CFZ Just be aware of the business end of the NFL

[Jake]

I'm pretty sure it was a business, run by some of the same billionaires, when the Cowboys were winning Super Bowls.

Were those fixed, too?

 

[Rockport]

The nfl is sports entertainment, like wrestling. Scripted for the best outcome/revenue. Been proven in court already if you followed such things.

So who is doing what, why and how? No one can answer this.

 

[grgnfg420]

Maybe it's because the powers that be knew that the Cowboys fan base would stand the longest while other teams got new Stadiums, built the economies of their cities, and built their fan base.

Lol they guessed right

 

[grgnfg420]

Honestly with the refs it feels personal. Not that there out there doing the bidding of others.

I think some referees just hate the cowboys

 

[Shane612]

I've often wonder how a NBA team can be up by 25 at the half and still lose, or win by 4 or less in the end.
.
We're told that basketball is game of scoring runs, but I think NBA brass instructs the refs to try and make the games close, for entertainment. And super stars like James, Doncic and Greek Freak will not foul out more than 2 times in a season. And never in the finals.

 

[Jarv]

Being defined as “ sports entertainment “ only protected the league from liability in court. It didn’t define it as Fake Football like Wrestling.

Since I and others, basically no one has to believe the nfl isn't fixed. Since 1969 I have dedicated 3 hours 14 then 16 and now 17 days a year. I will continue to do the same, what can I say, oldhabbits die hard

Obviously the rules and game has changed since the 60s and 70s as has the scoring (way up). Much more so than any other sport I at least mildly follow. I ask myself why is that? Why has the "catch rule" been changed so much that even professional announcers admitted they were confused at times?

Sis you watch the Seattle vs Pitt super bowl? The New Orleans playoff game? The Cowboys going an unheard amount games without getting a holding call against opposing teams after Jerry fought the Goodell contract?

I'll still watch my Cowboys games, it's like a religion to me...lol. But my faith in their truism of the sport vs greedy manipulation of results for maximum profit is something they have to prove to me, the fan more so than I have to prove to you (no offense intended) or anyone of claims we are conspiracy artist.

NFL, open the curtains and prove me wrong! I would love to be proven wrong that at least some games aren't scripted or fixed. I certainly reject the need for me to prove it since I'm the consumer not the producer of the product.

 

[JBond]

I wholeheartedly disagree with the sentiment of this note. I’ve been hearing variations of this NFL conspiracy theories for the 40 years I have been watching the NFL and have never seen any evidence of this kind of top level conspiracy to manipulate games, outcomes, etc.



I’m not so close minded to think it’s impossible, however, very much in the camp of “prove it”…



in my experience people I know who believe the NFL is rigged believe most other aspects of life are “rigged” as well….

As the $$$$ get bigger, so do the reasons to believe the OP may not be far off the mark. Not a conspiracy guy. You all know me. Just saying money, huge money changes things. I really wish the NFL had stayed away from the betting industry.

 

[glimmerman]

Many bad calls all over the league. If anything I wonder if refs aren’t making calls to keep the games close or keep the line for betting. It’s a big business. Some people can be swayed.

 

[Scotman]

Ah yes…”The NFL hates the Cowboys and wants them to lose by using bad refs” conspiracy…from a league that can’t accurately define a catch or coordinate the removal of Dan Snyder. But I’m sure they can pull off having dozens of referees all work in prefect harmony together to screw the Cowboys…and then never leak a word of it.

SMH.

I can't get the three of us in my family to agree on what to have for lunch. But I'm supposed to believe there's a league-wide conspiracy being agreed on, who then sticking with that plan for years on end, with no one coming forward with proof at some point? No one can convince me that Jerry would ever sign off on a plan that keeps the Cowboys losing for a quarter century. Jerry alone would expose the whole thing as a charade if he had to endure years of people thinking he actually needed Jimmy.

 

[Einstein]

Not buying it fully... have you watched the TERRIBLE games on Amazon? A new provider, you would think the NFL would want them to be successful.

 

[SteveTheCowboy]

So who is doing what, why and how? No one can answer this.

I've always thought the refs wanted parity. I don't think they want dynasties. Billichek/Brady is an exception no other team has duplicated not even them when they separated.

