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Holy cow, the grassy knoll crowd is out in full force this morning as social media is exploding with cries of foul play. The missed PI call in the Ram-Saints game and the phantom roughing the passer in the Pats-Chiefs game has ignited them. Some are suggesting that the fix was in because the league wanted to get people in LA buying Rams gear and help fill their new stadium when it opens.

I agree that the much talked about no PI call on 3rd down in the Saints-Rams game was horrible...and there was one that went in the Rams favor earlier in the game that was even worse. If there was a doubt, they should have thrown the flag then talked about it and picked it up if they felt differently. But I swear, some people imagine a villain lurking behind every corner of every building. Sometimes chit just happens.

I'll admit that the officiating was bad, but you just wait. Someone is going to propose that all penalties be reviewable. We might as well do away with refs and just have on field facilitators, allow every play to be meticulously analyzed by a committee with access to scores of replay angles.

Those penalties or non penalty when there was a clear foul changed the outcome of the games.
It's either one of 2 things:

1) Incompetence
2) Referee on the take

In the one case, the referee threw the flag when he didn't see a foul.
In the 2nd case, the referee saw what were 2 fouls and didn't throw a flag.
In any event, neither referee should ever officiate an NFL game again.

I've never crossed the Rubicon on this, but for the first time in my life, I'm standing on the bank and looking to the other side and
I doubt that for the first time in about 52 years, I will watch the championship game.

I don’t think the fix is in. There’s too many instances in which you could point to a close call or no call that went the other way throughout the game. A holding call on a big play for the saints or something. I will say that PI at the end of the Saints game was as bad as it gets. I don’t know how somebody misses that... the Brady call was bad but I can at least see how it could be called from an official who doesn’t have a great view. The defender makes incidental contact with the facemask- Brady’s helmet goes down a bit, again it isn’t a penalty, but I ca see how a mistake could be made in those circumstances. The Saints no-call can’t be explained. It wasn’t close...

Both are then incompetent.
How can a referee call a foul without seeing it? And the defender didn't make contact with the face mask.
In the 4th quarter on 3rd down of a close game, they make a call they can't see?
And on the other one, he has a great view and chooses not to call a blatant foul when if called correctly the game was probably over.
There may be other instances against the other teams, but they weren't at critical times of the game.

It doesn't get any worse than this.

RiverDog wrote:Holy cow, the grassy knoll crowd is out in full force this morning as social media is exploding with cries of foul play. The missed PI call in the Ram-Saints game and the phantom roughing the passer in the Pats-Chiefs game has ignited them. Some are suggesting that the fix was in because the league wanted to get people in LA buying Rams gear and help fill their new stadium when it opens.

I agree that the much talked about no PI call on 3rd down in the Saints-Rams game was horrible...and there was one that went in the Rams favor earlier in the game that was even worse. If there was a doubt, they should have thrown the flag then talked about it and picked it up if they felt differently. But I swear, some people imagine a villain lurking behind every corner of every building. Sometimes chit just happens.

I'll admit that the officiating was bad, but you just wait. Someone is going to propose that all penalties be reviewable. We might as well do away with refs and just have on field facilitators, allow every play to be meticulously analyzed by a committee with access to scores of replay angles.

I'd say I split the difference between you and the full on conspiracy theorists.

Extra Large taught me that individual refs are not above altering the outcomes of games for personal rooting interests, even if only doing so subconsciously, and the Tim Donaghy scandal (he was an NBA ref heavily involved with gambling) taught me they are not above altering the outcome of games for personal gain.

Not saying either happened, but neither am I discounting the possibility.

NorthHawk wrote: And the defender didn't make contact with the face mask.


It doesn't get any worse than this.

I don’t know if this image will work, but Jones forearm nicks Brady’s helmet on the way down- again, shouldn’t be a penalty, but he does ‘make contact’eoth the facemask.

http://a.espncdn.com/media/motion/2019/ ... ughing.jpg

but Jones forearm nicks Brady’s helmet on the way down

No it didn't, and that image is no where near evidence that it did. They replayed the hell out of that play last night and I'm completely confident there was no contact with Brady precious noggin.

