Originally Posted by htismaqe (Post 10262893)

So basically, it's down to "we need a miracle".

Originally Posted by htismaqe (Post 10262897)

There's a reason we haven't drafted a great QB.

Originally Posted by Rausch (Post 10262901)

When did that not appear to be the case?...

Originally Posted by cosmo20002 (Post 10262903)

and that is...

What, the NFL wouldn't allow it?

Originally Posted by cosmo20002 (Post 10262903)

and that is...

What, the NFL wouldn't allow it?

Originally Posted by htismaqe (Post 10262905)

I already told you.

Originally Posted by cosmo20002 (Post 10262914)

I didn't see a reason given as to why the Chiefs haven't drafted a great QB.

But instead of being an ass and typing "I already told you," you could have just said it.

Originally Posted by Bearcat (Post 10262909)

Enough Chiefs fans are satisfied with mediocrity, so there's no point in "wasting" 2-3 years to develop a QB when you can sign a retread/stop gap and get butts in seats.

Buy season tickets.

Originally Posted by cosmo20002 (Post 10262919)

That makes absolutely no sense. You're under the impression that there have been a lot of butts in the seats the last few seasons?

Originally Posted by htismaqe (Post 10262918)

It's a small market. The margin for error, when it comes to filling the stadium, is razor thing.

And yes, you did see a reason. I posted it, ITEMIZED, in post #56.

Even better, you QUOTED post #56.

Why should I have to repeat myself over and over just to satisfy you're utterly stupid line of questioning?

Go back to DC dipshit. You don't belong in a football discussion.

Originally Posted by cosmo20002 (Post 10262929)

So, they haven't drafted a great QB because they are a Midwest team in a smaller market? Because the fans don't care about winning?

This isn't a football discussion. This is a discussion about losers and conspiracy theories and how they follow a team and a sport despite thinking the whole thing is rigged with winners and losers pre-determined.

Originally Posted by htismaqe (Post 10262932)

I never said any of those things. Those are all things you inferred based on things other people said.

I said the cards are stacked against them. And they are.

Originally Posted by cosmo20002 (Post 10262937)

:banghead:

So what is the reason the Chiefs haven't drafted a good QB? Because the cards are stacked against them? What does that mean in regards to drafting a good QB?

Originally Posted by ILChief (Post 10262947)

Man if we'd have only drafted Christian Ponder we'd be a dynasty

Originally Posted by htismaqe (Post 10262940)

Because EVERY decision the Chiefs make, personnel-wise and otherwise, is weighted against those factors. Financials, fan base, etc. It tends over time to produce low risk, low reward behavior.

Originally Posted by cosmo20002 (Post 10262951)

It's generally too early to be drunk, so you have to just be dumb.
I asked why the Chiefs haven't drafted a good QB. Your answer is a bunch of gibberish.

Originally Posted by htismaqe (Post 10262953)

ROFL

You're a bigger ****ing moron than I originally thought.

Originally Posted by cosmo20002 (Post 10262919)

That makes absolutely no sense. You're under the impression that there have been a lot of butts in the seats the last few seasons?

Originally Posted by cosmo20002 (Post 10262684)

Anyway, wouldn't it have made more sense to fix the game for a New York team since they were the city attacked?

Originally Posted by Rausch (Post 10262685)

Exactly...

Originally Posted by Nzoner (Post 10263004)

No,because if you recall the Patriots were introduced before that Superbowl as a team instead of individual players.So here's a team called the Patriots in red,white and blue being introduced as one because "united they stand,divided they fall." What greater story for a nation that had just experienced the worst terrorism attack in its history.

Originally Posted by cosmo20002 (Post 10263024)

A greater story might have been a team from the city that was attacked.

Bottom line is that a very good team won the Super Bowl that year and that team went on to be the best team of that decade.

Originally Posted by htismaqe (Post 10262950)

The best straw man ever.

