You literally have that entirety backwards.
You ABSOLUTELY need evidence, while I CERTAINLY can, and, should dismiss your claim due to your inability to produce any.
I don’t presume that the NFL will, in all cases, conduct itself with complete honesty and fairness.
I do, however, presume rational behavior. Risking the continued existence of a multi-billion dollar organization by fixing games would be an entirely irrational practice.
That doesn’t mean that the officiating is as good as it can or should be in the NFL. It’s a massive leap, though, to go from “bad officiating” to “fixing games.”
Add this to bad officiating. Belichick cheats and isn’t even suspended for one season. He has the same offense of video taping the Bengals with by a guy disguised as NFL personnel, a few years later, no suspension or ejection from the league. McDaniels gets caught doing the filming in Denver and no suspension. They don’t seem to care about looking legitimate to fans in that regard. If they did then Belichick wouldn’t be in the league at all.
Then you have the case of the guy that was hired to tape the Rams walkthrough before the Super Bowl. I think his name was Walsh. We all know that Rams players said that Martz installed new red zone plays. They thought it was odd that a man with appearing to be an NFL cameraman was their filming. When the Rams lined up in those brand new formations the Patriots defenders called out the plays. They knew the secret plays. Goodell supposedly had a meeting with the guy, but we never heard an outcome or heard about him since. More shady dealings.
After thousands of Rams fans petitioned against Bill Vinovich being the head official on the field for the 2018 seasons Super Bowl It caught their attention, and coincidentally I can’t recall any game changing calls against the Rams by their fixer Vinobitch since. In fact since that time I noticed fewer games that appeared to be thrown. They figured they had to revamp the way they were doing things, because fans were suspicious.
Like Mack said, Goodell is not a real commissioner in the sense that he has ultimate authority. He answers to the owners. He’s a figurehead. The league was especially indebted to Robert Kraft due to all of his work with the initial mega contract with the networks. Then we see Kraft gifted a Super Bowl in probably the worst officiated game in Super Bowl history and he also benefitted for years afterwards with game changing calls.
I believe that the NFL owners think fans don’t look closely enough at the details and figure in time they will forget, because they love the sport so much and cannot prove what they see. So they are safe to operate how they choose.
Then the last reason that I believe the league steers outcomes to get favored teams into the playoffs is what two of the three former NFL players I’ve met said to me - “It isn’t what you think it is.”
I’m not going to convince you that I’m right. However I do have several other reasons aside from poorly officiated games to think what I do.
