Jeff Fisher

[fearsomefour]

He should have known he didn't have help and played it straight. That's a lack of situational awareness. They go over that stuff in HS. Williams called a rotten play, but that's no excuse for a mental breakdown. IMO

Yep. No excuse for either the play call or the CB play. Selfish and greedy on both accounts.

 

[LesBaker]

If I was to subscribe to a league sponsored "plan" it would be against Williams not the Rams ,and the one thing that derails that in my mind is the enormity of financial loss if they got caught red handed ,the lawsuits from season ticket holders claiming fraud , all their tax breaks would be taken away.
The risk vs. the reward paradigm just doesn't compute for me.
With all the concussion litigation the abuse issues adding the need to cover fixing games just doesn't make sense.

Fixing games = L U L Z

 

[fearsomefour]

If I was to subscribe to a league sponsored "plan" it would be against Williams not the Rams ,and the one thing that derails that in my mind is the enormity of financial loss if they got caught red handed ,the lawsuits from season ticket holders claiming fraud , all their tax breaks would be taken away.
The risk vs. the reward paradigm just doesn't compute for me.
With all the concussion litigation the abuse issues adding the need to cover fixing games just doesn't make sense.

How dare you use logic and common sense to this topic. Nearly not allowed.
If you are a fan of a team that has been bad for years you have react emotionally, like the idiot parents you see at Pop Warner games all the time, yelling about how the refs dont want Johnnies team to win. (end of blue font)
Everything you said was dead on of course, never mind getting sued by Directv, ESPN and who else backed up the money truck to carry games.

 

[fearsomefour]

Jenkins needs to know when to take that risk and when not to and that was NOT the time for a gamble. Yeah safety help would have been nice but the only reason we are talking about no safety help is because he got juked big time.

To me there are two issues. The D call is unsound as it relates to the time left. Playing guys deep and giving up a 20 yard pass in the middle of the field does nothing. The D call created a situation where Whiners had a shot at a big play. The second part of the equation is the blitz. Williams has been blitzing a ton and getting no pressure. Keeps going back to that ineffective well.

 

[LesBaker]

To me there are two issues. The D call is unsound as it relates to the time left. Playing guys deep and giving up a 20 yard pass in the middle of the field does nothing. The D call created a situation where Whiners had a shot at a big play. The second part of the equation is the blitz. Williams has been blitzing a ton and getting no pressure. Keeps going back to that ineffective well.

Yup.

As soon as they came out in shotgun and you know its a pass you have to make sure you keep the play in front of you. That defensive alignment and Jenkins getting fooled was the opposite of what should have happened.

They didn't blitz on that play but the D was shifted to the other side and JJ was on an island. He should know better.

 

[thirteen28]

I will have to rewatch the play, if I can bring myself to it.
SF had two horrifically bad calls go against them vs. Arizona earlier this year. I guess Arizona is more of a darling than SF? It doesnt matter.
The Rams had under 20 yards of offense most of the second half. JJ also got away with a blatant PI that didnt get called in the second half. I am not defending the refs, just, the old speculation of this being an intentional thing always rings hallow with me, for reasons covered in previous threads.
Agree to disagree I suppose.

Ok, so they(the 49ers) had two lousy calls go against them in one game. And they had a missed PI call in the second half of a game in which they were firmly in control at the time.

Week 1 - multiple Vikings scoring drives extended by dubious "roughing the passer" and "unnecessary roughness penalties". True, I don't think we would have won that game anyway, but those bad calls are still there and probably helped make the result look worse than it should have.

Week 2 - again, multiple scoring drives extended by dubious "roughing" penalties, and two painfully obvious false starts (both OT's) on a play that resulted in a TD. We won, but barely, and probably would have won comfortably without the bad calls.