The conspiracy theories just don't pass the smell test. Did anyone ever consider what would happen if they actually did fix games and it was made public? It would destroy the game. The potential benefit does not outweigh the risk.

The Saints game was incompetently officiated. IMO the refs were consciously trying NOT to intervene and tended to keep their flags in their pockets. As one announcer said, the infamous 3rd down PI call was a bang-bang play, different from the jostling you see a WR and DB on longer pass routes, so this tendency of theirs to be conservative with the flag throwing played out in a no call. What they should have been doing was being liberal with the flags but resolve their doubts through a conference after the play was over.

The other talked about penalty was in the Pats-Chiefs game, where the ref threw a flag on what he thought was a blow to the head. Seeing the play from behind, where the ref was, it did look like a blow was delivered, but it was just Brady reacting to seeing an arm flash in front of him and ducked his head.

I've heard some say that they should make all penalties reviewable, at least in the last 2 minutes of the game. I strongly object to this proposal, but would like to see more communication with refs on the field and the replay officials so they could have some input on questionable calls. They tell them if they have a doubt about a fumble to let the play continue as they can always reverse the call later. IMO the same should be true with borderline penalties: Throw the flag as you can always pick it up later.

but Jones forearm nicks Brady’s helmet on the way down

c_hawkbob wrote:No it didn't, and that image is no where near evidence that it did. They replayed the hell out of that play last night and I'm completely confident there was no contact with Brady precious noggin.

I agree with Cbob. As I stated above, in viewing the play from behind the pocket where the ref was, Brady's head did appear like it might have been struck by the player's forearm, but the front view shows that Brady was just making an instinctual reaction to having an arm flash in front of his face. Replays clearly show that if there was any contact at all, it was an incidental brush on the bottom of the face mask and was in no way, shape, or form a safety concern.

NorthHawk wrote: And the defender didn't make contact with the face mask.


It doesn't get any worse than this.

mykc14 wrote:I don’t know if this image will work, but Jones forearm nicks Brady’s helmet on the way down- again, shouldn’t be a penalty, but he does ‘make contact’eoth the facemask.

http://a.espncdn.com/media/motion/2019/ ... ughing.jpg

That photo illustrates exactly what I was talking about. The forearm just barely brushed the bottom bar of Brady's face mask. It was not a "blow to the head". The ref was in a bad position, and like CBS's rules analyst said, the ref should not be throwing a flag unless he actually sees the penalty being commited, which from his position, he obviosuly couldn't see any contact.

As we are all aware, this was not the first questionable roughing the passer penalty we've seen this year. This season has been plagued with bad judgments and misinterpretations regarding roughing the passer. That has to be the #1 priority for the competition committee this offseason, how to do a better, more fair way of making that call.

RiverDog wrote:The conspiracy theories just don't pass the smell test. Did anyone ever consider what would happen if they actually did fix games and it was made public? It would destroy the game. The potential benefit does not outweigh the risk.

Actually it would be completely legal for the nfl to instruct the refs to call things a certain way, for entertainment value (think WWE or whatever.) Not saying its what happened, but it absolutely could.

Florio on PFT has a suggestion that another referee in the booth should be added and he can buzz down to tell the Officials to pick up a flag or drop one if it's blatantly obvious.
They have to fix this issue. They can't continue with having the championship under a cloud of doubt.

RiverDog wrote:The conspiracy theories just don't pass the smell test. Did anyone ever consider what would happen if they actually did fix games and it was made public? It would destroy the game. The potential benefit does not outweigh the risk.

EmeraldBullet wrote:Actually it would be completely legal for the nfl to instruct the refs to call things a certain way, for entertainment value (think WWE or whatever.) Not saying its what happened, but it absolutely could.

