Disturbed;3085870 said:
I know that three weeks ago it seemed that dominate teams where winning easy and many were saying that parity in the league was over. Vegas could not set good odds because teams were covering easy. Then mysteriously overnight, the NFL changed and good teams started losing and contests have been very close...with many bad teams winning games we could not imagine a few weeks ago. Now it seems parity is back...
What changed, the refs have made a very big impact over the past few weeks and influenced games to please the money (NFL, Vegas, etc)...
People say you are crazy when you make posts lie this, but I agree. When free agency came in 20 years ago, then comish Paul Taglibue went on record saying the NFL wanted to have two different teams in the SB every year, much like the NBA offen has different teams. I think using the refs to accomplish this was a logical "business decision" for the NFL to accomplish this goal. What he got was a Cowboys dynasty followed by a NE dynasty.
SB XL was a gift from the refs so the Steelers so Cower could finally get one after almost 20 years, and Bettis could go out on a high note. Remember the botched coin toss??
Nobody gets more help from the refs than Peyton Manning. I don't like NE but they made that 1st down the other night, and that bad call led to BB's gaff. But then they've won enough SBs. Let's give someone else a chance!
The MN game against TB several years ago was the worst I've ever seen when they gave the Colts a 2 minute warning at 2:03 and again, yes again!, at 1:58. The league actually fined that ref $50K, probably not for helping the Colts, but for being so obvious about it.
I can't see us beating the 'Skins this week because this team is so fragile they cannot win if any starter goes down. Look what happened last year when Kosier went out. Add to it that the Skins seem to beat us anytime they want the last few years, plus they have some outstanding defensive players and I see this as a rout, maybe as bad as 35-7 or 42-10, 'Skins. Don' kid yourself that this is a "different team" as Wade likes to say. It's all the same coaches and a lot of the same players so the results will likely be the same...