What motivates ‘the fix’?

[*rfaulk34*]

(12-12-2017, 12:29 PM)JS-Steelerfan Wrote: So, it’s been made clear by many Bengals fans that they believe the league favors the Steelers.  

But why?

The conventional wisdom is that the Steelers are popular and having them in the playoffs and in particular the Super Bowl increases ratings and therefore means more money for the league.  

But is that actually true?  Check out this list of the 13 highest rated Super Bowls.

The Steelers, despite having appeared in 8 Super Bowls, are listed only twice in that list, and both of those games occurred during the 70s.  None of their three appearances from this century even cracked the top 13.  Denver actually appeared in more of them than the Steelers, with their game against Carolina (!) actually making an appearance.  Even Seattle, with only 3 total appearances, made the list as many times as the Steelers.  And get this - one of the Cincy-SF tussles actually got much higher ratings than ANY of the Steelers Super Bowls.  

Recent Super Bowls that got higher ratings than any Steeler Super Bowl this century:
Pats-Seahawks
Pats-Giants
Broncos-Panthers (!)
Seahawks-Broncos (!)

It’s difficult to say what effect popularity of teams has on the Super Bowl ratings, but what is clear is that having the Steelers involved does not automatically guarantee ratings dominance.  So why would the NFL risk getting caught at what amounts to fraud for such a dubious ratings ‘advantage’?

Have at it, conspiracy theorists!  What else ya got?

I'm not on board the conspiracy train. Though, i do believe that teams that win consistently are given 'the benefit of the doubt' when it comes to officials and how they call games. I'd chalk it up more to human nature than anything--more sub-conscious than conscious. And i wouldn't say it's just the Steelers either. Across the board, more often than not and especially in high-profile games, the more consistently good teams get the positive side of the call over the mediocre to bad teams. 

Recent Bengals/Steelers game examples; Martavus Bryant supposed TD catch in the playoff game. Uzomah non-TD catch in the game last year(?), the Boyd fumble in the same game. If there's a close call that can't really be conclusively overturned on replay, the initial call will usually favor the better team. 

One thing that goes along with that though is, the better teams are usually better for a reason. They're more tested in tight situations and they have better players that perform better in crucial situations. 

It's a combination of those two things.