Originally Posted by BakoSaint
(Post 993793)
Half the truth is not the whole truth. Were they afraid to call it? Sure. But were they just afraid to call it only because they didn't want to affect the outcome in any way? No. These refs were not living in a cave, and many of them were living in Los Angeles. They knew the LA Rams were Roger Goodell's darling, his lifes work project to bring the NFL back to Los Angeles in the grandest fashion possible with a billion dollar stadium and sold out crowds, but the Rams had one problem. LA was full of fans checking the scores of AFC West Chiefs, Broncos, and Chargers games that effected the Raiders standings while they loosely watched the Rams game because someone gave them free tickets. I went to Rams games the year before because the tickets were so cheap, I saw it.
The refs knew that Roger Goodell needed the Rams in the Super Bowl as the crowning achievement of his work as commissioner, that the league needed it, and that Roger Goodell was ultimately their boss. They knew if the Rams choked and lost to the Saints, just like they choked in the playoffs against the Falcons the year before, fans could quickly lose interest, the billion dollar stadium could sit empty, the world would laugh at Roger Goodell, and his only revenge would be to make life hell for the meddling kids in stripes who screwed up his grand plans.
If they accidently made a questionable call that kept the Rams out of the big game, Goodell could have them fired if it was bad enough, or give them all the worst assignments for years to come, sends them to Cleveland in the snow on their anniversary and Jacksonville in August on their birthday, find a few heads of crews who were hell to work with, and assign them all to those crews. And if it was a close enough call that could go either way and they helped the Rams on the other hand, Goodell would clearly see it their way, back them to the end, and could make them head of officiating for the entire NFL down the road, and they could do their two years in that position, then sign a 20 year contract with ESPN as an analyst and get a hefty raise for a few minutes a week of work.
To the refs, in real time, it was probably a clear penalty, but they probably didn't realize it was so clear and egregious, didn't trust their eyes, and thought there might be just enough doubt that they could roll with the side of the victors in history, the side of the commish, and avoid the risk that if it was even closer than they thought that they would be fired or made to pay. They thought it might be close enough that nobody would mind not calling it at the end of the game and complaints would sound like sour grapes. Sure, they weighed the risk of calling the penalty they thought they saw versus putting away the flag to avoid affecting the game, but Goodell's hand was on the scale when they made that judgement, because everyone knew the Rams in the Super Bowl was Goodell's marketing wet dream. Goodell did not have to give the order. Everyone knew what he wanted because of all the effort he made to get a team in Los Angeles, award Super Bowls and causing a league lawsuit by breaking the lease in St Louis and having the entire NFL indemnify the Rams for breaking their lease and marketing the hell out of the Rams and their QB and coach while fabricating scandals to diminish the star power of other top NFL QBs. The refs knew Goodell would not mind the Saints coming out on the short end of the stick, since Goodell himself had put the Saints there with Bounty Gate, and since Goodell still owed them one after many of his Bounty Gate suspensions were overturned.
The refs did not hold the flag because they were afraid of deciding the game, they probably were a little afraid of that but that would never have been their biggest fear. They held it because they were afraid of deciding the game the wrong way. Their big mistake was that they misjudged just how egregious it was, and and thought they could get away with the no call, endure a few days of debate, and go on to be promoted and rewarded for making the right call. Instead it was so egregious that Goodell could not get away with promoting or obviously rewarding them, but still they faced no consequences. This undermines the idea that their only fear was affecting the outcome of a game, because they did affect the outcome of a game, and all that happened was it was too egregious so they were not rewarded. But they were not punished either. Had the Rams been in control of the game and New Orleans committed the egregious penalty, there would have been 5 flags through instantly, and their biggest worry would have been stage fright and performance anxiety for their imminent ESPN gig after serving as head of officiating. But had they somehow not called it, and thrown the game to the Saints, they would have all been banned from the NFL for life, they punishment would have been swift and brutal. The game would have been replayed from the spot of the ball the next day with new refs. The refs made their decision because the worst case scenario tilting the game for the Rams was no reward because it was too obvious and clumsy to reward, and the best case was promotion and riches. Meanwhile had they tilted the game to the Saints, the best case would be no reward but not punishment because Goodell wouldn't like it but couldn't argue with the call, and the worst case would be professional ruin, fired as refs, a possible civil suit from the NFL, and Goodell pulling strings through rig and connected owners to get them fires from their day jobs too.
If you want officiating to be totally fair, you can't have a commissioner who has clear marketing goals and priority markets also have the power to promote refs to positions like head of officiating. You can't have a commissioner who doubles as prosecutor and hires the officials who officiate the games of the defendants he previously failed to convict. If you want fair officiating that puts player safety first, you would have to have the players union hire and fire the head of officiating, assign all the officials, hire and fire the officials, etc. The commissioner cannot be neutral over whether the billion dollar team whose move to the second largest market in the country he just spearheaded or a small market team in #50 metro area area appears in the Super Bowl. He can't be perceived to be neutral. He doesn't need to say it out loud to not be neutral. He is basically a CEO, and this would be like asking a CEO to be neutral in a court case that affects his companies long term profits to the tune of billions of dollars, and then allowing the jury for the case to be selected solely from that CEO's companies workforce. The CEO isn't going to say "the jury should not follow the law" but he isn't going to promote the employees who vote against the companies profits. Goodell was like a CEO who employs the jury deciding his billion dollar case. The refs were not going to outright break the rules, but they were going to have have bias, and they did.
The argument that the refs were not biased is the argument that a criminal case would be fair if the jury was selected from the plaintiff companies staff and the judge was a former prosecutor who had failed to convict the defendant in an embarrassing case.
|
