By the way, I do believe that the league influences ref decisions with side comments to REFs about specific teams or players. I think there are teams that draw high ratings on TV and that the league likes for narrative purposes, and things just happen...Call me crazy but I've yet to see any evidence that convinces me otherwise. I know from watching the Bulls-Knicks battles in the Jordan days that you could predict with almost absolute certainty who would win a given playoff game by the crew that was assigned to the game. I believe the same thing happens in the NFL. Certain QB/Teams are given the benefit of the doubt or slow whistles. (Count the number of times a certain QB from up north manages to snap the ball with no time on the play clock compared to other QBs who get flagged the second the clock shows :00).
But, controversy drives clicks. Look at NO. The criminal reffing against them in the last two playoffs drove the conversation and kept the NFL #1 in everyone's mind in that market. Yes, the Ram's defender got their early and yes Rudolph extended his arms to make the winning TD catch. Screwed both times and the league never put into place procedures to seriously address the issue.
Don't know how to pull the video link from the chicagobears.com page. If someone knows how, either repost just the video or let me know and I'll try to do it.
By the way, I do believe that the league influences ref decisions with side comments to REFs about specific teams or players. I think there are teams that draw high ratings on TV and that the league likes for narrative purposes, and things just happen...Call me crazy but I've yet to see any evidence that convinces me otherwise. I know from watching the Bulls-Knicks battles in the Jordan days that you could predict with almost absolute certainty who would win a given playoff game by the crew that was assigned to the game. I believe the same thing happens in the NFL. Certain QB/Teams are given the benefit of the doubt or slow whistles. (Count the number of times a certain QB from up north manages to snap the ball with no time on the play clock compared to other QBs who get flagged the second the clock shows :00).
But, controversy drives clicks. Look at NO. The criminal reffing against them in the last two playoffs drove the conversation and kept the NFL #1 in everyone's mind in that market. Yes, the Ram's defender got their early and yes Rudolph extended his arms to make the winning TD catch. Screwed both times and the league never put into place procedures to seriously address the issue.
Well if the NFL doesn't clean up the Officiating soon a lot more fans are going to stop watching the game.