Of course it would be legal. There is no law governing football games. And yes, something like what happened to baseball almost 100 years ago in the Black Sox scandal could happen to the NFL. But even in those days, it was impossible for them to keep a secret and the scandal was discovered almost before the last game of the infamous series was played. But these days, with thousands of reporters and video/audio recording devices up the ying yang, a conspiracy on the scale of a league wide scam that would have to elicit the cooperation of scores of people is simply not plausible.

RiverDog wrote:And the defender didn't make contact with the face mask.


That photo illustrates exactly what I was talking about. The forearm just barely brushed the bottom bar of Brady's face mask. It was not a "blow to the head". The ref was in a bad position, and like CBS's rules analyst said, the ref should not be throwing a flag unless he actually sees the penalty being commited

This is exactly what I said happened... and I mentioned multiple times that it should not be a penalty, but he does ‘brush’ or ‘nick’ Brady’s facemask.

c_hawkbob wrote:
No it didn't, and that image is no where near evidence that it did. They replayed the hell out of that play last night and I'm completely confident there was no contact with Brady precious noggin.

I also watched it multiple times and I see his forearm brush the bottom of Brady’s facemask. It should not have been a penalty, but he does make the slightest contact. ESPN has a video that shows it on the second or third slow motion replay. I don’t know how an argument can be made that he didn’t touch the facemask. Again, it should not have been a penalty though!

Here’s the video, the replay at the 20 second mark clearly shows the contact:

http://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/25813053

NorthHawk wrote:Florio on PFT has a suggestion that another referee in the booth should be added and he can buzz down to tell the Officials to pick up a flag or drop one if it's blatantly obvious.
They have to fix this issue. They can't continue with having the championship under a cloud of doubt.

That I agree with. I see no problem with the crew chief being in constant contact with the replay booth and throwing or picking up a flag based on their consultations with them, either by the refs on the field requesting an opinion from the booth or by the replay booth buzzing the refs. But what I don't want to see is an expansion of what kinds of plays can be challenged.

The PI in the Saints game shouldn't have taken more than 10 seconds for the replay booth to make a determination and radio it down to the crew chief. Same with Brady's roughing the passer. Although it would have taken a considerable amount of time to determine if contact was made with the face mask, it was clear from the get go that it wasn't flagrant enough to deserve a penalty.

LOL The first thing a Seahawk fan does when they do not like the result is blame the refs!!! You guys over the yrs have stayed alive on bad calls.

As far as the "Hope its a PI" call that never occurred. The ball was at least 15 feet behind the defenders back and totally uncatchable making it a great non-call in a championship game.

Now go back to your fishing and basket weaving

Rambo2014 wrote:LOL The first thing a Seahawk fan does when they do not like the result is blame the refs!!! You guys over the yrs have stayed alive on bad calls.

As far as the "Hope its a PI" call that never occurred. The ball was at least 15 feet behind the defenders back and totally uncatchable making it a great non-call in a championship game.

Now go back to your fishing and basket weaving

Wow, I knew that you were an ignoramus, but your last statement is incredible even for your own standards. 15 feet? That's the biggest head-up-arse statement I've heard in a long time.

It just so happens that the league is planning on issuing an apology to the Saints for the missed PI:

Though it won’t matter much to the Saints and their fans, the NFL will acknowledge the obvious.
Per a league source, the NFL intends to admit that the non-call at the end of regulation in the Rams-Saints NFC title game was indeed an error.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... ms-saints/

I would have the same attitude if it happened to the Rams.
It casts a stink on an otherwise fun game to watch and is unbecoming of the NFL to have this happen.
Maybe they should have an asterisk beside both teams and for whomever wins.

Refs did the Saints dirty to pump up an L.A. franchise to keep the California market in the Super Bowl. Call likely came from up on high if it is close, push it towards the Rams. Gotta hype up that L.A. market for long-term revenue.

NorthHawk wrote:I would have the same attitude if it happened to the Rams.
It casts a stink on an otherwise fun game to watch and is unbecoming of the NFL to have this happen.
Maybe they should have an asterisk beside both teams and for whomever wins.