Week 3 - Romo throws a bomb to Dez in which he gained time to do so from a hold so blatantly obvious the Helen fcking Keller could have seen it. Fisher counts 12 uncalled holding penalties against Dallas. Another drive is extended by a roughing call in which Sims arm basically grazed Romo's shoulder pad. Late in the game when we have a chance to force them into a 3rd and long, Sims makes a sack (you know, how good teams overcome these things?) ... and the refs throw a dubious flag for defensive holding. Crucial point in the game, they get a fresh set of downs that for all intents and purposes seals the victory for them.

Week 4 - Probably the best officiated game the Rams have been involved in, and most of the loss was us shooting ourselves in the foot. Philly didn't need much help after we fell behind 34-7. Still, their LT was moving early all day, I don't recall him ever getting flagged for it though.

Week 5 - We discussed this ad nauseum already, but I'll refresh: phantom PI takes us out of scoring range just before halftime, 9er's score on a play that should have come back from blatant holding and turns a potential 17-3 or 21-3 lead into a 14-10 lead while shifting momentum. Missed holding calls on both other 49er offensive TD's of the 2nd half.

That's a lot of evidence. I would like to be able to accept that it was merely incompetence, but incompetence would be random. What I have spelled out above is not random at all, it is a very strong trend. Four of five games played by the Rams have been marred by atrocious officiating that is heavily biased in one direction.

I would love to believe it's not intentional too, but again, there is no way you can chalk up that which is outlined above to mere randomness. It's simply too one-sided to be a mere statistical anomaly.

At the end of they day, I don't know why this is happening. I can only speculate on motives and reasons behind it. At best, it's a strong but unconscious bias, the second word there being key and something that the NFL should take affirmative steps to correct.

Is it more than unconscious bias? I don't know. I do know that I don't like grand conspiracy theories that have a lot of moving parts, in fact I tend to be very skeptical of those and even here I wouldn't say that's the case. But it doesn't have to rise to that to pass the mere threshold of whether this is more than just simple but unconscious bias.

Regardless, I'm not going to ignore the strong evidence that is staring me right in the face.

 

[BigRamFan]

Ok, so they had two lousy calls go against them in one game. And they had a missed PI call in the second half of a game in which they were firmly in control at the time.

Week 1 - multiple Vikings scoring drives extended by dubious "roughing the passer" and "unnecessary roughness penalties". True, I don't think we would have won that game anyway, but those bad calls are still there and probably helped make the result look worse than it should have.

Week 2 - again, multiple scoring drives extended by dubious "roughing" penalties, and two painfully obvious false starts (both OT's) on a play that resulted in a TD. We won, but barely, and probably would have won comfortably without the bad calls.

Week 3 - Romo throws a bomb to Dez in which he gained time to do so from a hold so blatantly obvious the Helen fcking Keller could have seen it. Fisher counts 12 uncalled holding penalties against Dallas. Another drive is extended by a roughing call in which Sims arm basically grazed Romo's shoulder pad. Late in the game when we have a chance to force them into a 3rd and long, Sims makes a sack (you know, how good teams overcome these things?) ... and the refs throw a dubious flag for defensive holding. Crucial point in the game, they get a fresh set of downs that for all intents and purposes seals the victory for them.

Week 4 - Probably the best officiated game the Rams have been involved in, and most of the loss was us shooting ourselves in the foot. Philly didn't need much help after we fell behind 34-7. Still, their LT was moving early all day, I don't recall him ever getting flagged for it though.

Week 5 - We discussed this ad nauseum already, but I'll refresh: phantom PI takes us out of scoring range just before halftime, 9er's score on a play that should have come back from blatant holding and turns a potential 17-3 or 21-3 lead into a 14-10 lead while shifting momentum. Missed holding calls on both other 49er offensive TD's of the 2nd half.

That's a lot of evidence. I would like to be able to accept that it was merely incompetence, but incompetence would be random. What I have spelled out above is not random at all, it is a very strong trend. Four of five games played by the Rams have been marred by atrocious officiating that is heavily biased in one direction.