Originally Posted by ILChief (Post 10263056)

How? You say we can't win because we won't draft a first round qb. There's a qb we could have had. Maybe ej Manuel, geno smith, Brandon weeden, jake locker? I guess those guys would have us headed to the super bowl

Originally Posted by BossChief (Post 10262652)

The worst is when the refs are openly swinging games one way or another.

Sure was a great story to have "The Patriots" winning the superbowl after 9-11.

There was a clip during Bill Billicheats show where he walks up to the refs and they are like "don't worry, we'll protect your guy" or something of the sort.

The purity of the sport has most definitely been compromised.

Originally Posted by Nzoner (Post 10263042)

So which team do you choose?The Patriots were the perfect team for a "feel good story".

Originally Posted by T-post Tom (Post 10262916)

Welcome to a brave not-so-new world. This is a microcosm of modern society. Only one thing can revive you...

http://acidcow.com/pics/20131017/gifs_01.gif

Originally Posted by Nzoner (Post 10263004)

No,because if you recall the Patriots were introduced before that Superbowl as a team instead of individual players.So here's a team called the Patriots in red,white and blue being introduced as one because "united they stand,divided they fall." What greater story for a nation that had just experienced the worst terrorism attack in its history.

Originally Posted by Pestilence (Post 10263067)

It's getting harder and harder to watch football with other "fans". I'm not a "know it all"....but when people tell me that he couldn't have caught it because the WR was "double blocked" or complain every time the offense runs the ball because "the run never works!". .....I want to kill someone.

Originally Posted by Amnorix (Post 10263091)

Not more than having a New York team win it.

As a Patriots fan, I hear this crap all the time, but believe me, you see PLENTY of terrible calls go against you. I think people who are highly attuned or suspicious of it tend to remember every little thing that supports their premise, and forget everything that doesn't.

Originally Posted by Buehler445 (Post 10263103)

What? Who are you watching with?

On a hilarious (perhaps only to me) side note I went to the bar with my buddies in Sidney. I believe the NU game was on PPV. Anyway, they went to watch the game I went to drink. Well they got beat down and some old crusty bastard piped up and informed the bar that they should get a coach that runs the triple option and get some of those Nebraska farm kids on the line.

I laughed. Hard.

Originally Posted by Amnorix (Post 10263094)

Why not the Jets or Giants?

It's all crap. A conspiracy on that level would've come out by now.

Originally Posted by cosmo20002 (Post 10263109)

I hate to go against my fellow Chiefs fans, but I usually spend a little time on the game thread during the game. When there's a questionable call or non-call against the Chiefs, people go nuts. When there's one of those in the Chiefs favor, nothing.

Originally Posted by Amnorix (Post 10263091)

Not more than having a New York team win it.

As a Patriots fan, I hear this crap all the time, but believe me, you see PLENTY of terrible calls go against you. I think people who are highly attuned or suspicious of it tend to remember every little thing that supports their premise, and forget everything that doesn't.

These calls tend to even out over time, so I try not to get too agitated. The non-call against Gronk was, in my view, at least very, very close, and if there's a "get the Pats to the SB" conspiracy, that's an easy one for the refs to call. Instead they pick up the flag.

Yesterday there was, in my view, a pretty chintzy PI call against the Browns that was very helpful in giving the Pats the win. I wonder more about pandering to the HOME team (the Carolina non-call was in Carolina, the PI call yesterday in Foxborough) than "let's figure out how to give the Pats a win."

Originally Posted by Pestilence (Post 10263162)

Don't forget fantasy football. That shit is a multi-million dollar business. I'm not going to talk shit about it because I play it.

Originally Posted by T-post Tom (Post 10262916)

Welcome to a brave not-so-new world. This is a microcosm of modern society. Only one thing can revive you...

http://acidcow.com/pics/20131017/gifs_01.gif

Originally Posted by Sannyasi (Post 10263280)

I don't see why it would make more sense for the NFL to rig games. Why would you risk the integrity of a multi-billion dollar industry to make things slightly easier for the marketing guys?

Strictly from a risk vs. reward standpoint, I don't see how anyone could come to the conclusion that fixing games would be in the best interest of the NFL.

