Quote:
Originally Posted by suzzer99
They clearly made defensive holding a point of emphasis for that Super Bowl, just like they did for the Chiefs/Rams Monday night game where the assigned ref crew was mysteriously replaced right before the game. The new crew came out and called multiple phantom defensive holding calls on the Rams' first drive, which resulted in a crazy offensive shootout and exciting near comeback by Mahomes.
The plan didn't work in the Super Bowl because of Eric Fisher's achilles.
There's a difference between a shadowy conspiracy rigging games and the league rewarding refs who steer the kind of games they want. They never have to say anything. It works the same way in big corporations. Your boss always has ways of communicating what they want, even if they can't come right out and say it for some reason (plausible deniability usually).
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The NFL doesn't need officials to "steer" games in order to get the result they want. The league has done everything it can to increase parity, and that's how we get so many close/exciting games.