I would love to believe it's not intentional too, but again, there is no way you can chalk up that which is outlined above to mere randomness. It's simply too one-sided to be a mere statistical anomaly.

At the end of they day, I don't know why this is happening. I can only speculate on motives and reasons behind it. At best, it's a strong but unconscious bias, the second word there being key and something that the NFL should take affirmative steps to correct.

Is it more than unconscious bias? I don't know. I do know that I don't like grand conspiracy theories that have a lot of moving parts, in fact I tend to be very skeptical of those and even here I wouldn't say that's the case. But it doesn't have to rise to that to pass the mere threshold of whether this is more than just simple but unconscious bias.

Regardless, I'm not going to ignore the strong evidence that is staring me right in the face.

@thirteen28 well done, my Brother, well done!

 

[Rmfnlt]

Hello everyone, new to the this forum and like many of you, I was fuming last night with all the bad officiating, conservative play calling and poor QB play. Having said that, I never believed Fisher was a great hire, but at the time of his hire he was the "best" available. He's a .500 coach and is not the one that will lead a team over the hump. I would be surprised if he is retained after this year.

I think he will be retained, but on a very short leash (caveat: if the team really goes down in flames the remainder of this year and he loses his players, all bets are off)

I agree he in not as good as many are led to believe. He has created an image and people buy in.

 

[fearsomefour]

Ok, so they had two lousy calls go against them in one game. And they had a missed PI call in the second half of a game in which they were firmly in control at the time.

Week 1 - multiple Vikings scoring drives extended by dubious "roughing the passer" and "unnecessary roughness penalties". True, I don't think we would have won that game anyway, but those bad calls are still there and probably helped make the result look worse than it should have.

Week 2 - again, multiple scoring drives extended by dubious "roughing" penalties, and two painfully obvious false starts (both OT's) on a play that resulted in a TD. We won, but barely, and probably would have won comfortably without the bad calls.

Week 3 - Romo throws a bomb to Dez in which he gained time to do so from a hold so blatantly obvious the Helen fcking Keller could have seen it. Fisher counts 12 uncalled holding penalties against Dallas. Another drive is extended by a roughing call in which Sims arm basically grazed Romo's shoulder pad. Late in the game when we have a chance to force them into a 3rd and long, Sims makes a sack (you know, how good teams overcome these things?) ... and the refs throw a dubious flag for defensive holding. Crucial point in the game, they get a fresh set of downs that for all intents and purposes seals the victory for them.

Week 4 - Probably the best officiated game the Rams have been involved in, and most of the loss was us shooting ourselves in the foot. Philly didn't need much help after we fell behind 34-7. Still, their LT was moving early all day, I don't recall him ever getting flagged for it though.

Week 5 - We discussed this ad nauseum already, but I'll refresh: phantom PI takes us out of scoring range just before halftime, 9er's score on a play that should have come back from blatant holding and turns a potential 17-3 or 21-3 lead into a 14-10 lead while shifting momentum. Missed holding calls on both other 49er offensive TD's of the 2nd half.

That's a lot of evidence. I would like to be able to accept that it was merely incompetence, but incompetence would be random. What I have spelled out above is not random at all, it is a very strong trend. Four of five games played by the Rams have been marred by atrocious officiating that is heavily biased in one direction.

I would love to believe it's not intentional too, but again, there is no way you can chalk up that which is outlined above to mere randomness. It's simply too one-sided to be a mere statistical anomaly.

At the end of they day, I don't know why this is happening. I can only speculate on motives and reasons behind it. At best, it's a strong but unconscious bias, the second word there being key and something that the NFL should take affirmative steps to correct.

Is it more than unconscious bias? I don't know. I do know that I don't like grand conspiracy theories that have a lot of moving parts, in fact I tend to be very skeptical of those and even here I wouldn't say that's the case. But it doesn't have to rise to that to pass the mere threshold of whether this is more than just simple but unconscious bias.

Regardless, I'm not going to ignore the strong evidence that is staring me right in the face.