Yea, that's kinda how I feel. With the way both games ended, it de-legitimizes the Super Bowl as a lot of people won't accept either team as being representative of the best team in their respective conference. The stench of the conference championship games combined with the general dislike of the Patriots/Tom Brady and lame fan base of the Rams is likely to result in one of the least watched Super Bowls in recent years.

If there was a conspiracy theory, I can't see how they'd promote two teams that would be so unlikely to draw viewers as are the Patriots and Rams.

River I think the Pats would have crushed either one. Its the old Nightmare scenario for the Super Bowl: one teams just happy to be there and the other one expecting to win. 2 Weeks for Billicheck to tear apart film, and the Rams defense is not that great, I think Pats finally get the blowout SB win they have always wanted. I may not even watch, I do not like either team.

obiken wrote:River I think the Pats would have crushed either one. Its the old Nightmare scenario for the Super Bowl: one teams just happy to be there and the other one expecting to win. 2 Weeks for Billicheck to tear apart film, and the Rams defense is not that great, I think Pats finally get the blowout SB win they have always wanted. I may not even watch, I do not like either team.

I don't see it that way at all. Kansas City's defense is horrid, worse than either the Saints or the Rams. IMO the Saints would have been favorites had they advanced. Now, at least in my mind, it's pretty much a toss up.

I'll watch it if for nothing else not to break my personal streak. I have watched every single Super Bowl game from the get go. I think that Cbob and ObS are the only other posters in this forum that can make such a claim. But I have heard a lot of people say that they won't be watching, so this game has a chance of being one of the least watched SB's in recent history.

c_hawkbob wrote:I'd say I split the difference between you and the full on conspiracy theorists.

Extra Large taught me that individual refs are not above altering the outcomes of games for personal rooting interests, even if only doing so subconsciously, and the Tim Donaghy scandal (he was an NBA ref heavily involved with gambling) taught me they are not above altering the outcome of games for personal gain.

Not saying either happened, but neither am I discounting the possibility.

Sorry that I passed over your original comments.

Both of your points are well taken, but they really don't relate to the OP, which is conspiracy theories.

Sure, there could be, and probably is, officials that harbor a bias based on some previous experience of theirs. They're only human like the rest of us. Indeed, IMO one of the factors in XL was that officials were unconsciously reacting to the predominantly Steeler crowd in attendance, very similar to a home field advantage. And Donaghy was a rouge official, acting on behalf of his own self interests, at least as it relates to the NBA. Those situations are not conspiracies.

Due to the selection process used in assigning officiating teams to work certain games, it would require a large, complicated conspiracy to place a biased ref or refs of the type you are referring to into a position to where he/they could influence the outcome, and to me, that seems implausible.

Never attribute to malice what can be reasonably attributed to incompetence.

Or something like that.

RiverDog wrote:The conspiracy theories just don't pass the smell test. Did anyone ever consider what would happen if they actually did fix games and it was made public? It would destroy the game. The potential benefit does not outweigh the risk.

This is the main reason I don't buy into the conspiracy theory stuff. Will the Rams fanbase grow and more merch be sold because of the error? Yeah. But that pales in comparison to the money they'd lose if people started believing games were fixed (see professional wrestling). I think any fixing happens like cbob said; one ref who is gambling under the table.

RiverDog wrote:I've heard some say that they should make all penalties reviewable, at least in the last 2 minutes of the game. I strongly object to this proposal, but would like to see more communication with refs on the field and the replay officials so they could have some input on questionable calls. They tell them if they have a doubt about a fumble to let the play continue as they can always reverse the call later. IMO the same should be true with borderline penalties: Throw the flag as you can always pick it up later.

I'm totally up for opening coaches' challenges to anything. As long as we keep the number of them the same, I don't care if they're challenging a catch or DPI.

I think you have to keep some context.
Mistakes will always be made on "bang bang" type of plays, but really obvious ones like the Saints/Rams game should be automatically reviewed.

