.e, the Saints, the refs obviously must be corrupt. There has been a consistent theme on here for years that the NFL "out to get us." Many teams don't lose games because of the refs. They lose games because they play poorly. If the Saints were 4-2 instead of 2-4, this discussion wouldn't be happening.

The saints are losing because their defense is missing as many as 7 potential starters. 2 on the line, 3 of the lb's and 2+ Cb's. For Saints sake, we're down to starting UDFA's and has-beens at CB, LB and DE. In the past 5 years, we have had 4 turnovers at the DC position and turnover at multiple positions on the defensive side of the ball. There in lies the explanation.

What happened in the last 5 minutes of the Oakland game? The refs determined the outcome.

Green Bay vs Chicago and Denver vs Houston. Both teams can't do anything in the first half in both games and come the second half all of a sudden we have a game? Come on man. This is what TV is for.

 

[platinumvinnyv]

[/B]

It is easy to accuse nameless or faceless people of collaborating in a corrupt system. I have noticed that a central theme here is that the refs are biased or corrupt subject to the direction of some central biased authority out to influence the outcome of games.

Keep in mind these people you are talking in any "system" are people like you and me. They live in our neighborhoods. They actually have real jobs the do during the week. The refs are also part timers.

A lot of these refs started out as high school and college refs. You may even know a few of them. Are they bad corrupt people? No. They're good people like most of us.

On top of everything else, it seems that because of bad calls made against certain teams, i.e, the Saints, the refs obviously must be corrupt. There has been a consistent theme on here for years that the NFL "out to get us." Many teams don't lose games because of the refs. They lose games because they play poorly. If the Saints were 4-2 instead of 2-4, this discussion wouldn't be happening.

The saints are losing because their defense is missing as many as 7 potential starters. 2 on the line, 3 of the lb's and 2+ Cb's. For Saints sake, we're down to starting UDFA's and has-beens at CB, LB and DE. In the past 5 years, we have had 4 turnovers at the DC position and turnover at multiple positions on the defensive side of the ball. There in lies the explanation.

As for the refs here's a Batman quote
Harvey Dent: You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain..

.I wish I had as much faith as you. I used too. But when PI can be called at anytime and be as vague as it is. Any game can be fixed

 

[LiterOCola]

It happens in the NBA, where the smaller franchises are just happy to make money via revenue sharing and know they never stand a chance of actually winning. The NFL has the same revenue sharing setup. The things that aren't shared have to do with merchandise sales and a portion of ticket sales (66% I think + boxes). Everything else is shared, i.e. TV revenue which is the real money.

And no, I don't think it's as blatant or rigged as your sarcastic scene you laid out.

If the playing field were truly level, the parity of what teams are good long term and what teams never sustain success would be more varied among smaller markets. It's a salary cap league after all.

I wasn't trying to belittle anyone with the "example", I was just trying to bring a bit of levity to the discussion.

I think organization has a lot more to do with it than there being an overt bias against small market teams for the very reason you stated (salary cap, profit sharing, etc). Some teams get the right people in the right positions and the magic happens. I'm sure there's also an individual bias with the more talented personnel wanting to go where the lights are brightest.

If it were all about market share, the Cowboys two decade long march in mediocrity shouldn't have happened.

The explanation for refs tending toward calls that keep a game even may just be human nature (as a group, not excusing a possible compromised individual). An interesting study was done on MLB umpires, and found (among other things) a tendency to slightly favor the home team. They also found the umpire shrunk the strike zone when a batter was behind, and increased the strike zone when the batter was ahead.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/opinion/sunday/what-umpires-get-wrong.html?_r=0

I suspect this subconscious bias toward "fairness" happens across all the sports. Increasing the role of technology, particularly allowing replay to review game changing calls, would minimize a human tendency toward keeping a game even; although what would be the tolerance for having and NFL game be interrupted even more for these types of reviews when the pace of the game is already sluggish due to the number of reviews and commercial breaks?

 

[WhoDatPhan78]

If it were all about market share, the Cowboys two decade long march in mediocrity shouldn't have happened.

This alone is enough to disprove all the paranoid whiners who complain about the NFL being intentionally rigged in favor of certain teams.

 

[duckjr78]

It is easy to accuse nameless or faceless people of collaborating in a corrupt system. I have noticed that a central theme here is that the refs are biased or corrupt subject to the direction of some central biased authority out to influence the outcome of games.

Keep in mind these people you are talking in any "system" are people like you and me. They live in our neighborhoods. They actually have real jobs the do during the week. The refs are also part timers.

A lot of these refs started out as high school and college refs. You may even know a few of them. Are they bad corrupt people? No. They're good people like most of us.

On top of everything else, it seems that because of bad calls made against certain teams, i.e, the Saints, the refs obviously must be corrupt. There has been a consistent theme on here for years that the NFL "out to get us." Many teams don't lose games because of the refs. They lose games because they play poorly. If the Saints were 4-2 instead of 2-4, this discussion wouldn't be happening.

The saints are losing because their defense is missing as many as 7 potential starters. 2 on the line, 3 of the lb's and 2+ Cb's. For Saints sake, we're down to starting UDFA's and has-beens at CB, LB and DE. In the past 5 years, we have had 4 turnovers at the DC position and turnover at multiple positions on the defensive side of the ball. There in lies the explanation.

"They're good people like most of us" - MASSIVE assumption.

There are approximately 125 referees in the NFL today. You would literally only need 1 ref (preferably a back judge, lol) to skew games *just enough to make a difference. That is 16 out of 125 people. 10% - ish. 1 out of 10. Go find a group of 10 people without a single person of the 10 being easily influenced by money. Lots of money. And they are your employees. You control who gets promoted from the high school and college ranks to get to ref in the NFL. WOW! You get to hand pick the guys that you want to help you finesse the games. Then, you get to hand pick who gets to be the guys in the most influential positions on their crews. Then you get to hand pick which crews that have the best "game influences" to ref the biggest or most critical games.

 

[LiterOCola]

This alone is enough to disprove all the paranoid whiners who complain about the NFL being intentionally rigged in favor of certain teams.

While I appreciate the support, the general tone of the thread seems to be on edge so words like "paranoid whiners" are only going to cause people to dig in further.

 

[BoNcHiE]

This alone is enough to disprove all the paranoid whiners who complain about the NFL being intentionally rigged in favor of certain teams.

They finished under .500 five times in the past 18 years and had a winning record nine of those years. They aren't the Browns or Jags.

You seem to really being taking it personally that anyone would question the league and not think like you, with all the name calling and such. No one is stopping you from believing it's pure as the wind driven snow. Enjoy the games.

 

[mr.t]

I believe some refs are fixed but not the entire league.

 

[natedog]

It's more the complication of the rules, that lends to the option opinion when making a call one way or another. It's not that anyone is telling the refs which teams to win etc. . . plus there seems more so then every that there is always room ( a place through the game where the flags go away - no huddle etc. ) in a game for any given team to mount the big comeback. Its more about viewership, or keeping fans at games longer, not so much that the NFL wants such and such a team to win.

That is where the flag teams like the Saints heavy, because they no that we have the Offense to come back in any given game and make it close in the end. Which keeps people buying beer in the games, watching commercials at home etc. etc.

Years ago the better teams used to crush the weaker teams with scores like 45-10. You hardly see that any more and it isn't simply because of parity. It's more about viewership.

 

[SWAMP_THING]

Hoccules is taking a stand against the system, he is controlling for the Saints and his other refs want to throw flags so bad haha, Thanks you Hoccules