Vikings No Call, Integrity of the Game and the Saints (2 Viewers)

[St. Geezy]

Los Angeles isn’t getting behind the Rams the way cities usually get behind winning football teams.

In fact, the L.A. market actually had a lower television rating for the Super Bowl than the country as a whole. According to Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, the Los Angeles market had a 44.6 overnight rating, which is actually lower than the 44.9 overnight rating for the country as a whole.

It’s just about unheard of, not only for the Super Bowl but for any sporting event, for the market of one of the two teams in the game to get a lower rating than the country as a whole. (For comparison, Boston had a 57.4 overnight rating.)

The good news for the NFL is, that 44.6 overnight rating was the highest in Los Angeles for a Super Bowl since 1996. And the NFL badly wants to see interest in football increase in Los Angeles, because it’s the second-biggest market in America. Los Angeles has 5.3 million television households while St. Louis has 1.2 million, and that’s why the Rams moved back to Los Angeles from St. Louis. Even if the people who live in St. Louis, on average, care more about football than the people who live in Los Angeles.

L.A. market had lower TV rating for Super Bowl than country as a whole

Los Angeles isn't getting behind the Rams the way cities usually get behind winning football teams.

www.nbcsports.com

That market just isn't normal, at all. The league wants to change that. It's a priority.

 

[St. Geezy]

I’m not arguing that L.A. hasn’t been a priority. It has been since the Rams originally left.
And the “L.A. relocation” rumors have gone through so many franchises that it’s comical.
But seeing the franchise flourish doesn’t mean fixing/helping the Rams be good.
It’s the stadium. Having events like the Draft and possibly the Combine. NFL Studios.

Enough on the game-fixing angle. I am focused on the importance of the L.A. market to the league, which you steadfastly have debated against for some reason.

There is no way for either us to prove game fixing yay or nay, so that's not worth wasting our time on.

With all due respect, you're becoming a moving target.

 

[Saint Jack]

Enough on the game-fixing angle. I am focused on the importance of the L.A. market to the league, which you steadfastly have debated against for some reason.

There is no way for either us to prove game fixing yay or nay, so that's not worth wasting our time on.

With all due respect, you're becoming a moving target.

I’m not debating the importance of a L.A. team.
But the on field success of the L.A. teams isn’t tied to League wide success as it is in the NBA with the Lakers or MLB with the Yankees/Dodgers.

 

[Saint Jack]

Enough on the game-fixing angle. I am focused on the importance of the L.A. market to the league, which you steadfastly have debated against for some reason.

There is no way for either us to prove game fixing yay or nay, so that's not worth wasting our time on.

With all due respect, you're becoming a moving target.

If the Panthers and the Jaguars make a Super Bowl, there are no thinkpieces about how it’s bad for the League.
Like that was written and said about when the Diamondbacks made it to the World Series last year.

 

[504gks]

So, as said in the game thread, I'm not going to cry any rivers for the Vikings not getting their obvious Facemask call that, I think, should have been reviewable because it was a scoring play (Safety). What I can see is that it was all over the media since Thursday night.

As we've been victim of in the past, the NFL referees tend to favor large market teams they are trying to grow like Los Angeles and they tend to favor players "Posterboys" like Patrick Mahomes and, previously, Tom Brady.

My first point is going to be that it's absolutely absurd in a day where we can do so many amazing things with Computer Vision AI that things like this impact games (and Vegas $$). I think we're near a tipping point on the "There should be human error" argument.

My second point is: It's a good time to play against a Los Angeles team. I don't think the Chargers are the 'darling' like the Rams are but... either way I can't see the refs daring to allow any shenanigans tomorrow. If anything, I think they lean out way on any "ties" to save face from that debacle.

Amazing all the coverage this got. Horrible no call, but they were still down by 8, in their own endzone, in a regular season game. We were going to the Super bowl

 

[Cajun Mike]

Yeah, a missed facemask call should definitely be reviewable. More simply stated, an official in the booth who is watching the broadcast and seeing what the rest of the viewing audience is seeing should simply call down to the field and say, “Hey guys, you missed an obvious facemask penalty. Let’s throw the flag on that play.”

I mean, they can stop the game and review for the exact spot where a runner goes out of bounds, why not do the same for a play that’s going to make all the conspiracy theorists have a field day?

But let’s not make more of the no-call than what it was. A MISSED call. There are dozens of missed calls every game. The officials simply cannot see everything. (And in most cases fans don’t WANT the officials to call every infraction that happens on the field.

I believe if the rule was in the books for reviewing facemask penalties, that review would have been initiated and the penalty would have been enforced. But what DIDN’T happen on Thursday night was an attempt to favor one team over another. Even Goodell isn’t stupid enough to deliberately sabotage one of his personal favorites teams.

Try to accept the fact that not everything happens for a reason.

Officials in the booth should be able to make calls. But Roger won’t let that happen.

 

[los226]

The reality is that a penalty could be called on every play. They’ll never try to perfect the process.

 

[Saintman2884]

The Rams were in L.A. for over fifty years. A half century.
The owner at the time just wanted to go back to her hometown.
The relocation to St. Louis was unpopular even at the time.

Jack, you’re a good guy and we agree on most issues on SR and I do enjoy discussing things with you on EE and SSF but Geezy does have a bit of a point regarding the reasons why Frontierre originally took the Rams from L.A. to St. Louis after the 1994 offseason.


Frontierre would’ve stayed in L.A. (hometown desires be damned) if L.A. or Orange County officials agreed to build her a new stadium in Hollywood Park or make renovations or more concessions to the power-sharing agreement between Rams and California Angels at old Anaheim Stadium (Rams originally moved to Anaheim in 1980 to share Anaheim Stadium after Dodgers said no to them sharing Dodgers in Chavez Ravine in East L.A.) Let’s just say Anaheim Stadium wasn’t a good fit from a football dimension standpoint and after 15 seasons, Rams were tired of sharing it.


Problem was, Orange County was near-bankrupt and obviously county leaders weren’t open or widely-embracing to fund a new publicly-funded stadium despite super-agent Leigh Steinberg (and Rams fan) best attempts to keep them. Plus, Rams hadn’t had a winning season since 1989, looked to be a rebuilding team for several more seasons (which turned out to be true also), and even during the 1980’s, I wouldn’t categorize Rams as a particularly well-run, financially stable organization if you listen to ex-Rams like Eric Dickerson, Vince Ferragamo, Fred Dryer, Drew Hill or Jerome Bettis. Let’s just say Georgia Frontierre has had more then a few “red flags” and little “rumors” that you MAY or MAY NOT have heard about.


L.A. still probably could’ve kept both of those teams if the Raiders or Rams had decided to share a new stadium but notorious NFL rebel and owner Al Davis wasn’t about sharing any new stadium with other NFL teams (“Let them build their own stadiums” I think was his response) and Oakland city leaders lured him back with promises of more money, Coliseum renovations, and what Davis interpreted was a faint promise for a future new stadium in Oakland (which neither he nor the Raiders ever got). So, in summer of 1995, Davis returned to Oakland.

 

[ELLIASJWILLIAMS]

Integrity of the game will never be confirmed as questionable because human error is accepted collectively and insinuating that something is planned or predetermined isn't.

The league won't adapt certain technologies that would improve the game because it would take "human error" out of it and the shade it provides.

Fact is, if you're playing well enough, human error can be overcome. An ideal example of this in play is ThanksGiving 2013 Ravens vs Steelers. Tomlin gets caught looiking at the jumbotron, doesn't realize he's on the sideline the return is happening on and nearly trips Jacoby Jones arguably stopping a return TD.

The Ravens still won that game despite the human error.