I'm sold on the NFL being fixed.

[Shocker]

The NFL absolutely rigs games for ratings.  SB 50 and the Taylor Swift SB season are prime examples.

[SmokinwithWilly]

37 minutes ago, countryboi said:

As long as humans have been playing sports for money, people have been complaining that the games are rigged. if you really want to rig a game you would target QBs, they have biggest effect on any game. the refs are limited because the play still has to happen so they can rig it.

That's not even talking about how many people would have to know and be activity involved. 

Rigging a game is hard. Influencing an outcome not so much. There have been calls made this year that have directly affected outcomes with no explanation where they came from. Look at earlier this year with the Lions/ Chiefs with an illegal motion call being made extremely late only after the TD had been scored. Also hard to ignore the study showing Chiefs receiving an unusually high amount of favorable penalty calls. 

Again, entertainment industry same as WWE. Good storylines are good for business. Technology has gotten so much better it's easier for fans to see. Goodell is also such a terrible liar and such an unlikeable asshat believing he's 100% above board is impossible after he preached the virtues of player safety while issuing a 25k fine to Aqib Talib after he said he tried to break Philly Brown's neck in SB 50. 

[ProcessBlue2]

2 hours ago, Jon Snow said:

Only after the missed facemask call. The crowd was so loud screaming “REFS YOU SUCK!” during the tv time out. I honestly believe that is why they took the tv timeout. 

Yeah I participated from 131

[Aussie Tank]

6 hours ago, ProcessBlue2 said:

Yeah I participated from 131

Good feed the one eyed striped bastards 

[LegioX]

You think NFL is fixed? Try watching the NHL where the “Department of Panthers Safety” lets every Florida Panther player injury anyone and never get called. 

[MickMixon'sMetaphors]

13 hours ago, Jon Snow said:

He can sling it. I saw it from my on eyes live and in person. Why he’s not doing it more is looking more and more like a coaching game plan kinda thing. It’s certainly not from a lack of ability surprisingly enough. I would have never said that before today.

Check the sling it deep box. 

Up next?  QB sneak...

[Ted Ginn Jr.'s Hands]

Pivoting away from our game for a minute and putting on my tin foil hat, our good friend Clete Blakeman from SB50 made news this past Sunday.

https://www.outkick.com/sports/chiefs-titans-ending-rigged-nfl-penalty-flag-sports-betting

Essentially, the refs called a BS flag to prevent the game from going over the total, which interestingly enough, had the majority of the public money.  I'd love for someone to deep dive how often the public wins with Clete officiating.

[hepcat]

14 hours ago, MHS831 said:

If you need a reason to support the conspiracy theory, the best argument is the Panthers won--forcing a week 18 meaningful game (likely).  However, the Panthers were at home and they had the crowd behind them.  They had fewer injuries.  Bryce turned it over less. etc.

However, if it were true, the deliberate attempt to rig games would be leaked by some disgruntled employee, etc.  They risk losing the integrity of the game if they were to plan outcomes.

More likely, the refs are biased.  If I were the ref in a game between the Eagles and Titans, I might be less likely to call a penalty on the eagles.  Human nature.

 

Biased is one way of putting it. The NFL is an entertainment product in the strictest legal sense. Although I might yell it out on game days, I do not believe the games are outright “rigged” meaning there is one team that is going to win no matter what happens. It’s impossible. There’s too much variance in the game that can prevent a truly rigged game from happening unless there was cooperation from many parties involved.

What I am thoroughly convinced happens is that the NFL and referees “manage” the games towards certain outcomes. And that is done primarily through referee crew choice however I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more going on behind the curtain. 

The NFL uses the officials statistical tendencies to call penalties is to keep games close to drive user engagement. For example, If a crew tends to call more false start penalties, and there’s a game between a heavy pass offense where the NFL would like to manufacture a close game where it might have potential to be a blowout, then they’ll assign a crew that will slow that offense down and keep the game close. 

There is an insane amount of marketing and now sports betting money that is married to the NFL economic ecosystem. To think this whole system is fair when the referee union has no outward accountability structure for poor performance is just naive. It’s closer to the WWE than outward appearances suggest, but it’s not a fully scripted outcome either.

So for those who say “stop watching” if you don’t want to watch a “rigged” game, it’s an entertainment product. You can still be entertained by it, even if it’s not as fair as a truly merit based sporting event. 

[hepcat]

24 minutes ago, Ted Ginn Jr.'s Hands said:

Pivoting away from our game for a minute and putting on my tin foil hat, our good friend Clete Blakeman from SB50 made news this past Sunday.

https://www.outkick.com/sports/chiefs-titans-ending-rigged-nfl-penalty-flag-sports-betting

Essentially, the refs called a BS flag to prevent the game from going over the total, which interestingly enough, had the majority of the public money.  I'd love for someone to deep dive how often the public wins with Clete officiating.

I have done some research into this subject. Clete Blakeman’s crew called the most penalties in the NFL in 2024. When Blakeman is assigned, the outcome becomes high-variance. The sheer volume of penalties means the referees have an outsized impact on the result. This is ideal for "trap games" where the league might want to introduce chaos into a matchup that looks like a guaranteed blowout on paper.

The assignment makes perfect sense in hindsight for a usually high powered Chiefs offense going against the lowly Titans. But in the end the variance of Blakeman’s crew calling a high volume of penalties allowed the game to be influenced by the officials and yes, have Vegas’s preferred outcome occur. It happens very often. 

[hepcat]

21 hours ago, mrcompletely11 said:

So stop watching 

The NFL is an entertainment product. The games being fixed, or moreso nudged towards preferred outcomes, doesn’t change the fact that NFL football is still entertaining. 

[fanpanther]

21 hours ago, beckersteen said:

How many times do we need to see this crap play out every week. How do we hold refs accountable? Just stop watching this? What do we do?

If it isnt rigged it sure appears to be.  Not so much the total number or yards per call but when calls are made.  It almost seems refs try to make up for calling too many calls one way or another as games go on to make the total seem more fair but they call them at times when the penalty doesnt matter.  Would love to see some kinda study done looking at just calls that directly effect scoring or turnovers or points compared to vegas lines.