MattM

Thanks--just some observations from over the years. Unfortunately nearly all of the major media outlets have strong ties to the League so have little appetite to rock the boat. I, too, wish someone would bird dog this to its conclusion. I suspect Pats* fans would not be too happy with the results.... PS. Missed one way above, the Saints game last year when the LT had the DE in a headlock right in front of a ref on Brady's final GW TD. My college best friend (a Saints fan from Louisiana) said to me afterwards "now I know what you've been talking about!"

In this most recent debate on "big market favoritism" as being the reason for what we've been seeing here, I'm oddly going to side with WEO on that one. The clear bias that we've been seeing over the years in favor of the Pats* is, in my opinion, more likely to come from a different source than said "big market favoritism" since I agree with WEO that a "vast conspiracy", like one it would take to favor big market teams, is much more likely to be exposed since it would take many more people knowing about it. Instead, I'll take the Occam's Razor approach and go with the more likely cause, namely, one or more members of the organization of one team working with the League's officiating office to influence Pats* games, most likely by having gotten to someone in the League officiating scheduling office and then individual refs/crews. That's a much more likely scenario to explain what we've all seen, as it's a much smaller group of people who'd need to be in on it and, in fact, is pretty much what happened in the Italian Serie A soccer scandal a few years back. While no one knows anything for sure here, and we're all simply conjecturing, here are some factors that support that potential possibility here: 1. the Pats* have already been caught cheating once, and the NFL Commissioner (who Kraft was instrumental in having appointed) destroyed the evidence of that cheating and then lied about it to the media (i.e., the Pats* only did it certain years and in certain games, which was shown to be a lie when the Matt Walsh videos later surfaced); 2. at the time Belicheat was fined, Kraft redid his contract--there was much speculation that he basically paid Belicheat's fine with the new deal rather than punishing him; 3. at that time many other allegations against them also surfaced, including things like being found to have an extra frequency on their QB headsets (Doug Flutie apparently said on a radio show he once picked one up on the sidelines and heard someone talking to the QB well after the 15 second cutoff--when he realized how serious that was (or someone talked to him) he has apparently since clammed up on the topic), opponents claiming that their headsets fizzled at suspicious and key points in games at Gillette (Del Rio and Marinelli), players being miked, a former Pats* player quoted by HBO as saying that the info from Spygate as saying that the defensive signals knowledge helped them immensely, etc. Source--Bill O'Brien's book on Spygate (which all should read) and the NYT story here-- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/sports/football/11nfl.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C{%222%22%3A%22RI%3A15%22}&_r=0 My favorite quote in that article from a member of the NFL Competition Committee: “They were the only team, really,” the executive said. “Clearly, they were the team mentioned far more than anybody else.” We won't even talk about how the early aught's Pats* were a team of old vets who seemed to have regained a step when coming to New England, only to have Rodney Harrison get nailed a couple years later for HGH use. Since they didn't test for it then, the only way he was caught was being dumb enough to use his own name and address to have it shipped to and got picked up in a dragnet of steroid prescribing pharmacies. To my eyes, this seems like an organization willing to push the envelope where winning is concerned; 4. the Pats* are the main team in the NFL that allegations of unfair refereeing is made against--and it's not just Bills fans doing so. Look no further than the comments section in PFT and it's pretty clear that many NFL fans are starting to figure this out and it's no wonder why. Think back to the Tuck Rule, the 2004 AFC Championship Game when on successive plays, right in front of a ref in both cases Marcus Pollard bugged out after being clearly held in "fistful of jersey, head jerking" style and no flags on a key drive late in the game (personally, that was the eye opener to me), the Ravens Monday nighter in 2007 and the Jabbar Gaffney TD game a couple of years later, the Cleveland game last year, a Houston game about ten years ago (another personal favorite) in which Brady threw a game-ending pick only to have the play called back on a very late flag, well away from the play that the announcers themselves couldn't understand, among many others, just off the top of my head. That doesn't count the multiple times we've been screwed over the years, from "Just Give it To Them", to the awful game in about 2008 or so which included the "inadvertent whistle" that stopped another Brady pick 6 by Nate Clements (who replay showed was nowhere near to out of bounds) among many other shady calls (that one was so bad that TMQ wrote about it), to the never before seen again call about a receiver being out of bounds impacting the play on a key turnover, to this year's most recent debacle. Riddle me this, Pats* fans, if this were all truly random, wouldn't those awful calls even out over time? It's pretty clear that they haven't; 5. some of these have involved the same cast of ref characters, including Walt Coleman, who, if you look at his Wikipedia page and add in the "Just Give it Them" game, which he also reffed, has favored the Pats* in nearly half of the 8 or so controversial calls he's been associated with over the years. The odds of that happening randomly--less than 1.6% by my calculation. How is that guy (a) still in the League and (b) allowed to do Pats* games?; 6. The former head of officiating must have a need for cash and fame, since he (a) floated the singularly worst reffing idea in about 50 years of allowing retired refs to be employed by specific teams upon retirement--hello, way to legitimize payola for services rendered! and (b) once that idea was shot down did the next best thing and became a network talking head (likely for that payola and fame he was seeking). Personally, I'd prefer my refs to be something out of the old Oscars shot of their auditors each year--buttoned down guys with glasses who looked like they came out of central casting as office drone sticks in the mud rather than Vegas high rollers (those who remember some of the quite dapper Mr. Pereira's prior interviews while head of officiating will get my drift on that one); 7. The fact pointed out above that the Pats* have been among League leaders several years running in the key game-changing calls of PI on both sides of the ball. How likely is that to be random?; 8. The fact that the Pats* owner doesn't seem to recognize conflicts of interest in the way a normal person would, like sitting on Viacom's board (CBS's parent company) or going into business via Patriette* place with said network. This is also the same guy who within 4 months of the death of his saintly wife (I've got nothing bad to say about Myra Kraft, who by all accounts was a saintly woman and who also actually had the money in the family, since Bob married the boss's daughter to become a family member) was seen on video with a 25 year old blonde floozy young enough to be his granddaughter; and 9. The fact that the Pats* seem to have also been benificiaries of other League benificence over the years, such as playing only one team coming off a mini-bye in 2012 and 2013 combined, while the Bills, for ex., played nearly 10. They also seemed to get "high value" games (like divisional opponents or rivals) after a bye far more than the average team over the last 10 years or so. This seemed to get corrected this year, but only after Whaley aired this issue publicly. As noted above, none of us here knows for sure what's causing what we're, and increasingly, the rest of the League, are clearly seeing here with our own eyes, but all I can say is that if we were to find out in ten or twenty years that someone was paying refs here, I would really not be surprised at all. The League needs to get a handle on this before it really does become the WWE....