Originally Posted by Sannyasi (Post 10263280)

I don't see why it would make more sense for the NFL to rig games. Why would you risk the integrity of a multi-billion dollar industry to make things slightly easier for the marketing guys?

Strictly from a risk vs. reward standpoint, I don't see how anyone could come to the conclusion that fixing games would be in the best interest of the NFL.

Originally Posted by Rausch (Post 10263307)

For the same reason the NFL and MLB ignored steroids for so long...

Originally Posted by Rain Man (Post 10263321)

Because you have orders to increase revenues by 3.5 percent a year, and the easiest way to do that and keep your multi-million dollar salary is to see the league's biggest stars playing in the games with large viewer ratings potential.

Again, I don't think they're fixing games to ensure who'll win. I think they're working to ensure that games are close and exciting and have last-minute scores to pull out victories, preferably by the league's biggest stars. The league isn't sitting down and saying "Listen, the Saints are going to win this year, and they're going to go 13-3 with losses at Green Bay, Houston, and Chicago." They can't do that. But they can say, "We want a passing offense because passes produce more consumer engagement, and we want our biggest stars to be in exciting games, so let's keep 'em close and give those guys every chance to win."

Originally Posted by Sannyasi (Post 10263367)

I can see why the results in recent years would lead some people to those conclusions. After all, the NFL marketing guys get paid millions of dollars to craft storylines out of these results that appeal to the public and spark interest in the sport. If you are a public relations guy after the Saints win the Super Bowl you'd be stupid not to invoke the triumphant spirit of a team giving hope to a city still coming back from a natural disaster. That shit sells, specifically to the more sentimental viewers that the NFL seems keen on attracting. However, the fact that these narratives exist is not evidence that they have been reverse engineered.

As far as the preferential treatment for super star players, no one can pretend to know the individual psychology of each referee, but I don't see it as a policy. Maybe my memories are different, but I don't recall Brady or Manning needing massive intervention from the refs to win their championships. There are so many individual moments in a game that someone could point to in hindsight, but in reality, isn't it much simpler to admit that these players win because they are damn good?

Originally Posted by ClevelandBronco (Post 10263416)

When I stopped thinking of football as an essential event, a way of life and a tool to measure character and instead began to see it as nothing more than a passive entertainment that didn't require or even particularly care for my individual participation, my life improved. It was not a smooth transition. I still care a little, but I'm getting better.

Good luck with whichever path you decide to take from here, Mr. Rain Man.

Originally Posted by Rain Man (Post 10262628)

So I wrote an essay and felt pretty good about it, and sent it in. I loved football.

Originally Posted by Rain Man (Post 10262628)

I have been a football fan for more than forty years, and it has been one of the foundational interests of my life. I’ve played the sport since childhood, I’ve traveled to games, I’ve purchased jerseys, and I’ve been an unceasing student of statistics and strategies.

I’m now experiencing a crisis of faith, though, and I fear that football’s time is coming to an end for me. The catalyst was something really stupid, but it opened the door to a greater awareness that is quite disturbing and disillusioning.

The initial catalyst was the NFL’s “Together We Make Football” contest. I read about it and thought, “Wow, a nice celebration of football, and Super Bowl tickets would be a great prize”. So I wrote an essay and felt pretty good about it, and sent it in. I loved football.

The entries were posted on the site, and I read a few of them, and frankly, most of the essays and videos were pretty weak. People didn’t follow the rules or think about why a judge would pick them to win. Many of them were just pictures of people in jerseys saying, “We like football. Send us to the Super Bowl!”

But I saw another pattern, too, and it got me to thinking. There seemed to be a lot of people using disabilities or illness as an argument, particularly among their kids. “I had a lung infection. Send me to the Super Bowl!” “My son has spina bifida. Send us to the Super Bowl!” For the most part, they were not well-written or well-produced. They were requests for pity, and frankly I found them kind of off-putting. They seemed almost more like panhandling than an essay about why those people love football.

