Quote:
Originally Posted by TimBone
Dude. Listen. No one is arguing that the refs don't influence games with bad calls. Yes, sometimes the refs suck ass at their jobs. And yeah, they need to be held to a higher standard. No one is going to disagree with you on that.
This thread is about refs purposely influencing games for rigging purposes.
Unless that's what you're arguing in your post. Are you arguing that the best way the league found to rig the Bengals-Raiders game was to have the officials "accidentally" blow a whistle mid-play and then act like it never happened?
Is that where you're at?
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I'm "at the point" that says we don't know that the NFL does or doesn't have part time employees that influence games using the very gray area of whistles. The league has done a lot to make sure certain calls aren't reviewable (part of the gray area), all by a group of people who don't ever appear to be graded and disciplined when they make mistakes.
So when people go to the extreme of saying "it's rigged" (a harsh thing to say) that's one thing, but by the NFL not having any apparent review process of their officials, and if (if....) there is one, it doesn't seem to result in any disciplinary actions for those infractions (making bad calls, calling a game unequally, and supposedly missing calls).
Why? Why is it that these people are evidently above scrutiny? And if people they are scrutinized by their employer, show me proof.
My thought is that they (the officials) don't get specific orders from the league, that would be trackable. I'm more of the mindset that says that in the process of becoming an NFL official that those who are selected aren't solely selected on their knowledge of the complex rule book, and here comes the tinfoil hat comment (!!!), I think they limit the candidates on the tendencies they shown toward understanding not only the rules, but also the business of entertainment.
Yeah, wild, I know... But when you look at the totality of what we see, not that there aren't exceptions, we see week in and week out
a lot (but not 100%) officiating that tends to favor the NFL's bottom line and promote NFL-favorable story lines. From blowing whistles if a favored QB gets hit but letting other QBs get pummeled, to calling ticky-tac DPI calls while ignoring WR push-offs.
Again, I'm only suggesting the people who have the ability to greatly influence the outcome of games with their whistles and flags, don't appear to be held to a standard by their employer. The very group that's in charge of holding other league employees to standards. That's an issue.
In before: "Because I have no answer for that (admitting that there's no proof that the NFL holds their officials to any standard, much less a high standard), I'll just claim you're wearing a tinfoil hat and should never watch football again."
"Proof" goes both ways...