I have had the exact same conversation with a Whiner fan (Whiners have had a ton of flags)(who is a football coach), Raider fans, Charger fans ect.
I see what you are saying. I just dont buy it. There is no reason for it.
The holding/lack of holding is driving me batty. I have seen many fewer hold calls this season across the board. When they are called it seems to be nothing out of the ordinary. If I believed what you were saying I would never watch another game....what would be the point? No different than wrestling at that point.

 

[Tron]

Another no call that pissed me off was the obvious austin Davis helmet hit. They even showed the replay in slow motion with the defender cleary hitting his helmet with his arm/hand. We get called for hitting a QB in the shoulder with a hand and this doesn't get called for anything.

 

[Rmfnlt]

To those that think the Rams are being singled out and being penalized incorrectly, I have a question:

So, other than complaining about it here, do you expect could be done about it?

 

[Stranger]

If I was to subscribe to a league sponsored "plan" it would be against Williams not the Rams ,and the one thing that derails that in my mind is the enormity of financial loss if they got caught red handed ,the lawsuits from season ticket holders claiming fraud , all their tax breaks would be taken away.
The risk vs. the reward paradigm just doesn't compute for me.
With all the concussion litigation the abuse issues adding the need to cover fixing games just doesn't make sense.

All we can do is speculate on the reasons why, I agree with you there. But there are more reasons than simply financial to manipulate the sport in the way that we are seeing. And I don't agree that the NFL takes any risk whatsoever in conducting itself in this manner, as it's interests are perfectly aligned with the larger system. I think it might be helpful to consider the lessons learned from the Roman's use of sports & entertainment to help "manage" the masses, but a more indepth discussion of this would be way outside the scope of this forum. As far as the patterns that we're seeing, I think it's pretty clear that the pattern is biased and not random. @thirteen28 does a pretty good job addressing this in the following quoted post.

Ok, so they(the 49ers) had two lousy calls go against them in one game. And they had a missed PI call in the second half of a game in which they were firmly in control at the time.

Week 1 - multiple Vikings scoring drives extended by dubious "roughing the passer" and "unnecessary roughness penalties". True, I don't think we would have won that game anyway, but those bad calls are still there and probably helped make the result look worse than it should have.

Week 2 - again, multiple scoring drives extended by dubious "roughing" penalties, and two painfully obvious false starts (both OT's) on a play that resulted in a TD. We won, but barely, and probably would have won comfortably without the bad calls.

Week 3 - Romo throws a bomb to Dez in which he gained time to do so from a hold so blatantly obvious the Helen fcking Keller could have seen it. Fisher counts 12 uncalled holding penalties against Dallas. Another drive is extended by a roughing call in which Sims arm basically grazed Romo's shoulder pad. Late in the game when we have a chance to force them into a 3rd and long, Sims makes a sack (you know, how good teams overcome these things?) ... and the refs throw a dubious flag for defensive holding. Crucial point in the game, they get a fresh set of downs that for all intents and purposes seals the victory for them.

Week 4 - Probably the best officiated game the Rams have been involved in, and most of the loss was us shooting ourselves in the foot. Philly didn't need much help after we fell behind 34-7. Still, their LT was moving early all day, I don't recall him ever getting flagged for it though.

Week 5 - We discussed this ad nauseum already, but I'll refresh: phantom PI takes us out of scoring range just before halftime, 9er's score on a play that should have come back from blatant holding and turns a potential 17-3 or 21-3 lead into a 14-10 lead while shifting momentum. Missed holding calls on both other 49er offensive TD's of the 2nd half.

That's a lot of evidence. I would like to be able to accept that it was merely incompetence, but incompetence would be random. What I have spelled out above is not random at all, it is a very strong trend. Four of five games played by the Rams have been marred by atrocious officiating that is heavily biased in one direction.

I would love to believe it's not intentional too, but again, there is no way you can chalk up that which is outlined above to mere randomness. It's simply too one-sided to be a mere statistical anomaly.

