N/S NFL still using officials to keep viewers by keeping game close (3 Viewers)

[insidejob]

You are right. I don't know what I was looking at earlier but I thought they were closer.

It's all good. I just remembered the Super Bowls growing up always being boring because the games were so lopsided. That trend changed in the 2000's and I don't think it's because of parity. I think the officials have their thumb on the scale to keep the game close for TV ratings/commercial money spent.

 

[CRESS_137]

As long as the score was close the officials called a relatively fair game. Once score got lopsided enough to encourage people to no longer watch they used the yellow hankies to tighten up the score and keep viewers.
San Fran intercepts a KC scoring drive in the early fourth quarter pretty much assuring viewers would consider it a game over and leave. Amazingly on third down Garapolo is smashed to with the ground with full helmet to helmet contact. No flag because KC getting the ball back keeps viewers.
Will the Super bowl ever be truly earned again? I'm a Chiefs fan so my bias tends to the Chiefs. Without the officials they probably would never have won the game. Shame we can never know because they will ALWAYS do that unless the fans stop it.
Kris

I was waiting for the flag when I saw that hit. I was hoping the Chiefs would win, and have hated SF since the 80s.
I still thought the call was "missed".
1. They actually missed a clear player safety call in one of the biggest plays in the biggest game of the year. That crew is trash and they never should have been allowed to officiate the game. They also missed several other calls that game that were easy calls.
- OR -
2. What we believe is true and there is a conspiracy for ratings

Either way the NFL is knee deep in a problem that they've known about for at least a decade now.

 

[Zack Lee]

they know they have a true perception issue in regards to the fairness right now. That will affect viewers far more than lopsided scores IMO

 

[Saint Jack]

True and thus to part of my point, it does not matter the teams in the Super Bowl. But as the cost of advertising continues to go up, the advertisers are going to be very mindful of how they spend their money. The blowouts you mention were a long time ago. When was the last blowout? I am talking when the game was determined by double digits and the double digit differential was sustained throughout the game and to the end as a final double digit win? You know someone in advertising and marketing? I do and can tell you, the cost of the commercials are scrutinized and re-evaluated on a yearly basis. At some point there will be a peak, where costs become static, or drop slightly. All it will take is one year, where the NFL/host network are unable to sell all of the advertising time and that will be the beginning of the price hold, or drop.

2014 by 40 and the ad price still rose the next year

some cases I believe they are not instructed to keep the game close. Like I’m more surprised they never kept the nfccg close. But then again they know that is a sure blow out in the sb.

I also feel we gonna start seeing a trend of Sb winners or teams going to the sb that is out of the ordinary to keep fans spending more, like Buffalo, tenn, even door mat teams. This is the opportunity for the nfl to push that agenda.

In the last week of the regular season, it was the League fixing it for a 49ers/Patriots Super Bowl for Brady Vs Jimmy G.
Then it was a fix to have a KC/GB rematch of Super Bowl I for LIV.
Now it’s the League fixing it so the small market teams will win to keep interest up.
You can make a conspiracy out of ANY result.

 

[LuvNOLA]

2014 by 40 and the ad price still rose the next year

In the last week of the regular season, it was the League fixing it for a 49ers/Patriots Super Bowl for Brady Vs Jimmy G.
Then it was a fix to have a KC/GB rematch of Super Bowl I for LIV.
Now it’s the League fixing it so the small market teams will win to keep interest up.
You can make a conspiracy out of ANY result.

How do you explain last year???!!! The Rams were TERRIBLE & made for a BORING & stupid game. ?

 

[RJ in Lafayette]

Regarding those posts suggesting conspiracies, I have nothing else to add.

However, regarding those posts decrying lack of accountability and offering criticism of Riveron, three cheers. If I were the league office, I would instruct the officials that those crews that consistently call an above-average number of penalties will be closely scrutinized and would dismiss those crews that fail such scrutiny. The officiating crew on Sunday could have called a number of penalties that during the regular season are often called, but declined to do so. That so few penalties were called made for a better and quicker game.

I in no way believe that last year's non-call in the NFC championship game was the result of a bias against the Saints or in favor of the Rams. I also believe that the Saints had their chances to win after the non-call and failed to do what they needed to do to overcome a horrible non-call. It was a conference championship game and at the end of the game. The probability is extremely high that had the call been made, the Saints would have won, with a penalty being a decisive factor in the outcome of the game. For those reasons, I think the call was not made. I also think that the penalty was so egregious that it absolutely had to be called, that it was gross incompetence on the part of one or two officials not to have called a penalty, that the league shortly after the game should have admitted the error, and that one or two officials should have disciplined because of what happened--it was too big of a screw-up on too big of a stage. That the league failed to take those actions says much about how the league is currently being run. Believe me, I am not an apologist for the league office. I just believe that with officiating we are seeing the consequences of arrogance and greed rather than criminal design.