Football and My Crisis of Faith.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

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."

I should note that my comments are not intended to disrespect the Patriots or even the Broncos. As an older fan, I know that the Patriots were an unsuccessful franchise for decades. It's not like the league particularly wants the Patriots or the Broncos to win because they're the Patriots or Broncos. They're just the teams that have the stars and thus the most revenue potential at this point in time. If fortunes shift and another team gets the stars (and hopefully a team in a big market), the Patriots may sink back into the pack. However, given that they represent a big market, they'll do it slower than a Carolina team or a Cincinnati team. The modern NFL industry doesn't want revenues to shrink in bigger markets.

That said, I've long hated the Broncos for a variety of reasons. The Elway thing started it, and then the salary cap violations, the foreign substances, and so on. But they've got it figured out. They're going to win, and they're going to win because they understand the business of the NFL. Elway is the prototype and the genesis of using football purely as a vehicle for wealth and fame against the best interest of the sport, because he was the first one who did it. He understands that you don't earn championships in the modern NFL, you arrange them. You buy a quarterback who fits the fame model, or if you are a quarterback you don't go to a weak team and you use your power to force your way onto a playoff-caliber team. That's the way the industry works now, and the Broncos will thrive despite their small market because they embrace that.