As I skimmed through, them, though, I found myself getting agitated. I’m a market research guy, and I found myself starting to read them from a marketing standpoint. I would find myself thinking that some NFL public-relations person would probably like this angle or that angle. “Hey, a disabled kid. Wouldn’t that be a great winner to use for marketing?” (Sorry if that’s insensitive, but it’s how p.r. people think.)

I looked through some more entries, and thought, “If I was a callous, cynical s.o.b., I’d bet that the five winners of this contest will be a disabled kid, an attractive woman, an inner-city African American, a veteran or active duty soldier, and then whoever writes the best essay." And then I immediately felt bad for being a callous, cynical s.o.b. and I submitted my essay.

The NFL announced the ten finalists recently. Three of the ten stories are interesting and speak to football. Three. The other seven are incredibly lame and contrived, and I think one is actually insulting to any longtime football fan. My cynical side picked wrong on the military guy, but if you look at the videos it’s pretty clear that this contest was not about celebrating football. We are not hearing the ten best essays about how football shapes and impacts people’s lives, and how they love football. We are hearing manufactured stories that are nothing more than a cynical marketing ploy to reach pre-defined target markets and serve as a p.r. tool.

Now, I mean no offense against the people in those videos when I say that. I have no doubt that nearly all of them like football, and that most of them love football. It’s not about them, or the fact that I wrote an epic, soul-shattering, thought-inspiring essay that was not selected since I don’t fit the any of the NFL’s market expansion segments.

What it really drove home was that the NFL is a business these days, and nothing more. I wanted a contest where I could write about football and how it has shaped my life, and where I could read about what it has done for others. That was what I was sold. Instead, I was used as a pawn so the NFL could sell its business.

Now, that thing is just a contest. I lose contests all the time. My years of playing and watching football have taught me to lose with grace, and I hope the winners of that contest have a great time. But it really made me think about who’s running the NFL now. I wanted the judges of that contest to be people who love football themselves, people who got into the business because they grew up passing and catching and tackling. I wanted the judges to be people who know who Otto Graham is. Who know Johnny Robinson and Doug Buffone and even John Jefferson, and who can tell you about the Sneaker Game or Christmas Day of 1971. I wanted the judges to be football people who understand what the story of football is about.

The judges of this contest were not football people. It is clear and obvious that they were p.r. people who said, “Okay, give me a person in this market segment and a person in that market segment and two more from that one, and let’s build stories around them." Those people probably don’t know Lawrence Taylor from Opie Taylor.

The NFL is run by businesspeople now. Lamar Hunt is gone. Bud Adams is gone. George Halas is gone. The league is run by lawyers and marketing people and advertisers. You could take them out of the NFL and exchange them with the industry leaders of soft drinks or smart phones, and it wouldn’t make a darn bit of difference. They’re selling a product, and I don’t think they really care what that product is.

And then I look at the games I am watching these days. I see rules changes that are designed for marketing value rather than sport. They’ve done the marketing analysis. If there’s more scoring, more casual fans will watch. If there are more passes, quarterbacks will become bigger celebrities. The games are cartoonish now, unbalanced scoring orgies because scoring lets casual fans know when to cheer. Defenses are being made irrelevant and quarterbacks are merely playing catch on their way to another 400 or 500 yards of showmanship. P.T. Barnum loves the aerial circus even as students of the game cringe.

And I am finally seeing the more sinister side of the business plan. I see blatant phantom penalties against the opponents of quarterbacks like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, two of the highest-visibility products that the league sells, penalties that are critical in letting their teams win and continue playing as the TV audiences surge in January. If you’re running a business, you act to maximize your revenues, and Peyton Manning holding a Super Bowl trophy will do that a lot more than Alex Smith or Nick Foles doing so.

I don’t think the players rig games. It’s realistically impossible to do that in a high-level sport on a leaguewide basis. But Tom Brady is good. If Tom Brady gets four extra downs to win a game because of a pass interference call, he’s probably going to win. You can’t rig games, but you can tilt odds with just a few critical officiating decisions.

