HawkWow":3j8upf01 said:
You're all free to believe whatever you'd like. You can believe robots are responsible for missing luggage and Elvis never left the building. I don't care. facts will remain facts...VEGAS does not fix games. "How did Vegas know the game would end up at 7"? Well, there's this thing called math. They didn't know a final score but they used criteria that helped them arrive at a spread number. That criteria is available to you, too.
"Goodfellas"? Let's say I've known a few. And exactly why I know games are not fixed. Not football, at least. Baseball? Probably. Why? A friend once told me, "all we need is a home plate ump with an imaginative strike zone and a daughter wanting to go to college". But that was 20years ago. It would be much more difficult to get away with today. But I've not bet on baseball since. Baseball isn't football and this person wasn't Vegas.
To the guy that brought up the Boston college pt. shaving scandal....what's your point? Many years ago, a rogue bunch of kids got money from a mobster for shaving points. We also had that Donahue guy...whatever his name was, a few years ago in the NBA. What happened to him and how exactly does that translate to Vegas is fixing football games? btw, The mob isn't Vegas, either. Not for a very long time.
To those that question whether or not Refs may intentionally, or unintentionally influence the outcomes of games...I can't argue that. I'd have no way of knowing such a thing, but like yourselves, I'm sure it's happened. Perhaps frequently...but (as you are aware) they do not represent Las Vegas when doing so and if they engage in such activity with any degree of regularity, they will go down.
If fixing football games was so prevalent, don't you think guys like Paul Allen and Jerry Jones would be aware of this? Why would they pump huge money into teams where shady characters will decide whether they win or lose? Further, don't you think guys like Snyder would be buying titles? Al Davis had many mob connections. When was the last time his Raiders won a SB? I could go on and on but basically, it's pointless to do so.
I made my money and I know Vegas sells a legit product. Do they cheat people? hell no...they don't have to. People know the odds but give them their money anyway. Why would they want to mess with such an arrangement?
In closing, I only started this thread because the topic is so irritating. As a former book, I had to address this ad nauseum. "Vegas won't let us win" is an easy cop-out. A convenient excuse. Some pick winners, others pick losers. Do your homework and get on the right side. Capping games isn't rocket science, but it does require effort. Those that consistently lose are the ones unwilling to put in the necessary effort involved in finding a winner. It's much easier to throw a dart, then cry fix if you lose. Vegas deserves better and so does the NFL.
No one here is mentioning anything about vast conspiracies. They just know something was up.
I don't gamble, never one penny to a bookie. I hate the whole fetid stinking industry and what it does to people... it destroys lives to a degree rivaled only by Alcohol, Heroine, or Meth.
The mere fact that so many millions ride on these games is trouble waiting to happen in a crooked world where big biz has proven time and time again that they completely lack the ethics to police themselves, and the feds are just too overwhelmed to look into anything.
All it takes is one insider to say something like "Hey, that official that is calling the game tonight.... He hates the Seahawks... yea, I heard him talking, he is going to get them."
I can't tell you what was rotten or where it was under the floorboards, I just smelled it.
Hell, we know for a fact this has happened periodically throughout sports history.
