AsylumGuido

You can go out to fan forums of every team in the league and see this exact same complaint. Every fanbase has people that are convinced the refs are intentionally trying to screw them as part of some grand nefarious scheme.

So, go ahead and throw away your money. While you're at it, maybe you can get Joe Mannix to prove the Earth is flat as a package deal.

SmashMouth

It's just like in real life... there's corruption everywhere, from private companies to the gubmint and military. Nothing different with the NFL. You'd think, for the integrity of the game and the following of a valuable fan base, that they'd at least not be so obvious with what we've all seen, or at least do something about the way too obvious entirely reversible bad calls. Instead, it's become more aligned with boxing and WWE with what seems to be predetermined outcomes. It's all carefully crafted and maybe even preplanned to a certain extent long in advance. Hence taking it all with huge swaths of grains of salt. In the end, it's just all entertainment, like a movie script where they can tweak as the season goes along. All the more reason to not be so invested emotionally as fans, pragmatically speaking. College football is more pure, even though it is changing now with NIL and the transfer portal. They finally enhanced the playoff system for the big boy college league.

leilung

You could do this in an ideal world. But you're talking about investigating a multi-billion $ commercial enterprise with EVERYONE involved (Top to Bottom) with their hands in the pot!

Short of finding game fixing for gambling, I doubt if they could turn up something.

Keep in mind also that in order for a conspiracy to work, you have multiple parties collaborating together toward a single action. (Don't know about you, but I can't even get my family to collaborate on a restaurant decision!)
If history tells us anything, conspiracies inevitably fall apart because SOMEONE ALWAYS TALKS!

A wise man once said, "Poo-poo smells just as bad as s#!%. One just SOUNDS cuter!"

AsylumGuido

And this is precisely why there is no conspiracy. There are over 120 individual refs calling the games. There are a number of individuals overseeing and supporting those refs. Including the other 3,595 paid NFL employees you have over 3,700 individuals that would have to have their stories completely in sync to keep any level of corruption under wraps for any period of time, not to mention years upon years.

It is logistically impossible to maintain any sort of organized fixing of games. And don't bother pointing out where fixes have been discovered elsewhere. That just proves the point that it cannot be accomplished without getting caught.

What we are seeing is a combination of more and more advanced technology which enables better access to what's happening on the field via enhanced camera quality, increased numbers of those cameras, and advancements in replay. What we are seeing has been going on for decades as part time 50 year old officials do their best (which at times is horrible) to keep pace with some of the greatest athletes in the world.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill

AsylumGuido

Here's a good April 2022 article from ESPN on the growing industry that guards against game/match fixing in sports.

Who's in charge of finding and catching cheaters in sports gambling? It's complicated.

AMONG INTEGRITY MONITORING services in this country, U.S. Integrity is unique among for-profit companies in that it doesn't engage in other gambling-related activities. Sportradar and Genius Sports, for example, have monitoring services, but also sell data feeds to customers including sportsbooks. There's also the International Betting Integrity Association, a nonprofit run by dues-paying sportsbook members who share reports of, and send out alerts about, suspicious activity. FanDuel and DraftKings are two of its biggest U.S. partners.

Holt said analysts for U.S. Integrity, which has more than 100 clients, review raw betting data, athlete performance data and officiating patterns, along with social media feeds and other sources of information, to assess what's moving betting lines.

-------------------------------------

Matt Fowler, the director of integrity at the International Betting Integrity Association, said sportsbooks, for one, are financially motivated to report suspicious activity. "If they have invested significant amounts in getting their lines right, but then they're the victims of corruptions, then they will be the ones who lose money on that," he said. "A match-fixing scandal would have a huge impact on a sport league or club's reputation."

---------------------------------------

In other words, there's no reason to "crowdfund private investigators" because there are already investigators working for these firms doing exactly what you want done.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill

BakoSaint

I don't think there is an organized spoken conspiracy, I think there is disorganized unspoken bias. Goodell views himself as a sort of king whose authority should never be questioned less it be an insult that must be avenged. The Saints fan base questioned his authority more than any other, when we disproved bountygate and got numerous of his suspensions overturned. So there will probably never be any proof, just things like a bunch of refs from the Los Angeles area assigned to the NFC Championship game of LA vs the Saints, bad calls against the Saints rarely questioned, and a pattern of the Saints getting the most net penalty yards against us. Refs get the message that if they do a number on the Saints in the 4th quarter or playoffs, Uncle Roger will probably probably toast a beer on their behalf, and might buy them one next time they cross paths at the pub. For the refs I think many of them view themselves as some kind of aggrieved brotherhood. So when the no call happened and New Orleans fans pointed the finger at the refs, and the New Orleans coach went on the competition committee and created a new rule to second guess the refs subjective calls, we become public enemy number one. Uncle Roger is the boss man, and they know the Saints did Uncle Roger wrong overturning those bounty gate suspensions which must have been valid because such things are above their pay grade, so whenever they can tilt a call against the Saints, thats a great thing to do a solid for the boss man and maybe get a promotion down the road. It doesn't need to be spoken. Its obvious in how we are officiated to all but the most hardcore closeted Falcons fans.

Its not about proving a massive conspiracy. Its about creating consequences for the statistically proven long lived trend of our team getting amongst the worst treatment by refs in this era. Getting followed by a private investigator and getting pictures taken if they are having an affair or engaging in some vice is one of the few consequences I think we could legally impose upon the refs that are abusing us. Fighting back is our best chance to get a truce. Taking the abuse won't stop it.

Budsdrinker

There will always be human error in officiating a game. What needs to be done which isn't drastic is review all personal foul calls like they do with targeting in college. These calls that might look suspicious in real time turn out to be nothing in replay. This is all that needs to be done in my opinion.

BakoSaint

Bump for London game. Another Goodell - ref collaboration. Only true Falcons fans can deny it.

darksoul35

They strike again. I really thought this BS would be over when Payton left but thats 3 out of our 4 games that have been decided by the refs. I know they make mistakes every game but it is so one sided with us and always in a big spot in the game. Im just venting and I have no idea what the answer is but it is very frustrating. I know every teams fans think this way but its so obvious with us.

nola_swammi

They should have oversight at the main office to override a bad call (like the hand to the face call and pass interference). If they can call down for ejection they should be able to override these obvious game deciding penalties