Maybe I’m waxing nostalgic, but I don’t think the NFL always had this attitude. Back when Hunt and Adams and Halas were around, the league was a competitive sport. Those owners loved the game and they wanted to win. The money was big, but it wasn’t insane. Look at the ownership and league management today. Are they football fans who want to win, or are they businesspeople who want to maximize profit? The cash flows are enormous.

I have been a Chiefs fan my whole life. In the modern world, that is naïve and Quixotic. The Chiefs are a small-market team and none of the players do national commercials. From a marketing perspective they support a middle-class fan base that is much smaller than most other markets. There’s not much marketing value in Alex Smith holding aloft a Lombardi trophy, and in fact there’s a huge opportunity cost if it’s him and not Peyton Manning. The league’s management team does not want Alex Smith or Jay Cutler or Jake Locker to win. Maybe they’ll do it, because a football field remains a chaotic place, but if so it will be against the wishes of the marketing braintrust of the NFL, and therefore against odds that have become more steep than one team in 32.

Sometime in the past twenty or thirty years, football evolved, and not in a good way. Any given game is still fun to watch. The players still try hard to win. On a tactical basis I enjoy the show and the athletes. But on a higher level I have reluctantly concluded that professional football has ceased to be a competitive sport. It’s an entertainment conglomerate, and just like the tables in Vegas the odds are stacked in the house’s favor. The house exists to make money.

I’ll probably continue to watch football. It’s a tradition. The games are fun. But at this point I’m reluctantly going to go into it knowing that it’s not what it appears. It’s a TV show. I’m not going to buy merchandise to support a TV show, and I’m not going to pay hundreds of dollars to watch a TV show live. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll go out and live life a little more on Sunday afternoons.

There’s a semi-famous internet clip of an audience member at a professional wrestling show. He’s given the microphone and thanks the wrestlers for the “all they’ve done to their bodies”, and then tearfully says, “It’s still real to me, dammit!” Well, I’d like to thank NFL players like Johnny Robinson and Doug Buffone and John Jefferson for all they’ve done to their bodies to entertain me. I have loved football and it’s been a great run. But it’s not real to me any more.

Originally Posted by ClevelandBronco (Post 10263416)

When I stopped thinking of football as an essential event, a way of life and a tool to measure character and instead began to see it as nothing more than a passive entertainment that didn't require or even particularly care for my individual participation, my life improved. It was not a smooth transition. I still care a little, but I'm getting better.

Good luck with whichever path you decide to take from here, Mr. Rain Man.

Originally Posted by Rain Man (Post 10262628)

I have been a football fan for more than forty years, and it has been one of the foundational interests of my life....

And I am finally seeing the more sinister side of the business plan. I see blatant phantom penalties against the opponents of quarterbacks like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, two of the highest-visibility products that the league sells, penalties that are critical in letting their teams win and continue playing as the TV audiences surge in January. If you’re running a business, you act to maximize your revenues, and Peyton Manning holding a Super Bowl trophy will do that a lot more than Alex Smith or Nick Foles doing so..

Originally Posted by Tombstone RJ (Post 10263529)

So how do you explain all the lousy, bad, horrible calls and non calls on the Broncos/Ravens playoff game last year?

You had me right up until you start waxing on about how it's all rigged for Manning and clearly last year's playoff game was very much not the case. If anything, the NFL rigged it so the killer LBer Ray cut-them-up Lewis got is fairwell ring right?

Originally Posted by Rain Man (Post 10263534)

Ray Lewis practically has his own show on NFL Network, and they knew that Manning would be back for another year. It was their last chance to make Killer Ray into a legend, and they obviously believe that he has marketing value.

As I've mentioned before, I'm not being anti-Bronco on this topic. If it works better to screw you guys over, they will. It's all about return. You guys just have a great hedge fund in Manning, and at some point it will pay off.

Originally Posted by Tombstone RJ (Post 10263575)

so the NFL really, really wanted to honor a defensive player in the age of it's-all-about-the-offense!!? And Flacco, let's not forget his kind of wonderful, amirite?

