Can we write the NFL a preemptive letter....

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

I would like to ask the NFL to simply apply all the bogus penalties on the first drive. Just get those 90 yards right out of the way, and have the pats start at the 10 yard line.

[Estelle Getty]

Contact US Senator Schumer with the concerns about the NFL. He oversees the Senate committee that give the NFL it's exemption from US monopoly laws. He has in the past, I think during the players union negotiations, threatened the NFL with the possibility of suspending their exemption if they didn't settle in good faith with the players union.

He also has a vested interest in the fact that he has three teams representing his NY constituents, and I might add, that he is always looking for a chance to make headlines, and to be in front of the cameras. I think this would be a made to order opportunity for him.

I no longer live in NYS so my input (and potential vote) to his office would be of little value to him.

His contact info;

 

Schumer, Charles E. - (D - NY) Class III 322 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510 (202) 224-6542 Contact: www.schumer.senate.gov/contact/email-chuck

Thank you i will do this tomorrow. I have also acquired the phone # to the league office and will call tomorrow. It might sound silly but for fans who put as much heart and soul into this as us we have to start somewhere.

 

Maybe we can get the #Billsmafia behind it as the seem to have a little national pull.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Estelle Getty

[fbzh2]

Thank you i will do this tomorrow. I have also acquired the phone # to the league office and will call tomorrow. It might sound silly but for fans who put as much heart and soul into this as us we have to start somewhere.

 

It's not silly at all. We the fans support these organizations, politicians included. Please encourage others to follow through....even if it is a form letter or note....the politicians don't care if they are.....they only count the number of contacts they get on a particular subject....get enough and they will take action....maybe only lip service at first, but if it takes off in the media they'll be the first to claim they instigated it....but if they get results, who cares if they take credit. Good luck and all you New Yorkers make your voice be heard!

[DC Tom]

If they could just tell me when Hughes gets the mystery unsportsmanlike conduct call, I'd appreciate it. I've got to pick a drive in the office pool by COB tomorrow.

[Tenhigh]

Is it me or does it seem like the primetime games (TNF, MNF, SNF) have fewer flags? It feels like the league tells the refs to hold the laundry for many of these games.

[1st Ammendment NoMas]

The NFL is committed to continually looking at ways to ensure the fairest and most consistent officiating possible in our games.

I just pissed myself.ha ha ha ha ha ha

[Thurman#1]

Golly, you guys are right.

 

It's a conspiracy. The allegedly intelligent owners have decided to risk the golden goose for the minimal gains that will come from favoring other teams. They're risking billions to make millions.

 

And to do that they have had to alert the officials, roughly 120 people. Because conspiracies between 120 people always stay secret, especially when writing a book about it would only make one of those people a ton of money and national fame.

 

Man, you're all right on top of things. I congratulate you. Makes total sense.

 

 

 

 

Sure, some saps might argue that the whole thing is just the fact that nobody is perfect, not the players and not the refs, so there will always be bad calls. And that since every fan base believes their team is the one being discriminated against, it is clearly a case of seeing what you want to believe. But hey, those people are saddoes, they probably don't believe in the Illuminati and the magic bullet and that JFK is alive with Elvis on the moon either. Everybody knows Occam's Razor is nonsense. If you want to find the truth, go look at the most ridiculous unlikely spectacularly complicated and nearly physically impossible explanation. That'll be the truth every time.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Thurman#1

[MattM]

Golly, you guys are right.

 

It's a conspiracy. The allegedly intelligent owners have decided to risk the golden goose for the minimal gains that will come from favoring other teams. They're risking billions to make millions.

 

And to do that they have had to alert the officials, roughly 120 people. Because conspiracies between 120 people always stay secret, especially when writing a book about it would only make one of those people a ton of money and national fame.

 

Man, you're all right on top of things. I congratulate you. Makes total sense.