Certain legit....rules and policies? seem to bear this out. Other things might be more ...covert. Not necessarily intentional. An example I have that I believe holds water...is when GODell and Jerry feud. If you are a GODell underling....would you DARE give Dallas the benefit of doubt? Would you take an opportunity to make them look bad? You might gain favor with The Man. Or wraith, as the case may be.

I know (okay...feeel?) GODell did NOT want Dallas winning 2017-2018 era. Why wouldn't his agenda permeate through the system?

Again...I am not sure there's anything intentional...but I know how humans work, especially in a political hierarchy like NFL.

 

[RonnieT24]

I can't get the three of us in my family to agree on what to have for lunch. But I'm supposed to believe there's a league-wide conspiracy being agreed on, who then sticking with that plan for years on end, with no one coming forward with proof at some point? No one can convince me that Jerry would ever sign off on a plan that keeps the Cowboys losing for a quarter century. Jerry alone would expose the whole thing as a charade if he had to endure years of people thinking he actually needed Jimmy.

The flaw in the "league-wide conspiracy" argument is that people act as if all the refs and all the employees of the NFL have to be in on it. The fact of the matter is that it doesn't need to be a "league-wide conspiracy." It can be accomplished with maybe a dozen or so refs sprinkled around the different crews. One or two guys on a crew can absolutely work you. And here's where I do my annual rant. These are the Dallas Cowboys.. they are simultaneously the most loved and most hated team in the league. What does that mean? It means that half the population loves them and the other half hates them. Most of the refs in the league are of a certain age.. They all became refs because they are football fans and wanted to be part of the game. So they were a fan of some team growing up. Odds are that for half of them that team was NOT the Cowboys. The ones who are in my age group spent their formative years watching the Cowboys beat the hell out of their favorite team. Then after a brief hiatus their kids got to spend their formative years watching the Cowboys beat the hell out of THEIR favorite team. So a lot of these refs grew up hating the Cowboys. Roger Goodell's family had Commander season tickets.. How do you think HE feels about the Cowboys? Somewhere deep inside him (and all those refs) there is a 10 year old boy who is screaming at the TV "Why can't they tackle that Staubach guy?" And that 10 year old boy whispers in that ref's ear sometimes when he is about to throw a flag on our opponent or against us.

All of that is to say it doesn't need to be a conspiracy for things to happen in unison if people are of like mind to begin with. When you get up and drive to work every morning there are likely tens of thousands of people on the road with you at the same time. Did you all get on a conference call and decide to meet out on the freeway? Or did you all come to the conclusion that you need to get to work at roughly the same time without ever discussing it with anybody? With regard to how the Cowboys are treated by the NFL front office and the refs, there doesn't need tobe any conspiracy. The guy in charge of discipline is an ex Eagle. The Commissioner of the league grew up a Commander season ticket holder. The league main offices are in New York City. If you walk through the NFL offices how many of those Calvin pissing on the Cowboys logo wall stickers or screen savers do you think you would find?

 

[xwalker]

That’s an interesting point about the ref unions vs replay guys…But college officiating better? Have you seen a Big 12 game this year? Lol. Not sure about college refs being better.

IMO, the biggest problem with officiating is the game is over regulated by the NFL. Having watched NFL games for 5+ decades, the games 30-40 years ago were much better officiated than today because of these simple reasons:

1. They had far less rules to officiate.
2. There was much less expected of refs. Todays fans expect near perfection and as long as humans are making the calls, there will be errors. TV replays show much more of the game’s intricate action than years ago.
   
3. Offensive holding used to be much easier to spot because you weren’t able to use your hands at all to block until the late 70s. Nowadays, players are allowed to use hands much more freely which makes holding much more difficult to call accurately.

Bottom line for me on officiating- I think the game is way over regulated. When the guys in stripes get as much air time as the star players it’s bad for the game. The NFL rules committee IMO has made officiating way too difficult.

They unionized in 72 but it wasn't until the nineties that they started to take a hard stance against many things the league wanted to implement.

Any average fan could have come up with a reasonable replay process but it took a couple of decades for the NFL to implement something close to reasonable but it's still lacking.

The league wanted replay of pass interference but the refs refused to use it.