You are 100% correct about this together we make football promo crap. It's totally rigged and the winners are not picked on their stories, nor their love. They are picked based on how much it will sell to the market place of women and minorities. So you are right in that regard!

Originally Posted by Bearcat (Post 10263120)

I don't really believe it, but if there was a conspiracy, I don't think they would need to influence it that much. The Giants didn't make the playoffs that year. The Jets did as a wildcard, so you could have the NYC team or a team named the Patriots win it all. And it's not like it's the end of the world if one of them doesn't make it, but a small influence (maybe a big call in the conference championship game :shrug: ) could go a long way.

Originally Posted by Rain Man (Post 10263556)

Okay, here's my essay.

The rules of the contest are apparently not available online any more, but in essence the mission was to write about why you love football, and what it means to you. It was a 1,000 word limit (or you could submit a video), and they basically said something like, "We're looking for essays that present a story that we can tell in a three-minute video" or something like that.

I envisioned it as them reading the essay and producing a video supporting it, and apparently their vision was that they wanted a video that featured the author. So I understand not winning and frankly am glad that I didn't, because I really wouldn't want to be featured in a video. My goal was to write an essay that would describe the typical arc of football in a human life, using myself as an example. But anyway, here's my essay just for grins.

In a quiet corner of my house, displayed on a high shelf, is a football.

It probably doesn’t have much monetary value, though it may be an antique now. It’s a beautiful aged leather, circumscribed by the white stripes of its era, and it’s inscribed with the machine-etched autograph of Gale Sayers. The laces are chewed up by past dogs who tackled it, and it won’t hold air any more, but that doesn’t really matter. It’s the only item from my childhood that I keep on display.

My uncle gave me the football in the Christmas of 1971, when I was eight years old. I was already an avid football fan, and I did all the normal football things that a kid did. I collected football cards, memorized stats, and was a sixty-minute man on the playground. I lived and died by the fortunes of my beloved Kansas City Chiefs. But I did not own an actual football, and I guess he recognized the gap that winter. He gave me his.

It would be nice to say that this gift unlocked an athletic greatness in me, that I found fame or fortune from its roots. It would be a wonderful story to say that it helped me get a college scholarship or date the homecoming queen, or perhaps that I caught the winning touchdown in some game that really, really mattered. Football has certainly been that story for many people.

But in my case, none of that is true. The reality is that I was a skinny kid with glasses, and athletic greatness was never in the cards for me. My greatest football feats, my touchdowns and interceptions and booming punts, came on vacant lots or playgrounds against other skinny kids with glasses. My field goals were scored over a clothesline. No fan ever saw my glories and no scoreboard ever recorded them.

But as important as they were at the time, in the end it wasn’t the touchdowns or the interceptions or the booming punts that really mattered.

You see, my uncle didn’t do this gift halfway. It was a high-quality football that he gave me, not some cheap toy. It had an ideal friction in the leather grain, and it was perfectly formed to produce spirals, even from small hands. If you played football, you loved this ball, and that was the key.

We moved a lot, so I was always the new kid. I went to eight different schools in twelve years. I was always starting over, regularly touching down in a place I’d never been before. But two facts held true no matter where I landed. Everybody played football, and I owned the best football in the neighborhood.

I learned that the best way to start anew was to show up with the football, whether it was at recess or at the park or in some field, and ask to play. I’d find the kid who looked like the leader and toss him the football. He’d look at it, grip it, and say, “Yeah, you can play.” And then he’d tell the other kids, “Let’s use this ball.” It worked when I was eight, and it worked when I was 18, and it even worked at my first company picnic after college.

At that point, the hard part was done. After that, whenever the neighborhood guys played football, my football was unequivocally the ball of choice. And if they wanted to use my football, I came with the deal. An interception here, a punt return there, and pretty soon they forgot I was the new kid. A good football and hustle would earn my way into any group. Football was my passport.