Check out this angle (hoping the copy works).

https://twitter.com/Alfonsovt/status/10 ... 72/video/1

That Referee is looking right at the play and is either purposely ignoring 2 fouls or is quite blind.
He should never, ever referee another NFL game.

NorthHawk wrote:I think you have to keep some context.
Mistakes will always be made on "bang bang" type of plays, but really obvious ones like the Saints/Rams game should be automatically reviewed.

Check out this angle (hoping the copy works).

https://twitter.com/Alfonsovt/status/10 ... 72/video/1

That Referee is looking right at the play and is either purposely ignoring 2 fouls or is quite blind.
He should never, ever referee another NFL game.

If it wasn't a bang-bang play, it's damn close to being that. It wasn't like they'd been running for 20 yards and jostling for position. I do think that a viable defense for this one play and one referee is that particularly at the end of games, there's at at least some refs that don't want to become the center of attention and are very reluctant to throw a flag. So in a very small way, I can see an explanation for the ref's no call.

Nice try.

Trajectory of the ball even in your film shows the ball headed to ground at least 3-5 yards away from the receivers feet even if he was not hit.

Nice try.....UNCATCHABLE - NO FOUL- NO FLAG - NON CALL

If it wasn't a bang-bang play, it's damn close to being that. It wasn't like they'd been running for 20 yards and jostling for position. I do think that a viable defense for this one play and one referee is that particularly at the end of games, there's at at least some refs that don't want to become the center of attention and are very reluctant to throw a flag. So in a very small way, I can see an explanation for the ref's no call.

You could speed up the replay and still see the Defender was early, it was that blatant. The helmet to the head is difficult to determine, though.
By not throwing the flag, that referee ended up becoming more of a center of attention than he would ever want to be.

If it wasn't a bang-bang play, it's damn close to being that. It wasn't like they'd been running for 20 yards and jostling for position. I do think that a viable defense for this one play and one referee is that particularly at the end of games, there's at at least some refs that don't want to become the center of attention and are very reluctant to throw a flag. So in a very small way, I can see an explanation for the ref's no call.

NorthHawk wrote:You could speed up the replay and still see the Defender was early, it was that blatant. The helmet to the head is difficult to determine, though.

By not throwing the flag, that referee ended up becoming more of a center of attention than he would ever want to be.

Agreed. I'm just saying that there is an understandable reason why he was "programmed" not to have an itchy trigger finger and the fact that it was a relatively quick play (3 step drop, sideline pass) combined to cause him to overlooked what was undeniably a pretty flagrant penalty.

I'm not making excuses for the ref. I'm simply saying that I can understand how he 'talked' himsel into not seeing the action as a no brainer penalty like we all did. It was a human mistake, and sometimes those can be damn hard to explain.

I was a huge proponent of Instant Replay when it came into the league (officially in 1986 but the current system came to be in 1999 after the Testaverde phantom TD). This was because I thought the refs missed, or made, too many calls and IR would help fix the problem. I liked the idea of coach's being able to challenge certain plays.

But then they went and made all calls after the 2 minute warning, scoring plays, and turnovers automatically reviewable and a coach did not have to burn a challenge. I saw the turnover and scoring play rule good because it would protect the refs. They could let a play go and play out on a turnover knowing it could be reviewed and reversed if they were wrong. Yet I still see refs blowing calls, especially on turnovers, where they blow it down early, and have seen multiple times a Defense being robbed of a TD because of it. They have ultimately gotten the ball, but it was at the spot of where the INT or fumble recovery happened, because the ref blew it down.

Know what has happened to me? I used to jump around my house a bit on big Seahawks touchdowns, INT's, Fumble recoveries, etc...., fist pumping, yelling out F**k yeah. That passion inside me as a fan has been so de-sensitized by Instant Replay, I no longer do any of that. On any TD near the sidelines or back line, on any INT near the sidelines or a guy diving to the ground to get it, on any big reception where I am not sure he actually caught it, on any fumble recovery where the player might have been down,you get the point. I just say, "well, it's gonna go to IR, so I have to wait to cheer".