The union resists any attempts to really evaluate refs and push out the bad ones. There is an eval process but it politicized to the point of being worthless.

There is obvious bias on the individual ref level. I don't know about conspiracy but definitely each ref brings their own biases.

A blogger once posted a map of where refs were from and it showed a heavy concentration in the Northeast despite more college refs coming from the South and West than the Northeast.

The refs from the Cowboys-Raiders game last year should have all been fired. There seemed to be universal criticism of the officiating in that game from media, fans and ex players/coaches.

College officiating is simplified and they enacted replay quickly once they decided to do it. It's not perfect but it's definitely not worse than the NFL.

 

[MarcusRock]

Most of the refs in the league are of a certain age.. They all became refs because they are football fans and wanted to be part of the game. So they were a fan of some team growing up. Odds are that for half of them that team was NOT the Cowboys. The ones who are in my age group spent their formative years watching the Cowboys beat the hell out of their favorite team.

And magically, this doesn't apply to the Steelers, who beat the hell out of more teams than we did. Or the Raiders, or the Dolphins, or the Packers or the Vikings or any other successful teams of yesteryear. Wow, we must be the unluckiest team on the planet to have them zero in on us like that. What are the odds? Lol.

 

[RonnieT24]

And magically, this doesn't apply to the Steelers, who beat the hell out of more teams than we did. Or the Raiders, or the Dolphins, or the Packers or the Vikings or any other successful teams of yesteryear. Wow, we must be the unluckiest team on the planet to have them zero in on us like that. What are the odds? Lol.

No they didn't. The Cowboys were already on a 6 year run of being in the playoffs before the Steeler made their first appearance in '72. They had been a complete garbage franchise up to that point. They won 21 games TOTAL between 1966 and 1971. During that span the Cowboys won 63 and a went to two Super Bowls winning one. Yes the Steelers were more successful overall for the next 10 years but not by a 42 game margin!!! Neither the Raiders, Vikings, Dolphins or Packers matched the Cowboys 20 year run of winning seasons from '66 to '86. No team in professional sports ever has. I think that's still true.. I think the Spurs were closing in on it at one point but they kinda crashed and burned.

And the elephant in the room and what made a lot of them "zero in" on the Cowboys was the label given to them by Steve Sabol and the NFL Films people.. "America's Team." That thing engendered all manner of resentment from other teams and other fans. That's why Landry absolutely hated it. It made Schramm a lot more money but it painted a target on the Cowboys that never left. Then the final nail in the "hate coffin" was Jerry suing the league for 3 billion dollars over the advertising deals. People forget that the league sued Jerry first.. When Jerry counter-sued the league decided that maybe they should "work with him." The lead attorney for the league back then was the current commissioner and lifelong Commander fan. I don't think that bad blood ever dissipated.

You can deny that any of this has any bearing on what happens on the field all you want.. But every time the refs find some obscure rule to take away a touchdown from one of our receivers (they did it again Thursday) or to force our kicker to have to make a 60 yard FG another time.. my belief that something is up gets bolstered.

And I think your including the Raiders in this is comical given that if we're not the most penalized team year in and year out they are the one that wears that crown instead of us.

 

[MarcusRock]

No they didn't. The Cowboys were already on a 6 year run of being in the playoffs before the Steeler made their first appearance in '72. They had been a complete garbage franchise up to that point. They won 21 games TOTAL between 1966 and 1971. During that span the Cowboys won 63 and a went to two Super Bowls winning one. Yes the Steelers were more successful overall for the next 10 years but not by a 42 game margin!!! Neither the Raiders, Vikings, Dolphins or Packers matched the Cowboys 20 year run of winning seasons from '66 to '86. No team in professional sports ever has. I think that's still true.. I think the Spurs were closing in on it at one point but they kinda crashed and burned.

And the elephant in the room and what made a lot of them "zero in" on the Cowboys was the label given to them by Steve Sabol and the NFL Films people.. "America's Team." That thing engendered all manner of resentment from other teams and other fans. That's why Landry absolutely hated it. It made Schramm a lot more money but it painted a target on the Cowboys that never left. Then the final nail in the "hate coffin" was Jerry suing the league for 3 billion dollars over the advertising deals. People forget that the league sued Jerry first.. When Jerry counter-sued the league decided that maybe they should "work with him." The lead attorney for the league back then was the current commissioner and lifelong Commander fan. I don't think that bad blood ever dissipated.

