It’s all a big show. The competition is not really real and the outcome of certain games is pre-ordained. It exists for public pacification and to make money. Lots and lots of money. Is this a traveling circus? Perhaps an underworld scam? No, it’s the NFL.
The NFL’s 32 team owners bring in over $90 Billion (with a B!) per year. Divide that by 32! The owners pay Roger Goodell around $30 Million just to run the thing. And apparently the job that Goodell is doing is worth the money to them. The NFL is one of the best run and most profitable sports leagues in the world and running it cannot be an easy job. Lots of moving parts, to say the least.
For years we have heard the argument that “It takes too many people to rig a game”. In whatever team sport we talk about, fixing the outcome would have to involve too many people. Unless just perhaps… that group could be narrowed down to a tightly knit group of 5 or 6 guys with a hidden agenda of their own.
One also wonders about any possible connection between gamblers in Las Vegas and elsewhere and the powers that be in the NFL hierarchy. Look at this strange case from 2009.
There was a game between the San Diego Chargers and the Pittsburg Steelers and the Steelers were 3 point favorites at kickoff. Now there was a lot of money wagered on that contest, over $100 Million and almost 70% of it went on Pittsburg. After a bruising defensive battle it was 11-10 Steelers with less than 60 seconds to go in the game. The Chargers had the ball and tried a lateral which was knocked away by Troy Polamalu who proceeds to recover the ball and gallop into the end zone for a touchdown.
17-10 Steelers and the game is over, but wait a minute… The teams headed to the locker rooms and fans holding winning tickets rushed to the payout window to collect their winnings. The refs all huddled on the sidelines and eventually overturned the touchdown by Polamalu calling the lateral a forward pass. However, a review of the play will reveal that the ball did actually go backwards like a lateral is supposed to. The refs must have seen that.
So why did they change the call. Calculate the amount of money that changed hands as a result of that errant call and the picture begins to clear up a bit.
