Football and My Crisis of Faith.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Sannyasi

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.

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."