You can deny that any of this has any bearing on what happens on the field all you want.. But every time the refs find some obscure rule to take away a touchdown from one of our receivers (they did it again Thursday) or to force our kicker to have to make a 60 yard FG another time.. my belief that something is up gets bolstered.

And I think your including the Raiders in this is comical given that if we're not the most penalized team year in and year out they are the one that wears that crown instead of us.

And the rest of the teams I listed? It's just hilarious that you know that refs grew up in a vacuum, what the refs feel, what their kids feel, what the refs feel in response to what their kids feel, how hating the Cowboys is their single driving life force, making all sorts of creative leaps, and yet nothing on what the refs' individual moral compass is, their thoughts on fidelity to duty and doing a good job or any of the actual major factors that go into performing their jobs. Rogue refs who never get overruled by refs not in on the scheme? Okay.

This is defense mechanism on steroids if ever I saw it. All because people can't accept that their team loses games from time to time and aren't perennial winners anymore. How sad is this? Complete crazy-making. I hope this isn't projection because that would make you one corrupt mofo with no self-control. I really should get into neuroscience a bit more because the brain can do wonders guided or misguided.

 

[yentl911]

I am probably in the minority and I understand things do not always get called our way but overall I feel the games are fair. I really do.

 

[SteveTheCowboy]

I can't get the three of us in my family to agree on what to have for lunch. But I'm supposed to believe there's a league-wide conspiracy being agreed on, who then sticking with that plan for years on end, with no one coming forward with proof at some point? No one can convince me that Jerry would ever sign off on a plan that keeps the Cowboys losing for a quarter century. Jerry alone would expose the whole thing as a charade if he had to endure years of people thinking he actually needed Jimmy.

I get what yer saying. Moon hoax is more preposterous than actually making it there.

But it doesnt have to be widespread or obvious. Think of godell and nfl organization as a government with little oversight. (they kinda are).

Trust them now?

 

[Diehardblues]

Since I and others, basically no one has to believe the nfl isn't fixed. Since 1969 I have dedicated 3 hours 14 then 16 and now 17 days a year. I will continue to do the same, what can I say, oldhabbits die hard

Obviously the rules and game has changed since the 60s and 70s as has the scoring (way up). Much more so than any other sport I at least mildly follow. I ask myself why is that? Why has the "catch rule" been changed so much that even professional announcers admitted they were confused at times?

Sis you watch the Seattle vs Pitt super bowl? The New Orleans playoff game? The Cowboys going an unheard amount games without getting a holding call against opposing teams after Jerry fought the Goodell contract?

I'll still watch my Cowboys games, it's like a religion to me...lol. But my faith in their truism of the sport vs greedy manipulation of results for maximum profit is something they have to prove to me, the fan more so than I have to prove to you (no offense intended) or anyone of claims we are conspiracy artist.

NFL, open the curtains and prove me wrong! I would love to be proven wrong that at least some games aren't scripted or fixed. I certainly reject the need for me to prove it since I'm the consumer not the producer of the product.

Yes, the game has evolved into this over hyped commercial revenue generating commodity that purist of the game largely despise . I’ve been a critic as well.

He’s the thing though . We haven’t proved there is any organized or individual corruption among the league or officials in throwing games. They are innocent until proven guilty. It’s our burden to prove.

It’s all Conspiracy Theories based largely on fans disgust on what the game has become and their frustration with new rules , direction of the league, probably their team and who knows what else in life.

 

[Blackrain]

So who is doing what, why and how? No one can answer this.

Hey Rocky I hate to tell you this but somebody can answer this The problem is the person is way above your football pay grade.
I really don't think any of the owners are going to describe to you in detail how they have entrusted the league officials to use the referees to manipulate games for maximum profit .

I think you're going to have to gravitate to a higher position in the football world other than the ultimate fan on the cowboy forum to garner this knowledge.

Just saying!!!

Hey buddy don't get mad I'm just busting your balls.