Be On The Lookout For The Referees

[hollodero]

(01-19-2023, 09:40 AM)Sled21 Wrote: It's not a myth. The rest of the NFL owners do not like Mike Brown. For decades when they would vote for something, Mike would be the lone vote of dissention. He doesn't go along to get along. Yeah, we got some calls in the SB, but in the last two minutes of the game, when it counts, they all of a sudden changed the way they were calling the whole game. It all of a sudden went from let them play" to a flag fest and phantom holding calls. And like was mentioned, they stood there and let Aaron Donald line up offsides on just about every play. They didn't throw a flag at Bailey last Sunday because Bailey did not commit a penalty. The easiest way to know that was a clean block is by the fact Hairball and Andrews aren't whining about it. While I don't believe the NFL flat out says "Make sure so and so wins," I do believe they let it be known who they prefer to win, and some refs go along to keep their jobs and get the post season assignments. Refs are graded, remember. 

Well, even if the other owners do not like Brown, it's still quite a stretch that they and the NFL as a whole are that disgruntled that they would order their referees to systematically disadvantage the Bengals as revenge. It's even more of a stretch since there seems to be no persuasive evidence for any such systematic disadvantagement. You just have bad calls, some in favor of the Bengals, some in favor of their opponents. Overall, the latter do not significantly outweigh the former, not in general and not in the last superbowl.