TwistedHusky":vt4wpmz2 said:
Si,
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck?
Probably a duck.
So let me tell you a story. It was the NBA playoffs (pretty sure it was Suns vs Spurs) and there were a number of bad calls in that game. I was up in arms about it because it feels rigged. Anyway the New York Times reporter called and did an article on how this one felt steered. They interviewed me, published the article but nothing else came off it.
Except....
Years later an NBA ref plead guilty to unevenly calling games to feed his gambling habit and to pay back organized crime. It turns out we weren't crazy after all.
The thing about people is they will push boundaries, and they will take advantage until the risk gets too great. We have already seen the sheer sums of money that NFL wins drive. You are really saying they wouldn't do it? They have a financial incentive. They have people enabling them when blatantly caught. There are a number of stakeholders that benefit directly from steered outcomes. None of them would be tempted?
The NFL itself benefits from certain outcomes. They wouldn't either? People lie, steal, and cheat when the benefit outweighs the risk. I see no reason the NFL would be different. Nor the refs themselves. And we have seen enough games that sure look like a pattern of behavior that is getting more egregious as they realize people will let it slide.
There have been two major gambling scandals in American professional sports over 125 years and literally tens of thousands of matches.
2...
And one was a ref.
One ref.
One guy.
In tens of thousands of matches.
And i cant even tell you how irrelevant your story is to both this one and even the nba scandal (did Donahue ref that game?)
So... nothing like a duck.
Just a shitty referee.
Ill leave you to the conspiracy theory. One day you may be right and it was all for naught... but for now I'll just believe the moments are bigger than the humans sometimes.. refs just like players.
Believing otherwise leaves no room for watching.. which you do and comment on often
So which is it? RW and PC are bad mix of QB and coach... or the NFL is steering it that way?