You mean like Andy Reid coming back to Philly? The Manning brothers playing each other?

I personally don't think the NFL is fixed, but I have had many doubts about "part time" refs with so much money involved.

Just on a sort of side note - When you write for contests like these you sort of have to know what they want. They want hack. That want kitsch. So, you have to give them what they want.
The person in charge of screening the entries is probably some 32 year old female marketing grad who doesn't know a thing about football.

I don't blame the NFL for that.

I think the fan base has shown very clearly to ownership how impatient they are and how much they hate losing.

Being in a small market doesn't allow for all of the "extra" demand for the seats that would be available, while that star franchise QB that they draft learns to win.

Consequently ownership is not going to draft a QB and they will keep bringing in the QB rejects that are capable of getting this team to 10 and 6 for the fans to keep the dream alive. It just may work again someday.

I for one, have really enjoyed this season now that I have accepted this.

This, or slightly above mediocrity at 10 and 6 please. Wildcard!

This is true across all sports, pretty much. The leagues just want enough of a policy/system to avoid being perceived as ignoring it or in the bag allowing it, but ultimately they just hope there's never a scandal...

They properly applied the tuck rule, so I'm not sure what you think was blatant, other than the officials blatantly making the proper call. That same rule, properly applied, had cost the Patriots a game against the Jets earlier in the season.

Exactly.

I'm dubious. How would that decision be made, who would make the proposition to the refs, how would monies be transferred, and who would be keeping the books on that illegal activity? A lot of possibilities for an errant leak and total chaos within not only the NFL but also a huge hit on the Las Vegas betting casinos once trust in the game had been breached. I just don't think the risk would be worth the gain.

Don't let facts get in the way of the conspiracy theorists in this thread.

The league is biased towards Peyton Manning/Brady, but Manning has won one Super Bowl and had a plethora of one and dones in the playoffs and Brady hasn't won a Super Bowl in 8 years. :shrug:

Green Bay, the smallest market in the NFL, has recently won a Super Bowl. Rainman, you wrote a great essay and it sucks that the contest was looking for something more marketable, but stop being an idiot about the rest of the game.

Enjoyed the essay and the overall discussions in this thread. I don't think there is a conspiracy. It's just horrible officiating.

Were I sitting in the board room discussing this as a corporate marketing concern, I would address the list of several valid points in your opening statement. With grace and tact I would express sentimental understanding and empathy for your essay and the validity of your feelings about your childhood.

Then I would offer some tails to the heads side of the coin you have shown. Manning or Brady going out in a blaze of glory with confetti avalanches over a hoisted Lombardi. Ideally they'll cheer for an AFC championship game between the two. This is true.

A true marketing genius sees the value in the underdog winning from a league perspective from my view. A Chiefs championship, going from 2-14 to MVP, inspires hope in 20 fan bases of mediocre and otherwise feces covered teams. Marketing campaigns abound about next season, possibilities, new hope born in the spring....Hell, I'd throw a clip of a newly born fawn standing for the first time into the power point.

Then, I'd jump on the table shout that I didn't date the homecoming queen but I shagged her sister and spike your football into the condiment platter you've been so kind as to provide for our meeting.

Boom. roasted.

One word: Illuminati.

I'll try, but it's hard to stop being an idiot at my age. I've been doing it for far too long.

Something tells me Baltimore would never have won a SB if people in the NFL gave a shit about what city the team was from.

Sorry about the name calling. I've just read several posts over the past couple of days talking about NFL conspiracies and they make this fanbase sound like a bunch of whiners.

There isn't enough reward to warrant the risk of purposely influencing games through league mandates.