2023 Season | Week 7 | Gameday Chatter Thread | Bye | 10/22/2023

[son of deadrise]

The Eagles absolutely get favorable penalty treatment. So do the Steelers and Giants, and perhaps the Patriots too. The northeast in general seems to get favorable treatment not just from officiating but the way the league is run in general.

Shocker - league offices are based out of the northeast.

Also, not trying to be too much a conspiracy theorist, but, like, the mafia runs out of the northeast too.

Let's see. There are 8 officials on each crew, 13 games per week. So that means a total of 104 officials would have to part of the effort to tilt games in favor one team or another. The NFL Employee Directory lists 6,005 employees (worldwide), so you have to figure a few hundred of them would be in on it. There are 17 staffers from the League Operations, some of whom oversee officiating, so they'd have to be part of rigging games as well.

And yet all these people, possibly hundreds of them, would keep this whole grand scheme secret?

All 104 officials would have to meet before games and agree not to throw flags on certain teams, or throw more flags against certain other teams, and not one of them would ever breathe a word of it?

Really?

 

[Cowboysrock55]

Seeing that the 9ers are 0-2 since playing us, DID they blow their emotional wad against us?

Well since we clearly didn't blow our wad for the 49ers maybe we won't hit any damn rut.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

All 104 officials would have to meet before games and agree not to throw flags on certain teams, or throw more flags against certain other teams, and not one of them would ever breathe a word of it?

Not really. You make it into a giant conspiracy. A bias is what I think we are all talking about. No different then an official trying to keep a game competitive with his calls because he thinks it will keep his boss happy. No meeting required. Just one official on any given day being a normal human being.

 

[boozeman]

Seeing that the 9ers are 0-2 since playing us, DID they blow their emotional wad against us?

They barely broke a sweat whipping our asses, so no. If anything, they got a little full of themselves.

Flores put a number on their offense and their defense just left Cousins gobs of real estate over the middle.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

They barely broke a sweat whipping our asses, so no. If anything, they got a little full of themselves.

Flores put a number on their offense and their defense just left Cousins gobs of real estate over the middle.

We don't work the middle anymore and I blame McCarthy

 

[Genghis Khan]

Seeing that the 9ers are 0-2 since playing us, DID they blow their emotional wad against us?

I think there's a real chance that's true to some extent.

 

[Simpleton]

Let's see. There are 8 officials on each crew, 13 games per week. So that means a total of 104 officials would have to part of the effort to tilt games in favor one team or another. The NFL Employee Directory lists 6,005 employees (worldwide), so you have to figure a few hundred of them would be in on it. There are 17 staffers from the League Operations, some of whom oversee officiating, so they'd have to be part of rigging games as well.

And yet all these people, possibly hundreds of them, would keep this whole grand scheme secret?

All 104 officials would have to meet before games and agree not to throw flags on certain teams, or throw more flags against certain other teams, and not one of them would ever breathe a word of it?

Really?

There's a difference between a conspiracy (who knows?) and incompetence. It's inarguable that the refs are largely incompetent and that it has a huge impact on games, whether or not there is a conspiracy is up to you.

To your point around coordination, do you remember 5 years ago when the league made pass interference reviewable on a 1-year trial basis and the refs almost across the board refused to overturn calls no matter how obvious it was that they should?

They definitely have the ability to form a bloc and officiate games the way they want to. Maybe not in terms of specific outcomes, but I definitely think they are capable of getting together and consciously calling games along broad trendlines.

 

[p1_]

We don't work the middle anymore and I blame McCarthy

I recall his Packer teams raping us with TE play right down the middle of the field. Where did that go?

 

[Cowboysrock55]

I recall his Packer teams raping us with TE play right down the middle of the field. Where did that go?

I have no idea, unless they have sort of convinced Dak that those throws are risky and to be conservative about taking them. I know we have those seam routes on some of our plays. And Dak used to make a killing throwing them. But I also think he got burned with some turnovers last year throwing over the middle on those types of routes. It's the type of play that if the receiver clanks one off his hands, it's likely turning into a pick. Or if the receiver runs the wrong route, it's likely to lead to a pick. So it seems like there has been some type of correction. But when you have a big and long dude like Ferg it's ripe for the picking. Plus Lamb out of the slot can certainly run them as well.

 

[boozeman]

 

[Rev]

Good. Every team should flood the inbox.

 

[Foobio]

Seeing that the 9ers are 0-2 since playing us, DID they blow their emotional wad against us?

 

[son of deadrise]

There's a difference between a conspiracy (who knows?) and incompetence. It's inarguable that the refs are largely incompetent and that it has a huge impact on games, whether or not there is a conspiracy is up to you.

To your point around coordination, do you remember 5 years ago when the league made pass interference reviewable on a 1-year trial basis and the refs almost across the board refused to overturn calls no matter how obvious it was that they should?

They definitely have the ability to form a bloc and officiate games the way they want to. Maybe not in terms of specific outcomes, but I definitely think they are capable of getting together and consciously calling games along broad trendlines.

The Kool-Aid is strong with this one

 

[Simpleton]

The Kool-Aid is strong with this one

Do you think NFL officiating is high quality and consistent?

 

[Genghis Khan]

Do you think NFL officiating is high quality and consistent?

Plus the NBA had a very high profile instance of referee conspiracy not very long ago.

But it couldn't happen in the NFL and stuff.

 

[p1_]

I want to make a Fuck Kittles tee.

 

[Simpleton]

Plus the NBA had a very high profile instance of referee conspiracy not very long ago.

But it couldn't happen in the NFL and stuff.

Yea I'm not saying there is definitely a conspiracy, maybe there is, maybe there isn't. What I know for a fact is that the officiating is horrendous, has an outsized impact on games, and it only seems to be getting worse as the years go on.

Whether or not there is some sort of conspiracy is just background noise and relatively unimportant to the core issue. With that said, I don't blame anybody for believing in it being a conspiracy given how consistently bad it is.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Now deadrise is just trying to take bb's dur record.

 

[son of deadrise]

Do you think NFL officiating is high quality and consistent?

I think NFL football is an incredibly difficult sport to officiate, much more so than the other sports, so I can't comment on the quality. I'm not qualified, and I doubt very much whether anyone on this board is. And because the officials are human beings, there will be mistakes. I do know that in the games I watch, much of the time the TV cameras support what the call is. Instant Replays sustain far more calls than they reverse.

But quality and consistency are issues of human error. They're very different from allegations that refs are secretly and deliberately making calls that benefit one team over another.

The Cowboys lead the league in offsides calls with nine, tied for 10th in false starts. Those are objective calls, the infraction is obvious. That's not the refs, that's the players. Poor discipline and lack of focus.

Maybe other teams commit fewer penalties because the players are held accountable. Who knows?

The Cowboys are 10th in winning percentage over the last 20 years. So if the refs are trying to screw them, they're doing a shitty job. And doing a much better job of screwing 22 other teams.

 

[bbgun]

Now deadrise is just trying to take bb's dur record.