The Conspiracy Narrative Around Here (1 Viewer)

[Bill]

No, but what we do have is many different rule books and punishments for many different teams and owners.

Is this what you KNOW or what you PERCEIVE?

 

[Que Que 6]

"Is the NFL rigging games?" is a question I've heard for 40 years. The NFL can privately hope for a business win from action on the field, but i am not one to believe that officials got a coded or verbal memo instructing them to help one team over another.

Did Tommylee get mauled? of course he did but it was a bang-bang play and I believe the officials who had core responsibility for the call, led by Vinovich, had a brain freeze. Then they looked to the head referee to bail the missed call out, but the head referee felt he himself had not seen enough to rule on it or throw a late flag. Since it was not reviewable, the no-call stood.

In earlier years, the missed call would have devastated me. But now, at the older age and with the Saints finally having a Super Bowl ring, I'm pragmatic about the incompetence and abuse of the NFL and the officials. It did not bother me. I do not play or coach in the game, so I have absolutely zero control over the events or outcome. To win, you have to beat your opponent AND the officials.

What has always been a sore-point for me is why did the Saints end up throwing the ball to TLL at that moment? He's a smallish under-performing no-name, and a more higher-profile receiver gets that call. Throughout almost the entire Payton era, including this moment in time, the Saints have rolled out an under-stocked receiving corps.

You beat the official in that Rams NFCCG by not blowing a fat lead, or by Dan Arnold not letting a dagger TD catch trickle out of his hands.

A 4-second pause before the ball gets there is not bang bang, sir. Did u watch the game, or heard about it?

 

[Bill]

This was NOT a bang-bang play…

Of course it was not a 'bang-bang' play. Everyone knows that it was blatant pass interference. Robey-Coleman even said as much when he admitted to being out of position and beaten on the play. But I actually blame the official (#13) in this photo WAAAAAAY more than the official who actually made the call. (Gary Cavaletto)

While Cavaletto was the sideline official authorized to make the call, he was NOT in the best position to see the distance between the football and the impact as it happened. When #13 went to reach for his flag (as shown in a different camera angle), it was Cavaletto that called off his flag by calling it "bang-bang". However, #13 could have argued that what he saw was indeed the best angle to make the proper call, but he didn't do so simply because he was called of by a senior official who he was not accustomed to working with. So he acquiesced and allowed the authorized side judge (Cavaletto) to stick by his call.

Thus Official #13 is the guy I'm really angry with... not so much the league. Except that the league screwed up by not having a group of officials who had worked together as a team throughout the season. That would have made each official more comfortable with challenging another official's opinion about a possible infraction. This guy just caved to Cavaletto.

 

[SaintsSpringBayou]

It'd be naive to think there isn't some type of undercurrent of "fixing". Now I think the issue is the definition of "fixing" or "the fix" which is pretty loose. If an official has a personal bias against a team or person on that team and it's influencing their calls, that could be "the fix". The same could be said about the NFL brass, which has been very evident in the last few years to be favorable to some teams and not others, to either directly be involved with officiating or in the Bounty scandal to unjustly burden one team with penalties and look the other way for other teams - also "the fix".

I think the divide between fans on this grand conspiracy is the definition of "fix". In my opinion, it does exist, but it's not the super obvious flavor of "fixing" like you'd find in boxing, it's more nuanced and comes in many shades.

The tuck rule.
The useless PI review situation.
The "played through the hold" no call.
etc.

 

[SweetT]

But if the League did have a conspiracy against the Saints, why throw those flags against the Viki?

Well, no one told the Vikings to have 12 men in the huddle

 

[SweetT]

Bill I don’t believe that the NFL is just out to get the Saints but bounty gate was absolutely a sham. They know full well that that stuff was going on everywhere. But the focus now is really not about bounty gate, it’s about transparency. I’m all for as much getting exposed as possible and if that includes bounty gate then that’s just lagniappe

And the funny thing about Bountygate:
That reporter dude was alarmed when GW said “Kill the head and the body will die”. Which was a common quote around many NFL locker rooms. AND……back in 2008, the Chiefs had that slogan painted on their locker room wall

Redirect Notice

www.google.com

 

[SweetT]

I know the story. When did I ever say that there have never been any dishonest/cheating officials in the NFL?
I happen to believe that there was (likely) some bias by the ref that blew the call in the Rams NFCCG. I mean, the dude was from Los Angeles.
My guess is that a Saints fan who became an NFL official could possibly show the same bias if he was making a call in a game that would help the Saints.

But that is far different than what I'm talking about here. For me it just gets a bit irritating on this forum when every time a flag is thrown on the Saints in a critical situation someone on here jumps in quickly to post, "The FIX is in!" And then a few pages of dialog is written about how badly Roger Goodell has it in for the Saints.
I know that everyone is still hurt from 2018... but it's pure insanity to believe that every hurtful penalty on us is a "FIX" by the league. I just don't get it.