 

 

 

 

Sure, some saps might argue that the whole thing is just the fact that nobody is perfect, not the players and not the refs, so there will always be bad calls. And that since every fan base believes their team is the one being discriminated against, it is clearly a case of seeing what you want to believe. But hey, those people are saddoes, they probably don't believe in the Illuminati and the magic bullet and that JFK is alive with Elvis on the moon either. Everybody knows Occam's Razor is nonsense. If you want to find the truth, go look at the most ridiculous unlikely spectacularly complicated and nearly physically impossible explanation. That'll be the truth every time.

See Donaghy, Tim and Serie A Scandal, among others (most recently including Lenny Dyskstra's allegations that he blackmailed umps to get a smaller strike zone after hiring PIs to investigate them).

 

Wouldn't take a large conspiracy of owners--just one. Wouldn't take all 120 refs, just the scheduling guy (see Serie A Scandal) and some. See Walt Coleman's Wikipedia entry where when I last looked, 3 of his 8 listed controversial calls were pro-Pats*, and that didn't include for some reason the infamous "Just Give It to Them" game. What are the odds of one guy, in a League of 32 teams, having such a large portion of his controversial calls being on behalf of one team?

 

Not saying it's happening (none of us can know that), but just saying that it's not impossible.

Edited November 19, 2015 by MattM

[All_Pro_Bills]

Golly, you guys are right.

 

It's a conspiracy. The allegedly intelligent owners have decided to risk the golden goose for the minimal gains that will come from favoring other teams. They're risking billions to make millions.

 

And to do that they have had to alert the officials, roughly 120 people. Because conspiracies between 120 people always stay secret, especially when writing a book about it would only make one of those people a ton of money and national fame.

 

Man, you're all right on top of things. I congratulate you. Makes total sense.

 

 

 

A conspiracy doesn't need to exist to explain bias in officiating. All businesses have formal rules and procedures. If you examine those at your job you'll likely conclude the way work gets done has very little correlation to how closely the procedures in place are followed. At my job for example, I suggested that if we followed the exact intent and instructions of the countless and sometimes senseless procedures in place absolutely nothing would get done. So what does that have to do with officiating NFL games?

 

Its because all organizations have social and political processes that for the most part are informal. This applies to the NFL business. You won't find these documented in any league information or procedure documents. An example might be certain owners are said to have more 'influence' than others at league meetings. How can this be? This extra power isn't documented anywhere and there are no league rules applying to owners that grant one owner more power than another but it is something that exists. These political and social actions govern how things work more than rules. So on the field you don't touch Brady or you get a 15 yard PF but Cam Newton gets told (allegedly) he's too young to get the call in a certain situation. Even though the rules apply to everyone equally and evenly in the book. There's no formal rule or discussions or conspiracy. The NFL doesn't tell officials to protect Brady or Manning, or call holding or PI on specific players or team. Simply, everybody knows how 'it' works. And what we witness every Sunday is just the playing out of these informal systems which result in the questionable and puzzling calls.

[Coach Tuesday]

 

A conspiracy doesn't need to exist to explain bias in officiating. All businesses have formal rules and procedures. If you examine those at your job you'll likely conclude the way work gets done has very little correlation to how closely the procedures in place are followed. At my job for example, I suggested that if we followed the exact intent and instructions of the countless and sometimes senseless procedures in place absolutely nothing would get done. So what does that have to do with officiating NFL games?

 

Its because all organizations have social and political processes that for the most part are informal. This applies to the NFL business. You won't find these documented in any league information or procedure documents. An example might be certain owners are said to have more 'influence' than others at league meetings. How can this be? This extra power isn't documented anywhere and there are no league rules applying to owners that grant one owner more power than another but it is something that exists. These political and social actions govern how things work more than rules. So on the field you don't touch Brady or you get a 15 yard PF but Cam Newton gets told (allegedly) he's too young to get the call in a certain situation. Even though the rules apply to everyone equally and evenly in the book. There's no formal rule or discussions or conspiracy. The NFL doesn't tell officials to protect Brady or Manning, or call holding or PI on specific players or team. Simply, everybody knows how 'it' works. And what we witness every Sunday is just the playing out of these informal systems which result in the questionable and puzzling calls.

