[ritehook]

As they have definitely done in the past. Tho not last year either, at least not in the Conf Championship games

Unlike in the 2005 season, and some prior seasons, where they were clearly intent upon actualizing the most desirable "storylines," by having one "hitman" official make a farcical call or two,

I think the huge stink raised, both on the Net, radio talk, and some sport TV shows, forced them to back off the big game frauding.

These two games today seemed honestly called. NE won fair and square - SD's battering ram was sitting - and the Pack and Favre were given no gifts.

Hope NFL has learned it lesson - forever.

[SBR Lou]

I thought they should have booth reviewed that play at the end of the first half with like 52 seconds left. Looked like Plaxico caught the ball, ran a couple steps until falling and the ground caused the ball to spurt out. If my interpretation of the rulebook is correct, the ground cannot cause the fumble, the receiver was not hit by a defender and looked to have secured the ball, made a football move, fall to ground then lose ball after hitting ground. 10 Secs of official conversing then they ruled it incomplete, would have gave Giants first & goal.

[ipickwinners]

explain some of the calls in the past that made it seem like it was setup to go a certain way, lets hear em

[ipickwinners]

I thought they should have booth reviewed that play at the end of the first half with like 52 seconds left. Looked like Plaxico caught the ball, ran a couple steps until falling and the ground caused the ball to spurt out. If my interpretation of the rulebook is correct, the ground cannot cause the fumble, the receiver was not hit by a defender and looked to have secured the ball, made a football move, fall to ground then lose ball after hitting ground. 10 Secs of official conversing then they ruled it incomplete, would have gave Giants first & goal.

they totally ****ed that call up with plax at the end of the 1st half, and the announcers didnt even blink an eye to say it should have been a catch, or should have been reviewed. he caught the ball, had possesion, knee landed (knee landing is equal to two feet touching the ground) then was slightly brushed by the defender coming towards him, then ball popped out. that was a catch, they ****ed that up

[ritehook]

explain some of the calls in the past that made it seem like it was setup to go a certain way, lets hear em

I'd have to get out my old notes.

But when I've time I may dig up a last year's post on that topic by myself and others.

I also noted it at length when I was a contributing writer at an online gambling site.

Just from memory: Tampa Bay in Championship game vs Greatest Show on Earth, St Louis, with terrific storylines not only in the excitement of the Ram passing game, but a great tear-jerker with born-again Christian and Quarterback Kurt Warner. Dungy and his team got screwed, by the infamous Jerry Markbreit.

Two years ago a Markbreit refereeing disciple tried to threw the big game to Indy - Dungy's son, a tragic suicide, the highly photogenic and popular with the ladies, P Manning, lots of stuff . . .

Not imagining, not refs "with a bet on the game," just the NFL ( like the NBA) thinking like all corporations, that the message always needs to masssaged. NFL is giant corporation, with worldwide ambitions. They don't want to allow some small thing like honest gamecalling screwing with a beautiful storyline.

But they seemed to have resisted the fantastic storyline of the Dreamteam Patriots vs The Grand Old Man of Pro Football, the Living Legend, Bret Favre.

Tho Crazy, see above, thinks NFL may have tried to give a nice playcalling gift to the Pack . . .

[Seattle Slew]

Didn't notice the refs too much in the games, so that's better than usual.