Super Bowl XL was possibly fixed???

[scutterhawk]

I've asked this before, but why would a Seahawks fan who believes that the NFL is deliberately picking the winners of games and telling the officials to make that happen (and specifically in this case, did that in a Super Bowl), continue to watch the games? That is some irrational behavior, right up there with staying with your significant other who is abusing you.

The allegation here isn't that the NFL rigged it. It's that a particular ref did. That's not the same level of screw job as having the entire NFL being behind fixing games.

Also, there is a big difference between a the NFL nudging certain outcomes and going full WWE level of scripting.

One final point. If the NFL was going to script or nudge, it's likely they would do so prior to the Super Bowl to set the teams rather than actually care who won the actual game.

Okay, I'll bring it back to just the individual ref situation and just assume it's a bad actor during one event. This seems really unlikely with the likely explanation just being human error, but that's reasonably possible.

I've never been down with the "script/nudge" theories. It's too big of a conspiracy to keep under wraps with everybody involved. There would be over 100 officials and a bunch of NFL staffers involved.

It's called racketeering.

 

[IndyHawk]

Crimes were commited in that game
plain and simple..I'm not over that
and I don't accept it..

 

[DJrmb]

The Seattle radio station that is following up on this (950 KJR) is going to have Mike Holmgren on today at 2pm to discuss this. Then at 4pm they evidently got a hold of Dennis Hanaran, who made the original allegations on the radio with the Bay area station. It will be interesting to see if anything more can be fished out to possibly get this more national attention...

 

[fenderbender123]

Did Bill Leavy personally throw the flag on any of the bad calls? If not, how was he able to convince his crew to join him on rigging the game?

 

[acer1240]

Did Bill Leavy personally throw the flag on any of the bad calls? If not, how was he able to convince his crew to join him on rigging the game?

I thought that he was the one who called Hass for an illegal block in the back while he was making a tackle? I could certainly be wrong on this though.

 

[Seymour]

Did Bill Leavy personally throw the flag on any of the bad calls? If not, how was he able to convince his crew to join him on rigging the game?

I thought that he was the one who called Hass for an illegal block in the back while he was making a tackle? I could certainly be wrong on this though.

Correct.

Of course he made bad calls. That is why he "apologized" 4 years later!

http://www.espn.com/nfl/news/story?id=5444048

"It was a tough thing for me. I kicked two calls in the fourth quarter and I impacted the game, and as an official you never want to do that," said the veteran of 15 NFL seasons and two Super Bowls.

"It left me with a lot of sleepless nights, and I think about it constantly," Leavy said of the February 2006 game. "I'll go to my grave wishing that I'd been better."

 

[twisted_steel2]

The Seattle radio station that is following up on this (950 KJR) is going to have Mike Holmgren on today at 2pm to discuss this. Then at 4pm they evidently got a hold of Dennis Hanaran, who made the original allegations on the radio with the Bay area station. It will be interesting to see if anything more can be fished out to possibly get this more national attention...

I know what I'm doing at 2.

This is crazy, please please I hope this story blows up. :snack:

 

[jammerhawk]

If that game was in fact fixed, which sure was a prevalent viewpoint for many as and after the game. The NFL was likely complicit. The whole Detroit homeboy and ‘ Bus’ schtick and surrounding schmaltz, was just too convenient. In the end the 8 point loss was hard to stomach as there were too many questionable calls. It was even worse after with ‘Bagdad Mike Perierra’ justifying the rubbish calls with nonsense like ‘the play had hallmarks of a holding call’, etc.. The Referee apologized and admitted he’d screwed it up. Interestingly Holmgren didn’t get fined for publicly complaining about the refereeing either.

To me it seems the fix might be in this year as locking down the LA market with a Rams W would be huge for the league and would justify the new home for the Rams and advertising $ like never seen before for that market. Besides not a single football fan would be heartbroken if NE didn’t win another Championship this year.

 

[Sports Hernia]

I've asked this before, but why would a Seahawks fan who believes that the NFL is deliberately picking the winners of games and telling the officials to make that happen (and specifically in this case, did that in a Super Bowl), continue to watch the games? That is some irrational behavior, right up there with staying with your significant other who is abusing you.

