Yeah, I don't know how anyone could prove that something wasn't rigged. This is part of the fun with conspiracy theories.
I posted this in the superbowl thread and thought it was interesting enough to post here. I didn't understand Shanahans logic in taking the opening kick in OT but this explains it even if I disagree with it. 49ers players say they didn't know Super Bowl OT rules
I saw that also and initially thought it was really bad, but I think it's a non-issue. Later, I saw that Shanahan and the coaches did know the rules and had strategized with their analytics department. Not sure it really matters if the players intimately know the rules or not since the coaches are making the decisions. Can't imagine they would say "oh we would have tried harder to score a TD on our first possession or to stop the Chiefs."
I don't think it's a clear cut decision strategy-wise. Getting the ball 2nd is advantageous because you know what you need, like the Chiefs did. But, if it is tied after the first two possessions, next score wins and you get the first shot at that if you received first. So there's the advantage of getting the ball first.
Yes but if the idea is to control your own destiny than you can potentially do that one step earlier. If you know you NEED 7 then you are playing 4 down strategy. In essence San Fran robbed themselves of 4th down because they kicked a fg. Had they given up a TD they play 4 downs for every first down and a TD as well. Sure I can see the various (enter Romos favorite word from last night) permutations and there is validity to all of them but given the clutch factor of their opponent I think they should have kicked to know what they would need. Doubtful KC would have gone for 2 if they scored first so 3 or 7 favors being the 2nd team to get the ball under the new rules. Definitely not clear cut but it will be interesting to see how the percentages play out. Before it was 80% in favor of the first receiving team
The KC players said they would have gone for two but of course no way SF could have known that. I assume the math favors going for two vs kicking, getting a stop, and being able to score yourself.
Not sure if you saw, the Chiefs said they were going for 2 in OT no matter what. I assume if the 9ers had a 4th and 2 instead of a 4th and 4 ( I think thats what it was) they would have gone for it. I think I would have gone for it either way and if you don't get it give Mahomes 60 yards to FG range or whatever.
I thought Romo's favorite word was leverage. Even if the percentages end up favoring the team that wins the toss it's still considerably fairer than it was before the rules were changed when it was possible to win the game with a field goal. Under the old rules a team that won the toss and received only had to drive around 40 yards to kick the winning field goal if it had a decent placekicker. Now it requires a drive of 75 yards assuming that the drive began on the 25 where it does the overwhelming majority of the time.
Nothing to see here, folks. Really. The NFL is rigged. The thing is, there's nothing wrong with that. The NFL works on storylines the same as WWE. Give Roger Goodell an entire season to massage the outcome of games, reset each week, and it will end up very close to where it was planned. If a game is unfolding honestly in favor of the outcome Goodell wants, there's no need to intervene. But if the team that is supposed to win is in danger of losing, that's when the refs take over. Oh sure, every little detail can't be controlled for. After all, the ball is an oblate spheroid that takes unpredictable bounces. Every win-loss record won't match the plan. But with 14 teams making the playoffs, it's covered. And all of this is completely legal. It has been ruled in a Supreme Court case that the NFL is a sports entertainment business like WWE. It has no obligation to deliver an honest outcome to fans. And what's the point of all this chicanery? Television revenue, that's what. Who wants New Orleans when you can have Los Angeles if we're talking eyeballs on sets? The first eight minutes of this video are quite enlightening. So if you cannot reconcile this to your cherished notions of the sanctity of sporting competition, you're probably better off finding something else to do with your Sundays.
I disagree the calls were even but I don’t think it was rigged. The holding by KC was pretty damn egregious.
The NFL isn't rigging games. But the refs suck, and I could see them cheating for their own personal benefit (like Tim Donaghy probably did in the NBA). That said, it's hard to believe the refs cheated for the Chiefs when they bailed SF out with a weak holding call on their failed third and long play right at the start of OT.
I really hate the everything is rigged crowd. But I guess if you think the election could be rigged with no actionable proof the nfl is Childs play. But hey Listen… listen. it’s all a part of gods plan anyway so just chill out and pray…
Good stuff on the OT options. I think the flaw in Shanahan's logic is the assumption that a team scoring a TD 2nd is going to play for the tie. Knowing that the 3rd possession was not guaranteed to be matched, that puts pressure on the team with the 2nd possession to win it all with their possession. I think it's harder for a team to make the decision to go for 2 on a first possession TD because in the back of their mind, they're thinking about having the advantage if it goes to a 3rd possession. I'd love to see them implement this OT in the regular season, would be interesting to see how the OT decisions develop as more data is obtained. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
As for the NFL being rigged, I doubt this happens on any macro level, but there's a nonzero chance that there's corruption that takes place by humans that can make a difference in the NFL (or any other sport for that matter). Sometimes it may be a player, sometimes it may be an official, sometimes it may even be a coach. In most cases, we'll only be left with the ability to speculate. But it's useful to not necessarily attribute to malice what may be adequately explained by incompetence. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