 

Very Foucauldian!

[KD in CA]

 

A conspiracy doesn't need to exist to explain bias in officiating. All businesses have formal rules and procedures. If you examine those at your job you'll likely conclude the way work gets done has very little correlation to how closely the procedures in place are followed. At my job for example, I suggested that if we followed the exact intent and instructions of the countless and sometimes senseless procedures in place absolutely nothing would get done. So what does that have to do with officiating NFL games?

 

Its because all organizations have social and political processes that for the most part are informal. This applies to the NFL business. You won't find these documented in any league information or procedure documents. An example might be certain owners are said to have more 'influence' than others at league meetings. How can this be? This extra power isn't documented anywhere and there are no league rules applying to owners that grant one owner more power than another but it is something that exists. These political and social actions govern how things work more than rules. So on the field you don't touch Brady or you get a 15 yard PF but Cam Newton gets told (allegedly) he's too young to get the call in a certain situation. Even though the rules apply to everyone equally and evenly in the book. There's no formal rule or discussions or conspiracy. The NFL doesn't tell officials to protect Brady or Manning, or call holding or PI on specific players or team. Simply, everybody knows how 'it' works. And what we witness every Sunday is just the playing out of these informal systems which result in the questionable and puzzling calls.

 

Excellent post.

 

IMO the most easily visible example of this is balls and strikes counts in baseball where respected veterans often get preference. NBA fouls (from what I've heard) is another example. No reason to think it doesn't happen in football too.

[BuffaloMatt]

My favorite was against the Texans about ten years ago. Very late in the 4th (under 2 mins), Pats* down by 7 and Brady heaves a long ball into the end zone from midfield which is picked off to seemingly end the game. In fact, the announcers are talking game over when all of a sudden, about 20 seconds after the play, way upfield a hanky appears. They call something way away from the play that the announcers didn't understand or have film on. Pats* go on to score on that drive and win in OT, if my memory is correct.

 

That was at about the beginning of my personal suspicion about that team, which has been repeatedly borne out since.

Let us not forget the multiple DPI calls in the end zone on a desperation heave toss by Brady* that put the ball on the one yard line. So sad. Like Jordan always drew the foul when driving the lane or Jeter drawing the walk on 3-2 when most other batters would be called out.

 

We need to play to keep it out of the refs hands. That will be extremely difficult. GO BUFFALO!

[Storm Front]

I am not even going to watch the upcoming game. It's all WWF. I will enjoy reading about it afterwards and discussing it here on Tuesday. It is a given that there will be some highly egregious, pivitol calls/non-calls which will favor the Pats.*

[taterthegator]

I'm sorry but this sounds like the typical Loser's Lament when someone else wins a lot.

 

I don't believe there's any institutional bias that favors the Pats.

 

I do think that occasionally some refs might give a questionable call to a certain coach or player due to respect, complaint-fatigue, or whatever. That's just human nature.

 

What would writing the NFL a letter accomplish? There are complaints about officiating every week. They already know they've got to find ways to make it better. I don't think there's anything we can do to escalate the NFL's awareness of fan concerns. They're already highly aware.

 

Remember, owners are getting screwed by bad officiating as much as fans. And the NFL is its owners.

Ironically, my brother (a fan of another team) did write a complaint and called the league office after a blown call and did receive a reply. Ironically, the season after his call, Phil Luckett was demoted (he likes to claim it was his doing). It won't help, but they do listen.

[Estelle Getty]

Still waiting for my call back from the league office. I will post the # Monday for anyone interested so we can call after the horror show unfolds Monday night.

[PlayoffsPlease]

We need to start a movement. I suggest we go with #BillsPlayoffsMatter