The football itself had an active career of about 20 years, and in that time I suspect that five hundred different people threw it, caught it, carried it, or hit someone who did. Nearly every best friend I’ve ever had has thrown that football to me at some point, along with a lot of people I met once and probably a few people I couldn’t stand, though I tend to forget about those. The friends were the important part, and that football helped them recognize that skinny new kids with glasses could have something to offer. I would be a different person today without that football, and I would be a different person without those games in vacant lots.

The last time I threw or caught the ball in a game was when I was 30 years old. After that, it became harder to get a group together, and the ball started losing air, and eventually it found its way onto the shelf. Neither of us has seen action on the field in twenty years, and we probably never will again. So why is the ball there, still within easy reach? Maybe it’s because it makes me smile whenever I see it, that it takes me back to a golden time of my life where I could run from sunup to sundown and bounce up from a blindside hit. Or maybe I’m secretly hoping for one more game.

I’m fifty years old now. I have no children, and my life has taken me far from those who know my history. Some day I’ll die and someone will clean out my basement and they’ll either throw the football away or they’ll sell it for a few bucks. No one will know its power, or how it helped to mold my life.

Like me, this football will never be famous. It will never be in a museum, or have its story told other than this simple essay. Like me, it will someday be gone and forgotten. But I hope and believe that somewhere on that same day, some other kid will be given a high-quality football that offers a perfect spiral, and the story will start again. It’s not really about the ball.

Originally Posted by Nzoner (Post 10263590)

tuck rule :)

Originally Posted by Bearcat (Post 10263440)

... but, if the conference championship rolls around and there's a chance a team named the Patriots could make it to the SB right after 9/11, or the SB rolls around and the Saints have a chance to win it after Katrina, I don't think it's a big stretch the NFL would have something tucked away for such occasions.

Originally Posted by Pam Oliver's Forehead (Post 10263597)

Rain Man just needs the Chiefs to find their own franchise QB.

Then it will seem "more real."

I have felt like this team has had 0 shot to win a SB since Green left, and it has dampened my enthusiasm for the team significantly. The Chiefs won 45-10 Sunday and I felt like saying "oh, that's nice."

Originally Posted by Rain Man (Post 10263534)

Ray Lewis practically has his own show on NFL Network, and they knew that Manning would be back for another year. It was their last chance to make Killer Ray into a legend, and they obviously believe that he has marketing value.

As I've mentioned before, I'm not being anti-Bronco on this topic. If it works better to screw you guys over, they will. It's all about return. You guys just have a great hedge fund in Manning, and at some point it will pay off.

Originally Posted by InChiefsHell (Post 10262772)

I actually think that was more of an opportunistic thing rather than a fix. Here are the Saints, looking like they might win the Superbowl...what can we market here...AH! Katrina!

As Cosmo stated, it's too long after the actual event to link it to a fix. Rather, it was a chance for the NFL to exploit a story. They do that shit all the time.

Originally Posted by htismaqe (Post 10262884)

FWIW, I'm not suggesting that the NFL is rigged or blatantly biased (I do think it's inherently biased in some cases).

I think the combination of city, fans, ownership, NFL structure, and several other factors are going to make it nearly impossible for the Chiefs to win a Super Bowl.

Originally Posted by Bearcat (Post 10262909)

Enough Chiefs fans are satisfied with mediocrity, so there's no point in "wasting" 2-3 years to develop a QB when you can sign a retread/stop gap and get butts in seats.

Buy season tickets.

Originally Posted by Sannyasi (Post 10263328)

The NFL still ignores steroids because the fans don't care about them. Everyone knows that most of the players on every team are doing it.

Originally Posted by notorious (Post 10262752)

Tuck Rule was as blatant as it gets.

Originally Posted by HemiEd (Post 10263821)

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

Originally Posted by MahiMike (Post 10263765)

I do believe the refs are paid by the NFL to swing the games for marketing. Just watching yesterday's games shows you that. The Ravens and Pats games were crazy biased.

Originally Posted by Just Passin' By (Post 10263886)

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.