And by the time the ref looks at it and makes a decision, it's like 2-3 minutes after the fact and I really have lost the spontaneous urge to jump around like I would have at the moment of the play.

After 20 years, the reffing still sucks. Instant Replay has not helped them at all. And like I said, my passion on big plays that I know are close has been taken away from me.

I would be good if Instant Replay just disappeared, I don't want more criteria being added on. I would be happy to live the refs call on the field, knowing full well there will be a point in every single game where they get the call wrong at a critical time. They do it now anyways with IR in the game. And then my passion could return to where it used to be. After XL, I don't think anything could be worse.

All I do now is wait for the red flag to come down, or watch for the yellow "Flag" in the bottom corner of the TV, or the inevitable replay after every TD or turnover. Enough already! All 4 major sports refereeing is mostly bad given all the angles we now get at home. Do away with it, or give them just 1 challenge per game with no more automatic reviews after scoring, turnover, and under 2 minutes.

Agent 86 wrote:I was a huge proponent of Instant Replay when it came into the league (officially in 1986 but the current system came to be in 1999 after the Testaverde phantom TD). This was because I thought the refs missed, or made, too many calls and IR would help fix the problem. I liked the idea of coach's being able to challenge certain plays.

But then they went and made all calls after the 2 minute warning, scoring plays, and turnovers automatically reviewable and a coach did not have to burn a challenge. I saw the turnover and scoring play rule good because it would protect the refs. They could let a play go and play out on a turnover knowing it could be reviewed and reversed if they were wrong. Yet I still see refs blowing calls, especially on turnovers, where they blow it down early, and have seen multiple times a Defense being robbed of a TD because of it. They have ultimately gotten the ball, but it was at the spot of where the INT or fumble recovery happened, because the ref blew it down.

Know what has happened to me? I used to jump around my house a bit on big Seahawks touchdowns, INT's, Fumble recoveries, etc...., fist pumping, yelling out F**k yeah. That passion inside me as a fan has been so de-sensitized by Instant Replay, I no longer do any of that. On any TD near the sidelines or back line, on any INT near the sidelines or a guy diving to the ground to get it, on any big reception where I am not sure he actually caught it, on any fumble recovery where the player might have been down,you get the point. I just say, "well, it's gonna go to IR, so I have to wait to cheer".

And by the time the ref looks at it and makes a decision, it's like 2-3 minutes after the fact and I really have lost the spontaneous urge to jump around like I would have at the moment of the play.

After 20 years, the reffing still sucks. Instant Replay has not helped them at all. And like I said, my passion on big plays that I know are close has been taken away from me.

I would be good if Instant Replay just disappeared, I don't want more criteria being added on. I would be happy to live the refs call on the field, knowing full well there will be a point in every single game where they get the call wrong at a critical time. They do it now anyways with IR in the game. And then my passion could return to where it used to be. After XL, I don't think anything could be worse.

All I do now is wait for the red flag to come down, or watch for the yellow "Flag" in the bottom corner of the TV, or the inevitable replay after every TD or turnover. Enough already! All 4 major sports refereeing is mostly bad given all the angles we now get at home. Do away with it, or give them just 1 challenge per game with no more automatic reviews after scoring, turnover, and under 2 minutes.

Interesting comments, 86. Yes, the game has changed dramatically, and what appeals or doesn't appeal to us has changed with it. It used to be that following a turnover, a team's offense would come on the field with a big play dialed up so as to catch the defense flat footed while they were still strapping up their chin straps. Now they go to a 60 second commercial break and you can just feel the air being sucked out of the stadium as the crowd quiets down and people start heading to the concourse.

