Leader Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 (edited) Ha! "Just in: Pfizer has released the results of its latest study showing vaccinated subjects are more likely to host SNL, win the Super Bowl & get the girl. While its unvaccinated cohort is prone to injury, unfortunate hair choices & being called '*******' on social media platforms" Edited February 12 by Leader 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PossibleCabbage Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 It's genuinely hard to rig a football game in a way that isn't obvious. Like the problem with all conspiracies is that eventually someone is going to spill the beans, and the more people involved in your conspiracy the more likely someone is to talk. Like if you assume the NFL is rigged, exactly how many people are involved in rigging it? Did Christian McCaffrey fumble on the opening drive because that was the script? Did Dre tear his achilles running onto the field because he needed to not play? Did the refs invent a penalty here or there, if so where and when? It just feels like "a sporting event is rigged" is an extraordinary claim which should require extraordinary evidence, which "the team with the best QB won again" does not qualify as. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Guy Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 1 hour ago, Leader said: Ha! "Just in: Pfizer has released the results of its latest study showing vaccinated subjects are more likely to host SNL, win the Super Bowl & get the girl. While its unvaccinated cohort is prone to injury, unfortunate hair choices & being called '*******' on social media platforms" Taylor Swift is one homely looking thing. I just don't get it with her. If taking the jab meant I had to go out with her, I would have taken my chances without the 2 pokes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Guy Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 2 minutes ago, PossibleCabbage said: It's genuinely hard to rig a football game in a way that isn't obvious. Like the problem with all conspiracies is that eventually someone is going to spill the beans, and the more people involved in your conspiracy the more likely someone is to talk. Like if you assume the NFL is rigged, exactly how many people are involved in rigging it? Did Christian McCaffrey fumble on the opening drive because that was the script? Did Dre tear his achilles running onto the field because he needed to not play? Did the refs invent a penalty here or there, if so where and when? It just feels like "a sporting event is rigged" is an extraordinary claim which should require extraordinary evidence, which "the team with the best QB won again" does not qualify as. I've never met a conspiracy theory I didn't like, but even I can't answer any of these questions regarding the NFL. My only retort would be nobody in wrestling seems to admit it's all scripted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PossibleCabbage Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 1 minute ago, Old Guy said: I've never met a conspiracy theory I didn't like, but even I can't answer any of these questions regarding the NFL. My only retort would be nobody in wrestling seems to admit it's all scripted. Like it's easy to see the seams in professional wrestling that indicate it is a work, the main one being how often wrestlers will kill time in order to allow both performers to recover or to wait while something else is set up. Like there are times that a wrestler will deliver a big move and their opponent will lie there motionless on the mat for like 30 seconds, during which the match could easily end, but it just doesn't because it's not supposed to end there. Another one is that the referee is nowhere near consistent in counting 10 seconds when a performer is outside the ring, since the "countout" rule is artifice to create drama not an actual rule. It's just that wrestling is in the carnival performer tradition, in which you don't generally share trade secrets with outsiders.c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leader Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 KCs CBs were *dominant* in this game. True close outs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Refugee Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 3 minutes ago, PossibleCabbage said: It's genuinely hard to rig a football game in a way that isn't obvious. Like the problem with all conspiracies is that eventually someone is going to spill the beans, and the more people involved in your conspiracy the more likely someone is to talk. Like if you assume the NFL is rigged, exactly how many people are involved in rigging it? Did Christian McCaffrey fumble on the opening drive because that was the script? Did Dre tear his achilles running onto the field because he needed to not play? Did the refs invent a penalty here or there, if so where and when? It just feels like "a sporting event is rigged" is an extraordinary claim which should require extraordinary evidence, which "the team with the best QB won again" does not qualify as. I think there have been a solid amount of cases where it was proven that a sporting event was rigged. Like you said, it can only work if very few people are in on it so the refs would be the easiest payoff. Another example would be a point guard in basketball point shaving and of course a fight which has notoriously had guys taking dives. I do not believe most contests are rigged. Also, with fans’ natural scapegoating of the refs, it’s always easier to see conspiracy in the smallest things even when there is not. Still, it is not something that you can easily get away with but it’s naive to say there’s no attempt to sway contests with that much money flying around. I hope it gets harder and harder to do with the amount of scrutiny but at some level, money talks and it is next to impossible to remove its influence 100%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJerkDave Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 2 minutes ago, Refugee said: I think there have been