The Conspiracy Narrative Around Here (2 Viewers)

[Bill]

I guess Drew is on it as well with the INT he threw in OT.

Actually the officials missed a personal foul on Fowler which caused that INT by Drew. Just a bunch of officials not doing their job very well.

 

[sammymvpknight]

Just a question…if the NFL imploded how much would you miss it?

 

[2fya]

Just a question…if the NFL imploded how much would you miss it?

Would be devastating for me.... my whole family gets together for sundays all day to watch nfl. We aren't big saints fans (don't shoot me), but we just love to watch all day with each other.

We all play fantasy and pick em' as a family. So yea for me it would be a big piece of my life missing

 

[Bill]

Just a question…if the NFL imploded how much would you miss it?

It's an enjoyable pastime, but I would get over it if the NFL failed. Easier still if college football remained.
What would make that easier for me is that I have already come to expect that the league eventually will go the way of the dodo. It's demise is certainly going to make things rough for a lot of support businesses.

 

[Saint Jack]

It's an enjoyable pastime, but I would get over it if the NFL failed. Easier still if college football remained.
What would make that easier for me is that I have already come to expect that the league eventually will go the way of the dodo. It's demise is certainly going to make things rough for a lot of support businesses.

IMO, it’s more likely that a semi pro league will pop up that can play players and significantly take a big piece of of the NCAA.

 

[Bill]

IMO, it’s more likely that a semi pro league will pop up that can play players and significantly take a big piece of of the NCAA.

As long as it's real.

 

[MarCowMar]

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.

Yes, but not to the degree your question implies.

Imagine you're a principal at a school where a kid does something bad. Now imagine that kid is a star on a sports team. As principal, would you behave the same way?

My experience is a lot of people say they would, but you see how this manifests in the real world. The star gets preferential treatment because to punish them would destroy something that was valuable to the entire school. Goodell and the NFL are the same way when it comes to disciplining teams--they go easy on teams/player/personnel when it benefits them. There doesn't have to be a nefarious plot--it's simple economics and social pressure.

What's ridiculous is to portray an obvious economic motivation as paranoia.

 

[Thunderchild]

Just a question…if the NFL imploded how much would you miss it?

Don't honestly know. I've shared football with family for as log as I can remember. Now we've started sharing Pelicans basketball, so there would still be that. Maybe college ball? Maybe NASCAR?

I just don't know, but things would certainly change.

 

[CowtownSaint]

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.

I love your posts Bill, your always a highlight when I log on. But I think it is clear there is evidence of the NFL swaying certain things in certain ways.

I’m going to be full on for our boys and have always maintained we can ride above bad calls, no matter how timely, but I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that the Saints specifically have had a trend of very judgment calls go against us.

Is there an agenda there? I believe there likely is, in a sense, but I also see how other games are called and I very often really question calls in other matchups that seem to sway a game one way or the other.

There is influence forsure. If you asked me if I felt we had a lot of influence against us in the last decade? I would emphatically say yes! But I would also say we aren’t the only ones.

It may be that the officials just can’t keep up with the game, but I believe that probably the easy answer here. There is certainly a little something going on.

 

[BreesusSaves]

So e-mails are leaked showing the Redskins and Pash having conversations about officiating favors, game outcomes, and more lenient punishments that favor the Redskins, but somehow we're the crazy ones for thinking the NFL is NOT what we thought it was? We're also supposed to believe that Gruden's nuclear e-mails were only viewpoints Gruden had and no one else agreed with him, even though it took an investigation to even find the e-mails? You really expect me to believe all these people Gruden sent these e-mails to, saw them, said "I strongly disagree with Gruden" and then decided NOT to report it to ANYONE?

C'mon man. It is brutally obvious that something is very wrong within the NFL. It is no longer tin foil hat stuff, the Gruden/Pash/WFT investigation is becoming the crack in the dam.

 

[TheRamboTX]

Bill, does it bother you at all that the NFL argued (successfully) in court that they should be treated similarly to pro wrestling as pure entertainment and not as a fair sport?

It sounds like you're agreeing that there is bias. If you also recognize that changes in emphasis on enforcing the rules have impacts on games, then I'd suggest not worrying about the nuance of whether it rises to the level of official corruption/conspiracy or not.

To me, if the league does not actively work to make sure bias and unevenness are both precluded, then that's just as bad as corruption.

In any event, I hope you continue to enjoy the games and SR!

 

[SuperSaint]

A 'professional' NFL official should NEVER miss a call like what happened to us against the Rams, and no one will ever convince me that there wasn't something extra going on there.

 

[Gekler722]

A 'professional' NFL official should NEVER miss a call like what happened to us against the Rams, and no one will ever convince me that there wasn't something extra going on there.

This should be the red flag for most. All of the power and money that the NFL has, the technology that is available yet the officiating and review of calls just can't seem to get obvious things right. Why is that? I wager that it's because the NFL don't want to get it right. As many others have said, there is so much money, influence from betting, financial incentives for bigger markets to succeed over smaller ones, etc. Is it all pre-determined like pro wrestling? Nah, too many moving parts and you know people would talk. Does the NFL like to keep the officiating fast and loose and just fallible enough to have plausible deniability as to thwart such accusations of fixing? I say absolutely.

 

[BarBar]

I don't know if there is a conspiracy AGAINST the saints, but there is 100 percent a plan to prop up Tom Brady as some kind of hero. No doubt it my mind. He got ALL the calls in NE, and now suddenly that he is in Tampa, he gets all the calls there too.

 

[Grant Backer Two]

Cleat Bateman sp? The ref who has a son who is a major Falcons fan. Threw 412 flags against us, when we played the Fal-cants.