At the end of they day, I don't know why this is happening. I can only speculate on motives and reasons behind it. At best, it's a strong but unconscious bias, the second word there being key and something that the NFL should take affirmative steps to correct.

Is it more than unconscious bias? I don't know. I do know that I don't like grand conspiracy theories that have a lot of moving parts, in fact I tend to be very skeptical of those and even here I wouldn't say that's the case. But it doesn't have to rise to that to pass the mere threshold of whether this is more than just simple but unconscious bias.

Regardless, I'm not going to ignore the strong evidence that is staring me right in the face.

To those that think the Rams are being singled out and being penalized incorrectly, I have a question:

So, other than complaining about it here, do you expect could be done about it?

Stop watching the sport, stop buying NFL licensed products.

Additionally, this forum is read by Manhattan advertising firms and representatives of TV (and other media) execs. If public opinion becomes a problem, the NFL will "adjust" it's current game management practices.

 

[thirteen28]

I have had the exact same conversation with a Whiner fan (Whiners have had a ton of flags)(who is a football coach), Raider fans, Charger fans ect.
I see what you are saying. I just dont buy it. There is no reason for it.
The holding/lack of holding is driving me batty. I have seen many fewer hold calls this season across the board. When they are called it seems to be nothing out of the ordinary. If I believed what you were saying I would never watch another game....what would be the point? No different than wrestling at that point.

No, it wouldn't be like wrestling. In professional wrestling, the winner is determined before either of the participants steps into the ring, and much of the flow of the "contest" is also choreographed in advance. That is a conspiracy, albeit one that is open and well-known to most people. I explicitly rejected the grand conspiracy idea, but there is a continuum between that and simple, random incompetence and poor judgment.

Officiating in the NBA is also extremely subjective, and they have actually discovered that there was at least one crooked ref there. And that ref was involved in a game (game 6 of the 2002 of the West finals between LA and Sacramento) that is notoriously infamous for the poor officiating. If you can look at the outcome of that game and tell me it was fairly called and on the level, please contact me about a bridge I have to sell. It's a really nice bridge, pinky swear. I prefer payment in cash only, small unmarked bills, please.

You can choose to believe what you wish. I've laid out the evidence, we've all seen it. Once about 20 years ago, a lot of people, contrary to virtually all of the evidence, believed that OJ Simpson didn't murder his ex-wife, a jury included. That doesn't change the evidence to the contrary though.

 

[beej]

I think he will be retained, but on a very short leash (caveat: if the team really goes down in flames the remainder of this year and he loses his players, all bets are off)

I agree he in not as good as many are led to believe. He has created an image and people buy in.

In wrestling the players are all in on the choreography. I'm thinking it's more like the hunger games where officials just put up roadblocks for the non favs. And let what ever happens, happen in the name of parity.

 

[fearsomefour]

No, it wouldn't be like wrestling. In professional wrestling, the winner is determined before either of the participants steps into the ring, and much of the flow of the "contest" is also choreographed in advance. That is a conspiracy, albeit one that is open and well-known to most people. I explicitly rejected the grand conspiracy idea, but there is a continuum between that and simple, random incompetence and poor judgment.

Officiating in the NBA is also extremely subjective, and they have actually discovered that there was at least one crooked ref there. And that ref was involved in a game (game 6 of the 2002 of the West finals between LA and Sacramento) that is notoriously infamous for the poor officiating. If you can look at the outcome of that game and tell me it was fairly called and on the level, please contact me about a bridge I have to sell. It's a really nice bridge, pinky swear. I prefer payment in cash only, small unmarked bills, please.

You can choose to believe what you wish. I've laid out the evidence, we've all seen it. Once about 20 years ago, a lot of people, contrary to virtually all of the evidence, believed that OJ Simpson didn't murder his ex-wife, a jury included. That doesn't change the evidence to the contrary though.