a solid amount of cases where it was proven that a sporting event was rigged. Like you said, it can only work if very few people are in on it so the refs would be the easiest payoff. Another example would be a point guard in basketball point shaving and of course a fight which has notoriously had guys taking dives. I do not believe most contests are rigged. Also, with fans’ natural scapegoating of the refs, it’s always easier to see conspiracy in the smallest things even when there is not. Still, it is not something that you can easily get away with but it’s naive to say there’s no attempt to sway contests with that much money flying around. I hope it gets harder and harder to do with the amount of scrutiny but at some level, money talks and it is next to impossible to remove its influence 100%. I don't believe things are fixed. But what about teams that do get preferential treatment? And I am not talking about a Bears fan calling holding on the Packers on every single play, or Lions fans claiming that a facemask isn't a facemask because they really didn't want it to be. I am talking about how Michael Jordan was allowed to be two or three times more physical on defense than anyone guarding him. Or Lebron James not needing to dribble. Leagues certainly protect their stars, and sometimes even teams. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mdpackfan22 Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 3 hours ago, ThatJerkDave said: Did not know that. Did they change allegiance or just give up, either permanently or until no more Snyder? A lot went to the Ravens. A lot just gave up because Snyder was easily the worst owner in the league and put out a horrific product. Redskins used to have one of the most loyal fanbases in the league. It's wild to see how far they've dropped Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PossibleCabbage Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 I think a lot of the "superstar calls" phenomenon is just incompetence by the officials who, are just inclined to overlook things because "x player is really good, of course he can make that shot". Like there's the thing that the Seahawks Legion of Boom did where their DBs were always super grabby, which would calibrate the baseline expectations of the officials to make them less likely to call something that was borderline, because you know that you want to call it the same way in the 4th quarter as the 1st and you know you already didn't flag something very similar on the first play. Another example is the Bakhtiari thing where he's almost always the first OL to move, which is basically because he's anticipating the snap because he knows what the play is, but if you're not going to flag him for a false start in the first quarter, you're going to let that sort of thing go for the rest of the game. unless it's super obvious in one case. Refereeing is very difficult, there's a lot of things you have to keep track of and a lot of important stuff is easy to miss. But I think it's important to note that football refs aren't really competent enough to be corrupt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Refugee Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 5 minutes ago, ThatJerkDave said: I don't believe things are fixed. But what about teams that do get preferential treatment? And I am not talking about a Bears fan calling holding on the Packers on every single play, or Lions fans claiming that a facemask isn't a facemask because they really didn't want it to be. I am talking about how Michael Jordan was allowed to be two or three times more physical on defense than anyone guarding him. Or Lebron James not needing to dribble. Leagues certainly protect their stars, and sometimes even teams. The NBA is definitely bad for the “star whistle” and don’t get me started on the 2001 Bucks team getting tons more calls than the 6ers. It’s hard to prove but there can be really egregious examples of lopsided officiating and that is where the skepticism comes in. I know they can’t see everything but we saw really inconsistent calls for holding in the secondary in that GB TB playoff game. If they call it consistently, there is less room to speculate but when one guy gets a soft call that another blatantly commits, it is hard to stomach. Anyway, there have been stories about NFL refs being approached to take a payoff, supposedly never has come to fruition but that’s pretty hard to believe considering human nature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leader Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leader Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 13 minutes ago, ThatJerkDave said: Or Lebron James not needing to dribble. The league changed the travelling rule(s) for everybody a few years ago - basically outlawing the penalty unless a guy starts from half court and doesnt stop till he's laying in the hoop. Ridiculous IMO but I guess an acknowledgement to guys increased size? I dont know why they did it to be honest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebpackfan Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 If we were looking at refs in this conspiracy, it definitely seemed like the 9ers got the most benefit out of the questionable calls. Think there were a couple of holds they could have called on KC near the end, but they were sorta letting them play at that point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leader Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 (edited) 2 minutes ago, mikebpackfan said: If we were looking at refs in this conspiracy, it definitely seemed like the 9ers got the most benefit out of the questionable calls. Think there were a couple of holds they could have called on KC near the end, but they were sorta letting them play at that point. Agree. I think the word was out amongst the Refs - "Dont be the reason for victory or defeat for any team" Outside the numerous SF false starts - it was a decidedly "flag free" game compared to regular season stuff. Edited February 12 by Leader Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.