There's certainly an argument that can be made about money, poor referee quality, and "make-up calls" all combining to make football an unwatchable game today. As for money, who sells the most gear? who's actually making the money in this billionaire's league? who's fans are sitting in the seats in the now 1/2 empty stadiums? it's not like there were rams fans buying 1/2 of the tickets in Heinz field, but we sure see a lot of opposing fans sitting in Coliseum seats (offered up by LA season ticket holders). The fans who pay the money to buy all the gear & tickets are the ones who seem to be getting the favorable calls.
Poor refereeing may simply be a matter of educating them & paying them full-time, but I suspect it's got more to do with the money so I'll move on.
So, yeah, the non-PI that went NRC's way in the NFC Championship Game was a black eye on the league. And just like in baseball, when an ump clearly blows a strike call, he'll make up for it on the next pitch. I feel like we're getting a whole season's worth of "make-up calls" against us because, and this is just a guess but it makes sense, the league CANNOT have the Rams in the playoffs again. Fans of the game will just turn off the TV. So, to satisfy the average NFL fan, we have to make up for our sins of winning the NFC last year due to a "blown call".
I put that in quotes because maybe we were given a few favorable calls last year because SK was in the middle of building the most expensive NFL shrine in the country, and needed to sell PSL's? please don't hate on me, but this also makes sense -- it wasn't just the NRC non-PI call, we had a LOT of non-calls that went our way last year. We seemed to have one of the best OL's in the league but Havenstein was basically a holding machine last season; the Clowney non-call is case-in-point. I saw him choke-hold many DE's last season. Whit too. But this season? we suddenly have OL "issues" because they're calling us on it now.
Sound crazy? yet when Levi Stadium was due to open soon, suddenly the 49'ers got "hot". But, didn't Justin Smith have a few too many defensive holding non-calls go his way? wasn't that really the reason that the 9'ers defense was so "good" that year? Justin would basically mug an OL while a LB or looping DE shot the wide open gap. No call. But, suddenly, the very next season, it's "we gotta clean up this defensive holding problem". But by that time the PSL's were sold so the league can "fix" that problem now. And then Justin and Willis retire....
Not sure what else to say.... I tend to sympathize with the conspiracy crowd because there's too many obvious patterns. It doesn't seem to be the same league as it was when I was growing up, but reality it's not -- this is a billionaire's league now, and money will always talk.
I still say Go Rams & will keep following them, but my growing suspicions just won't go away.