Ok, I accept your take as wrestling being a bad comparison.
In terms of "evidence" you have shown bad calls going against the Rams, or non calls hurting the team. There is evidence of nothing but bad calls, which is not being disputed by anyone.
It leaves one with only a couple of options. Incompetence or a conspiracy. "Steering" results is not the same as ordering a result by it is not all that different. In otherwords the refs would be under direction to do this.
From whom? Goodell operating on his own? A small group of conspiratorial owners acting without the knowledge of the rest of the league? All of the owners?
To what ends? Vague ideas abou future ratings, big markets or tv contracts years away are not logical.
Of course history gives us plenty of examples of smart people doing dumb things and of organizations being corrupted. The thing that is missing here is a benefit a reason to make a conscious effort to screw over a marginal franchise.

 

[thirteen28]

Ok, I accept your take as wrestling being a bad comparison.
In terms of "evidence" you have shown bad calls going against the Rams, or non calls hurting the team. There is evidence of nothing but bad calls, which is not being disputed by anyone.
It leaves one with only a couple of options. Incompetence or a conspiracy. "Steering" results is not the same as ordering a result by it is not all that different. In otherwords the refs would be under direction to do this.
From whom? Goodell operating on his own? A small group of conspiratorial owners acting without the knowledge of the rest of the league? All of the owners?
To what ends? Vague ideas abou future ratings, big markets or tv contracts years away are not logical.
Of course history gives us plenty of examples of smart people doing dumb things and of organizations being corrupted. The thing that is missing here is a benefit a reason to make a conscious effort to screw over a marginal franchise.

There is evidence and there is motive. They are two separate questions.

As I said before, I don't know what the answer is to the "why" part. To what ends? I wish I knew.

To what end did the officials hose us in the Super Bowl against the Patriots? I don't know, but the evidence is there that it happened.

To what end did the officials hose the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl appearance vs. the Steelers? I don't know, but it happened.

At the end of the day, I really don't care as much about WHY it's happening, I just want it to STOP happening. As fans, we deserve to see our team play on a level playing field as much as any other franchise, and I'm not going to cut the officials of the league any slack with platitudes like "good teams overcome bad calls" when the bad calls are virtually a weekly fact for the Rams.

 

[jrry32]

Week 1 - multiple Vikings scoring drives extended by dubious "roughing the passer" and "unnecessary roughness penalties". True, I don't think we would have won that game anyway, but those bad calls are still there and probably helped make the result look worse than it should have.

Week 5 - We discussed this ad nauseum already, but I'll refresh: phantom PI takes us out of scoring range just before halftime, 9er's score on a play that should have come back from blatant holding and turns a potential 17-3 or 21-3 lead into a 14-10 lead while shifting momentum. Missed holding calls on both other 49er offensive TD's of the 2nd half.

A couple things to add...in Week 1, Quinn stripped Cassel from behind on what would have been a scoop and score fumble TD. Refs called it an incomplete pass.

In Week 5, the Rams stopped SF on 3rd down on their first drive of the 2nd half...the refs called a weak arse defensive holding call on T.J. McDonald to extend the drive.

 

[thirteen28]

A couple things to add...in Week 1, Quinn stripped Cassel from behind on what would have been a scoop and score fumble TD. Refs called it an incomplete pass.

In Week 5, the Rams stopped SF on 3rd down on their first drive of the 2nd half...the refs called a weak arse defensive holding call on T.J. McDonald to extend the drive.

Yep, forgot about those, particularly the first one. And that one occurred well before the Vikings had gained any real momentum.

 

[Stranger]

Ok, I accept your take as wrestling being a bad comparison.
In terms of "evidence" you have shown bad calls going against the Rams, or non calls hurting the team. There is evidence of nothing but bad calls, which is not being disputed by anyone.
It leaves one with only a couple of options. Incompetence or a conspiracy. "Steering" results is not the same as ordering a result by it is not all that different. In otherwords the refs would be under direction to do this.
From whom? Goodell operating on his own? A small group of conspiratorial owners acting without the knowledge of the rest of the league? All of the owners?
To what ends? Vague ideas abou future ratings, big markets or tv contracts years away are not logical.
Of course history gives us plenty of examples of smart people doing dumb things and of organizations being corrupted. The thing that is missing here is a benefit a reason to make a conscious effort to screw over a marginal franchise.