So, was that a legit PI call then? LMFAO--only one team* consistently gets garbage calls like that....

Walt Coleman?!?! The guy behind the Tuck Rule and the AFCCG against the Colts, along with, according to a poster above, the famous "Just Give it to Them" game? How the heck is he (a) still in the League and (b) allowed to do Patriot* games? If there was ever something that looked fishy about officiating, here it all is in one big package, wrapped up in a nice pink (for Breast Cancer Awareness month--hurry now and buy a pink NFL jersey so the League can make $50 and give $1 to charity) bow.....

I'm not so sure it's the "big market" thing, but it does seem to be one team over and over that one finds involved in horrible calls at key times helping them win games. We all know who* that is--the same team found to have cheated, with the League sweeping the extent of the cheating under the rug, and thought by many to have done much more (like screwing with opposition teams' headsets at their stadium, having an extra radio frequency on their own headsets, etc.). It's gotten so bad over the years that I always tell my wife before those games that I'll be happy either way so long as it isn't the refs who decide the outcome. I don't feel that way against any other team. That feeling is based on watching the same thing happen to us (and others as I recently noted in the thread on officiating) over and over and over again. How and why this is happening, no one here knows for sure, but I think we can all believe our eyes, no? And our eyes tell us that something odd is pretty clearly going on....

He was at the game yesterday--I saw him on the sidelines pre-game. Maybe just visiting to see his handiwork....

Some of you are just noticing this NOW? Really? Why is it one team, over and over again (and not just against us), that seems to get game-changing calls in their favor? This has been going on for years. Remember that Ravens Monday Nighter in 2007, the Tuck Rule, the AFCCG in 2004, "just give it to them", the atrocious game with JP a few years back where there was an inadvertent whistle preventing a Bills likely game-winning pick 6, followed by 3-4 more drive-enabling calls that let the Pats* win? That's among others, of course. The same team that goes about 2 years recently without playing opponents coming off extra time, when we get hit with about ten in the same span. It had actually trailed off a bit in recent years, but was back in full force yesterday. If it was truly random, it would even out over time. It hasn't and probably won't. Most likely because it's not random....

