Sports Fixes?

[eaterfan]

Do people believe Gooedell is competent enough to organize, run, and keep secret a conspiracy to fix games?

Even if he did have that capacity. You think he could keep 32 owners who have different agendas and often have shifting alliances from turning on each other and outing the arrangement?

Additionally, if the fix was in the NFC East would not be so terrible.

People love to assign motive to basic incompetence.

[Boltjolt]

No, I don't believe there is any fixing the outcome in sports. I don't buy into conspiracy theories, but I know that a lot of people do, as evidenced by the spread of QAnon. The tendency of some to buy into totally false conspiracy theories like sports fixing is a human fallibility that is not totally understood. But I don't believe for a second that games are fixed or that certain teams are given preferential circumstances by the leagues.

Soooooo, .....how do you explain this? Patriots have got more calls than any team in history. These calls are downright awful and the tuck rule isnt even in this video.

[Lone Bolt]

No, the fix is not in.

Are there bad refs? Yep. You bet there are...

Do I think there have been calls made or not made, over the years, that were influenced by a ref's personal feelings about how he thought the game should go? Absolutely.

There is no conspiracy....just humans being human...

[bartman83642]

Do people believe Gooedell is competent enough to organize, run, and keep secret a conspiracy to fix games?

Even if he did have that capacity. You think he could keep 32 owners who have different agendas and often have shifting alliances from turning on each other and outing the arrangement?

Additionally, if the fix was in the NFC East would not be so terrible.

People love to assign motive to basic incompetence.

Yeah, I don't think that Goodell an Co. could pull that off. However that isn't to say there couldn't be some outside influences on the refs for certain games now an then.

[CivilBolt]

No, the fix is not in.

Are there bad refs? Yep. You bet there are...

Do I think there have been calls made or not made, over the years, that were influenced by a ref's personal feelings about how he thought the game should go? Absolutely.

There is no conspiracy....just humans being human...

Ed Hochuli is the prime example of this.

[WindsorUK]

Well, we know the NBA games have been fixed( Tim Donaghy).
Basketball seems far easier for that to happen.
NFL......definitely bias going on( definitely human factor) but it would be tough to fix, I'd think.

[Boltjolt]

More god awful calls. How on earth is there any call that isnt viewable? Im trying to find videos that have players interacting with refs and refs teling them something like "you arent getting this call yet rook" or something to the effect. So far no luck but i have heard of this happening.

[eaterfan]

Yeah, I don't think that Goodell an Co. could pull that off. However that isn't to say there couldn't be some outside influences on the refs for certain games now an then.

I just think it would be incredibly tough to pull off. I'd imagine sports books look at this stuff incredibly closely to make sure they aren't getting screwed. You think that if they found something funny they wouldn't let someone know? Gooddell, the FBI, etc.? You think their competitors wouldn't notice if one book was acting like they knew something was going on and benefited from it? Think about how hard it would be to hide it from the other officials on the crew. They would have to be in on it. And the replay officials.

There are 256 games in a regular season. There are roughly what, 120 plays from scrimmage per game? We're looking at over 30,000 opportunities per season for something so egregious to happen that it looks fixed. Calls that are made incorrectly only .1 percent of the time (1/1,000 plays) would still happen 30 times a season or roughly twice a week. Think about how many mistakes you make at your job. Now maybe it's possible that these officials just make mistakes sometimes.

[Velo]

I just think it would be incredibly tough to pull off. I'd imagine sports books look at this stuff incredibly closely to make sure they aren't getting screwed. You think that if they found something funny they wouldn't let someone know? Gooddell, the FBI, etc.? You think their competitors wouldn't notice if one book was acting like they knew something was going on and benefited from it? Think about how hard it would be to hide it from the other officials on the crew. They would have to be in on it. And the replay officials.

There are 256 games in a regular season. There are roughly what, 120 plays from scrimmage per game? We're looking at over 30,000 opportunities per season for something so egregious to happen that it looks fixed. Calls that are made incorrectly only .1 percent of the time (1/1,000 plays) would still happen 30 times a season or roughly twice a week. Think about how many mistakes you make at your job. Now maybe it's possible that these officials just make mistakes sometimes.

Think about how many people would have to be in on a conspiracy or a fix for it to work, it would never survive close scrutiny with so much at stake.

[bartman83642]

I just think it would be incredibly tough to pull off. I'd imagine sports books look at this stuff incredibly closely to make sure they aren't getting screwed. You think that if they found something funny they wouldn't let someone know? Gooddell, the FBI, etc.? You think their competitors wouldn't notice if one book was acting like they knew something was going on and benefited from it? Think about how hard it would be to hide it from the other officials on the crew. They would have to be in on it. And the replay officials.

There are 256 games in a regular season. There are roughly what, 120 plays from scrimmage per game? We're looking at over 30,000 opportunities per season for something so egregious to happen that it looks fixed. Calls that are made incorrectly only .1 percent of the time (1/1,000 plays) would still happen 30 times a season or roughly twice a week. Think about how many mistakes you make at your job. Now maybe it's possible that these officials just make mistakes sometimes.

I'm not saying there is...just the possibility of it happening. Sure like anybody else refs make mistakes but at the same time any given NFL game can hinge on a few plays a game and there is ample opportunity for it to happen. There always seems to be a few games a year where there are multiple inexplicable bad calls that seem to cost a team a victory. Probably is mistakes but there is that realm of possibility.

[SBbound]

Do people believe Gooedell is competent enough to organize, run, and keep secret a conspiracy to fix games?

Even if he did have that capacity. You think he could keep 32 owners who have different agendas and often have shifting alliances from turning on each other and outing the arrangement?

Goodell and staff is pretty good at stamping out stories that the league doesn't want out there that would damage the overall NFL brand, like cheating or high profile personal stuff...for example Belichick stating that after spygate that he videotaped opponent's signals of every game he was the head coach of, including preseason going back to his first game as Cleveland's coach or of Chris Collinsworth as a pro player saying that he liked to chase high school girls. How he or his bosses don't see the damage that this political woke stuff does to the fan base is beyond me.

But to answer your question I don't think there is some grand scheme to fix games, good and bad calls balance out over time.

[FoutsFan]

I do not think Goodel takes the refs in a smoke filled room and lays out how thing are supposed to be.

That being said there are random mistakes made but there are teams that always get calls in their favor at home, Denver never gets a bad call against them at home any close call goes in their favor. Brady, Brees, Worthlessburger, Elway (when he was playing) never have holding calls go against them no matter how blatant they are when they are making a "comeback" yet Rivers would constantly get holding calls against the Chargers in crucial situations.

I think the league lists the prominent teams with an understanding that they get less scrutiny from the refs when it matters. Otherwise there would just be random bad calls with no favorites which we all know is not the case.