The NFL is a social engineering tool that sidelines as an entertainment business. They've hired the son of a NY Senator to run things, and I'm sure he's well versed in the tactics. The goals are multi-fold. Let's speculate on some of them, shall we:

• Personal - Goodhell & Owners are exerting their power over a franchise that departed from the wishes of the owner's cartel and departed the LA Market (just ask Al Davis & the Raiders how vindictive the NFL cartel can be).
• Personal - Goodhell is targeting DC Williams, as this is part of his continued punishment
• Market - Goodhell is attempting to weaken Kroenke's position with StL gov't re: a renegotiated stadium deal by weakening local fan base & fan revenues through repetitive losing seasons. This is part of a larger agenda to "pursuade" Kroenke to move the Rams back to LA
• Power - certain owners, and their teams, get preferential treatment based upon their connections. The Rooney family is a great example of this (US Ambassador, Hollywood celebrities, relevant business circles). Kroenke & Roosenbloom aren't in the right circles.
• Social - Televised sports today is an analog for power relationships. Cheering for a team is a way of building into people irrational submissiveness to power... a form of creating passive submission to formal authority structures. Artificially improving the performance of some teams over others increases the fan base of these higher performing teams, making those team's cities more appealing, more powerful, and their fanbase more submissive. StL is no longer important from a geopolitical or global business perspective, but San Francisco & Los Angeles most certainly are. Hence, it's critical that the populations in these regions be more submission to power than populations in regions that are relatively unimportant.
• Marketing - the NFL marketing department seeks to manage outcomes in order to provide a media story consistent with marketing goals in order to increase positive media attention, increase reach & therefore revenues

Is this enough to get the conversation moving in a more serious direction?

 

[Dieter the Brock]

The NFL is a social engineering tool that sidelines as an entertainment business. They've hired the son of a NY Senator to run things, and I'm sure he's well versed in the tactics. The goals are multi-fold. Let's speculate on some of them, shall we:

• Personal - Goodhell & Owners are exerting their power over a franchise that departed from the wishes of the owner's cartel and departed the LA Market (just ask Al Davis & the Raiders how vindictive the NFL cartel can be).
• Personal - Goodhell is targeting DC Williams, as this is part of his continued punishment
• Market - Goodhell is attempting to weaken Kroenke's position with StL gov't re: a renegotiated stadium deal by weakening local fan base & fan revenues through repetitive losing seasons. This is part of a larger agenda to "pursuade" Kroenke to move the Rams back to LA
• Power - certain owners, and their teams, get preferential treatment based upon their connections. The Rooney family is a great example of this (US Ambassador, Hollywood celebrities, relevant business circles). Kroenke & Roosenbloom aren't in the right circles.
• Social - Televised sports today is an analog for power relationships. Cheering for a team is a way of building into people irrational submissiveness to power... a form of creating passive submission to formal authority structures. Artificially improving the performance of some teams over others increases the fan base of these higher performing teams, making those team's cities more appealing, more powerful, and their fanbase more submissive. StL is no longer important from a geopolitical or global business perspective, but San Francisco & Los Angeles most certainly are. Hence, it's critical that the populations in these regions be more submission to power than populations in regions that are relatively unimportant.
• Marketing - the NFL marketing department seeks to manage outcomes in order to provide a media story consistent with marketing goals in order to increase positive media attention, increase reach & therefore revenues

Is this enough to get the conversation moving in a more serious direction?

This might all be well and true

But doesn't change the fact we can't tackle, cover , not foul, or develop players
Same can be said for Cleveland but they seem to have a winning record despite all the ugliness