As a rule, I'm a conservative, leave the game alone football traditionalist and my enjoyment of the contests comes from being able to compare my experiences having grown up with the sport to what I am experiencing in today's game. But with all of the 1000% close up zoom videos and dozens of camera angles that has been made available to the armchair quarterback, it's made officiating much more challenging than it ever was, so in order to maintain...or rather, as of last Sunday, reclaim..their credibility, they have to take advantage of this new technology and use the information to make better on field decisions. Hopefully they do it by not expanding the challenge system, but they have to do something to prevent these travesties from destroying the game.

The most important thing is to regain, or maybe maintain the integrity of the game.
Any doubt cast on the outcome because of the actions or inactions of officials has to be restricted.
I mentioned earlier the gambling industry, and the money there is huge, so if there is a fall off of bettors
then the money coming to teams involved with them will be impacted and the NFL will be forced to act.
As well, it will negatively impact viewership which means less value for advertisers.
This is something they have to get a hold of quickly.

I'm thinking the only way that missed PI call could have happened was that the referee's flag got stuck in his pocket and he couldn't get it out in time before the next play was run. Or maybe he forgot which pocket he put it in.

Aseahawkfan wrote:Refs did the Saints dirty to pump up an L.A. franchise to keep the California market in the Super Bowl. Call likely came from up on high if it is close, push it towards the Rams. Gotta hype up that L.A. market for long-term revenue.

This right here. The new trick with nfl refs in postseason games is to call it even until near the end then make the call (or non call) to help sway the outcome . Witness hawks boys with 2 pi calls on the Dallas gw drive that were non existent compared to the travesty that was the end of the saints rams game.

As for Pats KC I think the ref just blew the call . China dolls like Brady and formerly manning always get those calls regardless of the game . And if Dee Ford wasn’t lined up offsides by 18 inches Kc’s in the bowl anyway which most of America and the nfl brass would have preferred . But yeah sometimes refs have an agenda. It’s reported the ref who swallowed the whistle on the pi no call has ties to the la area .

Aseahawkfan wrote:Refs did the Saints dirty to pump up an L.A. franchise to keep the California market in the Super Bowl. Call likely came from up on high if it is close, push it towards the Rams. Gotta hype up that L.A. market for long-term revenue.

Hawktawk wrote:This right here. The new trick with nfl refs in postseason games is to call it even until near the end then make the call (or non call) to help sway the outcome . Witness hawks boys with 2 pi calls on the Dallas gw drive that were non existent compared to the travesty that was the end of the saints rams game.

As for Pats KC I think the ref just blew the call . China dolls like Brady and formerly manning always get those calls regardless of the game . And if Dee Ford wasn’t lined up offsides by 18 inches Kc’s in the bowl anyway which most of America and the nfl brass would have preferred . But yeah sometimes refs have an agenda. It’s reported the ref who swallowed the whistle on the pi no call has ties to the la area .

The easiest part of solving any crime is coming up with a motive, which is all that exists in the above statements.

That no call on the pi by the zebras in the saints rams game was the most blatant game altering no call
I’ve seen since SB XL where there were several, some coupled with calls against Seattle on the same play .

No game in my memory approaches the skullggery of X L but as a stand alone game changing call this saints rams game was as bad as I’ve seen.It turns out 4 of the officials in that game had ties to so cal btw.

A high school ref gets that right, sorry. How does a pro crew miss it and not even huddle to discuss it?

I’m not to the point of pulling the plug on the league , it’s what I’ve done in the fall and winter for 4 decades but it better not get much worse .

I'm just happy that the Rams didn't benefit with a SB trophy from it.

I think it is absolutely despicable that the refs call games one way all year long and then pull this crap in the playoffs.

idhawkman wrote:I'm just happy that the Rams didn't benefit with a SB trophy from it.

I think it is absolutely despicable that the refs call games one way all year long and then pull this crap in the playoffs.

I suppose you can look at it that way, but the Patriots also advanced due in no small part to some controversial calls that went in their favor, too, so IMO the entire game was illegitimate.

About the only good thing about the SB is that it was well officiated, although it was so poorly played on both sides that they didn't produce any plays that required even a second look.

BTW, nice to see you posting again. I thought that you had flown the coop.