Didn’t a referee from New Orleans get removed from officiating a Panthers/Saints game one time? I’m sure that did happen. But, the old school Rams official got to officiate the NFCCG. Once again…hmmmmmmmm. See the inconsistencies there

 

[Zack Lee]

And the funny thing about Bountygate:
That reporter dude was alarmed when GW said “Kill the head and the body will die”. Which was a common quote around many NFL locker rooms. AND……back in 2008, the Chiefs had that slogan painted on their locker room wall

Redirect Notice

www.google.com

That’s what bothered me the most about it. To fit the agenda, they had to just pretend that metaphors have never existed. The whole point of a metaphor is to make your point memorable. Nothing more. Even if you have never heard the term before, it’s not hard to figure out “ oh yea, get pressure on the QB is first priority “

 

[Saint Jack]

That’s what bothered me the most about it. To fit the agenda, they had to just pretend that metaphors have never existed. The whole point of a metaphor is to make your point memorable. Nothing more. Even if you have never heard the term before, it’s not hard to figure out “ oh yea, get pressure on the QB is first priority “

The Chiefs didn’t have Mike Cerullo holding a grudge against the franchise.

 

[Bill]

Didn’t a referee from New Orleans get removed from officiating a Panthers/Saints game one time? I’m sure that did happen. But, the old school Rams official got to officiate the NFCCG. Once again…hmmmmmmmm. See the inconsistencies there

Yes. The story as I heard it was that the official from New Orleans had made public statements about his favoritism to the Saints. Thus the league had no choice but to replace him. But without this knowledge I can certainly understand how you might conclude the circumstances were the same... but treated differently by the league.

But were it not for the egregious call by Cavaletto, no one would have even done the research to discover his residence. He didn't publicly show any support to the Rams organization as was the case with the official from New Orleans. In fact there happens to be a lot of NFL officials who live in the southern California area.

But I do wonder why no one ever asks themselves, "What would the officials in that NFCCG have done to ensure a Rams win if the Saints had never run that pass play to TLL?" It's easy to assume they had everything in control, but they didn't even have a clue what the Saints next play call was going to be. It would have been hard for them to micro-manage a victory for the Rams with so little time left on the clock.

 

[Alan12]

Didn’t a referee from New Orleans get removed from officiating a Panthers/Saints game one time? I’m sure that did happen. But, the old school Rams official got to officiate the NFCCG. Once again…hmmmmmmmm. See the inconsistencies there

Yup, but that doesn't fit the narrative and even worse, it was only a replacement official during the referee lockout

NFL pulls replacement ref from Saints' game

One of the replacement officials assigned to the New Orleans-Carolina game Sunday is a Saints fan, according to his Facebook page. After being made aware of the situation this morning, the NFL pulled side judge Brian Stropolo from the officiating crew.

www.espn.com

But were it not for the egregious call by Cavaletto, no one would have even done the research to discover his residence. He didn't publicly show any support to the Rams organization as was the case with the official from New Orleans. In fact there happens to be a lot of NFL officials who live in the southern California area.

And they should never work a Rams, Chargers, 49ers, or Raiders game. Ever.

 

[SigFreudianSlip]

Let’s think of a different angle:
How do the Saints sign free agents to play here knowing that it’s ‘iffy’ at best that the league might allow us a shot at another Lombardi? Do we just tell these kids that the feud is over between us and the league? Do we just look for kids who only care about getting the most money without any hope of a championship? Or do we (heaven forbid) just not let the cat out of the bag that we are a condemned team by the league and leave them to discover this travesty on their own?

What a dilemma we face when looking for some needed talent on a team that really has no chance of success anymore!

Even being facetious you continue to not see the bigger picture. It has nothing to do with an agenda against the Saints. It’s greed. Corruption, etc.

Why not just fan how you want to, and not even worry about this ‘conspricsry’ if it bugs you so much? Life is way too short….

 

[Thunderchild]

Frankly I find all the dialog on the SSF pertaining to a systematic mandate of favoritism by the NFL to be both paranoidal & childish.
"Whaaaaaaa, they don't like my team! Whaaaaaaaa!!!"

I am finding this mindset among many (if not most) of the members to be at least somewhat irritating. And i really don't get it for a LOT of reasons. But I thought I'd attempt to see just how prevalent this thinking is around here by making a poll. It's up to you is you wish to respond to it. I won't ask for identification. It's just to see how far we've all moved into the ranks of conspiracy theorists.

Man, seriously, if that's the worst thing you've got aggravating you, I'll happily trade places with you. In the grand scheme of things people's opinions that don't directly involve us is pretty damn trivial, don't you think?

Go pop a nice cold one, put on some relaxing music and chill. It'll all go away and cease to be an aggravation as soon as you let it. I promise.

 

[Bill]

Even being facetious you continue to not see the bigger picture. It has nothing to do with an agenda against the Saints. It’s greed. Corruption, etc.

Why not just fan how you want to, and not even worry about this ‘conspricsry’ if it bugs you so much? Life is way too short….

Because it's impossible to escape the frustration of this popular mindset around here. It's like no one here wants anyone to be a fan of the game anymore. They just want to complain how the Saints are getting sabotaged by the league all the time. It didn't used to be like this in the forum, but suddenly you can't get away from all the conspiracy talk because it is everywhere you look in the SSF now.

I really do wish we could have two forums. One for all the 'NFL is FAKE' community, and one for those of us who see NFL games as being legitimate.

BTW - The NFL makes big money by letting games play out without having to manipulate football games. Perhaps even MORE by letting the chips fall where they may.

 

[kizzy821]

In what universe do human beings exist without bias.

In what profession do human beings not exercise their power.

In what galaxy do multi-billion dollar entities follow all the rules, all the time.

Like, what kind of existence do people live where they think a massive production like the NFL is not tweaking their product?

All of it is up to chance and happenstance? Everything? All of the calls are made in earnest, from kind-hearted, well-meaning people?