The allegation here isn't that the NFL rigged it. It's that a particular ref did. That's not the same level of screw job as having the entire NFL being behind fixing games.

Also, there is a big difference between a the NFL nudging certain outcomes and going full WWE level of scripting.

One final point. If the NFL was going to script or nudge, it's likely they would do so prior to the Super Bowl to set the teams rather than actually care who won the actual game.

Okay, I'll bring it back to just the individual ref situation and just assume it's a bad actor during one event. This seems really unlikely with the likely explanation just being human error, but that's reasonably possible.

I've never been down with the "script/nudge" theories. It's too big of a conspiracy to keep under wraps with everybody involved. There would be over 100 officials and a bunch of NFL staffers involved.

It's called racketeering.

This!

 

[acer1240]

Shit. I'd thought I'd finally gotten over this.

I can't imagine what former players or coaches think when this bombshell hits them.

 

[Sports Hernia]

I wonder if any of the National beat writers that cover the NFL have the “man marbles” to report on this story without trying to “poo poo”, it and bury it. I doubt they will touch it, until they can no longer avoid it. I’m not a fan of local sports radio but I hope KJR keeps this story alive until the national media is forced to talk about it.

 

[fenderbender123]

Holmgren saying all the same stuff I've been saying. He's a damn smart guy 8)

 

[acer1240]

Holmgren saying all the same stuff I've been saying. He's a damn smart guy 8)

Wait until 4. What did you expect Holmgren to say?

 

[acer1240]

Holmgren saying all the same stuff I've been saying. He's a damn smart guy 8)

If you want to be the resident authority taking the other side, could you maybe please confine it to the shack?

This is a mind blowing, explosive story fender....no reason to shit all over it at this point.

You may very well be right, but why thump the chest prematurely?

 

[fenderbender123]

Holmgren said he didn't believe it was true. I agree with him. I think it was a botched game. I think that it would take far too much to try and rig a game, and that there is plenty of reason to believe that it's difficult to make calls in real time and thus have games with very lopsided officiating.

If I turn out to be wrong, I'm fine with that. Whatever the facts are, I want to know them. I am only rooting for facts. But my prediction is that it was probably just a poorly reffed game. I don't even understand how there can be "sides" to this issue. It either happened or it didn't and there is no harm with having an opinion/predicition.

 

[Tical21]

This is nothing. Some hack trying to make the news.

 

[Sports Hernia]

This is nothing. Some hack trying to make the news.

Based on???

 

[Sports Hernia]

Holmgren said he didn't believe it was true. I agree with him. I think it was a botched game. I think that it would take far too much to try and rig a game, and that there is plenty of reason to believe that it's difficult to make calls in real time and thus have games with very lopsided officiating.

If I turn out to be wrong, I'm fine with that. Whatever the facts are, I want to know them. I am only rooting for facts. But my prediction is that it was probably just a poorly reffed game. I don't even understand how there can be "sides" to this issue. It either happened or it didn't and there is no harm with having an opinion/predicition.

Holmgren also still has a job being a color commentator on national radio, calling either Sunday or Monday night games (I can’t remember which one). That gig goes BYE BYE if says it happened or likely happened.


Plus there is the “denial angle”, where you busted your butt as an NFL coach for a long period of time only for those games to be viewed as tilted, tainted, steered and or rigged. You want to believe every game you coached or played in is 100% legit, or why else are you doing that.

 

[fenderbender123]

Exactly....why was he a coach and then a GM and now a commentator for so long if he thought the game was rigged? And how many other players and coaches and officials and league management and personnel etc do you have to keep quiet over the course of multiple decades? Plus there are the millions of fans who are watching for anything suspicious as well...You'd think they would be able to find something more than circumstantial evidence to be able to prove it if it was.

 

[T-Hawk]

Exactly....why was he a coach and then a GM and now a commentator for so long if he thought the game was rigged? And how many other players and coaches and officials and league management and personnel etc do you have to keep quiet over the course of multiple decades? Plus there are the millions of fans who are watching for anything suspicious as well...You'd think they would be able to find something more than circumstantial evidence to be able to prove it if it was.

It doesn't have to be a league wide conspiracy for that game to be rigged though. It could be just 1 ref whose gambling on games. This was literally happening in the NBA at the same time as XL.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_NBA_betting_scandal