This occurred to me, too....

I'll be there as well. My in-laws live in Ross in Marin, so my bro-in-law (big Raiders fan) bought a block of tix for the family.

Hasn't Walt Coleman been involved in quite a number of controversial calls over the years, including some pro-Patriot ones?

Oh, yes--Hackett did his best via horrible clock management at the end of the game to give the game away. Thanks God we overcame it. A HS coach wouldn't have given the ball back to the Lions in that situation, much less a pro coach.....

I just sent Mike Florio at PFT a note on this--we'll see if he writes anything on it

Perhaps not, but the League certainly has (a) friends in the media--many, many of them and (b) press agents whose job it is to get things in the press. Between the two, this would be very easy to get in the national media if they wanted it to be. With all the negativity around the League and this being such a great feel good, positive story I'm stunned that no one nationally is covering it.

I'm stunned, absolutely stunned, that the national sports media, like PFT, SI and ESPN, don't seem to be picking up on this story at all--mind boggling considering all the negative stories lately. What is it? Are Kraft, Jones, Snyder and company scared that this will set an expectation precedent?

This ^^^^ He put his $ where his mouth was in important ways. We should all take a lesson....

Yes, we all know that if you mean "directly". What it does do, however, is speed up the recovery process which lets the user train harder to get bigger and stronger or heal more quickly. Personally, I expect older guys to be the main users. Those early aughts Pats* teams would have been a good bet back in the day, for example.

That is pretty bad--I was at the game and couldn't really tell live. He basically had his arm on him straight out the entire way down the field. We didn't play well enough to win, but that is still pretty atrocious....

Remember, too, that Rodney Harrison was caught there using HGH towards the end of his career. The only way you got caught back then was to be dumb enough to use your own name when ordering it--the online pharmacy he was using got raided and he was caught. I've also long harbored the same suspicion about the Pats*....

I'm in the same boat (down by 7), except I've got Matt Forte. Here's to him rushing/receiving for at least 100 (or I'll take 2 TDs in a pinch)....

My bad on St Albans--it was actually Bronxville, which, although a public school, is in one of the richest towns in NYS in Westchester Cty (two towns over from where I live). That would explain the Giants recollection I had

Really? He grew up in DC, went to St Albans, I believe (about as far from blue collar Buffalo as you can get), and rooted for teams other than the Bills I seem to recall reading elsewhere (Redskins or Giants). His continued push for geographic expansion to LA and London was about chasing the almighty dollar for Kraft, Jones and Snyder and is going to cost two small market fanbases their teams

How exactly has he been "pro-Bufdalo" other than the occasional throw away remark? This guy was picked by the big market teams and represented them well (see Spygate (and. still waiting for the Pats'* Dennard to be suspended) and all the talk of LA and international expansion). He needs to go for being caught in lies yet again

Personally, I'm seeing a trend--Goodell lying and covering things up, "putting the best face on things" and hoping no one finds out the truth. This and burning the Spygate tapes and then telling us all that no more tapes existed (until, of course, Matt Walsh appears) come to mind. He needs to go....

As someone who just had to put down the canine love of his life, this made me smile (and shed a tear or two out of loss). Here's to EJ and Titan becoming Buffalo fixtures for years to come....

As TMQ likes to point out, just because the NFL is extremely popular now, doesn't mean that it always will be--look no further than boxing for a potential example of a formerly popular sport being brought low. The NFL needs to be careful to protect the game and its popularity over the long-term. Problems like those of the past week may not turn away too many of the addicts (like all of us here, most of whom are old enough to already be "hooked"), but may turn off/away potential new/younger fans, either directly, or via their parents deciding to not expose the kids to the League or the sport (ie., declining youth participation). Personally, I think in the long-run the bigger news this week might turn out to be the NFL's admission that a third of their players end up with cognitive difficulties far earlier in life than non-NFL peers. Not sure if they intentionally dropped that nugget out there in the midst of the other news or not (I suspect not, as it came out in a litigation context).