Rams vs Saints and Patriots vs Chiefs…. Tom Brady was everywhere and the NFL’s golden boy… The Rams were about to move into a new stadium, and the league wanted to ignite large LA market. Meanwhile, the Chiefs were a good squad but didn’t have Brady… and the Saints were rolling, but Goodell wanted that LA market to generate big $$, and small market New Orleans was just a pawn.

Pic 1 is the image everyone has seen. Tommy Lee Lewis getting blasted while the ball is in the air… ref standing right there with eyes on the play… NO FLAG. Saints would’ve had a 1st down and could have run the clock down to a few seconds and kicked a less than 20 yd FG for the W.

Pic 2 took place at a critical juncture in the Chiefs/Pats game, and resulted in a roughing the passer call against the Chiefs. Brady’s head/helmet was never touched. Pats would go on to complete the comeback and win in OT.

Pic 3 is almost never mentioned, but took place in OT where the Saints had the ball first. Brees was hit directly in the face mask with both of Dante Fowler’s hands… once again, NO FLAG. Play resulted in an INT for the Rams who would kick the game-winning FG on the ensuing possession.

The game was ruined for me on that day. I saw that there was no integrity in the league and the purity of the game was gone. It was an orchestrated outcome in both cases, and upon going further down the rabbit hole, I realized that games had been officiated towards certain desired outcomes for a long time (including multiple instances during the Saints Super Bowl season in 2009). There’s a reason it’s classified as “Sports Entertainment” and not just Sport. Now that Sports Books/Gambling and Fantasy Sports is now part of the identity and foundation of all major sports, there’s no way that outcomes are not being manipulated and manufactured across the board.

23 comments

  2. Not even a Saints fan and this still pisses me off. Missed out on a Brees Brady SB to watch Goff piss his pants

  3. Saints had plenty of opportunities to bury that game early and simply did not. Should have never came down to that non call.

  4. The only way to justify it is that the league wanted a wealthy, large, unsaturated market (LA) to get to the SB and not a saturated, less wealthy market (NOLA). LA sold a years worth of merch in ten days following that game. Additionally, the league had something with Brady as “the GOAT” and wanted to keep marketing it. Brees being 2-0 in SBs over Manning and Brady ruins that narrative.

  5. The fix was in. The NFL wanted to ensure a LA team in their new home was in the Superbowl to build a fan base.

    I only wish, as soon as Goodell is gone as commissioner, that the new one has the integrity to publicly admit it….I am not holding my breath waiting.

  6. At the end of the day we had a chance to stop them on defense, then ball first in OT. I never see anyone mention the absolute dog shit play call Brees threw his interception on in OT. Brees arm strength was apparent in being limited by that point and Sean wants to yeet the ball way down field. Yes the no call stings but we had chances

  7. You all seriously need to get over it. Showing that hit to Drew Brees but conveniently ignoring the no call face masks on goff and cooks. Yall were a bad team had a chance to still win couldnt stop them on defense twice or score in OT you didnt deserve to win

  9. Get over it.

    Sean shit the bed. He allowed the game into the the refs hands.

    If he calls complementary plays and burns timeouts and clock no way shape or form so the rams win that game..

  12. Goodell called it “sports entertainment” in response to allegations that the NFL isn’t fair.

    Worst ratings for a Super Bowl in a really long time.

  13. And another notch in my case against Brees throwing picks when the game was on the line.

  14. Me too! I watched two more seasons & realized I quit watching wrestling when I was a kid for a reason. I haven’t watched a game in two seasons. I watched every Saints game since mid 80’s.

  15. If this didn’t help you realize that every sports league is more like the WWE than an actual competition as a saints fan idk what else would. It’s just going to become more and more clear as time goes on just how rigged every major sport is because of the sports betting industry going completely unchecked

  19. There is a big misunderstanding I want to clear up. The NFL is NOT classified as “sports entertainment”. It’s classified as a sports league. Some confusion may occur because they are in the entertainment business, but televised sports are a form of entertainment (the story lines, the concerts during half time, the actual game itself etc). 

    If the NFL were “sports entertainment”, meaning the outcomes were predetermined/scripted, then it would be almost certainly ILLEGAL in the vast majority of cases to gamble on them. 

    Though the NFL has certain antitrust exemptions, it would still be ILLEGAL for them to determine outcomes between different clubs — remember, the NFL is a league composed of 32 different and competing clubs with their own different markets. 

    Now, does this mean that thr NFL is just a straightforward outcome and no rigging occurs? No. It simply means that if such were to occur, it would be illegal. If you have legitimate evidence of such rigging, seek legal counsel. 

    IMO, being a ref is hard. A bunch of world class athletes are running around in gear while you don’t have the same gear and yet you run the risk of getting hit. You gotta see everything in real time, and if you blink or lose focus for a moment or get a bad angle, you can miss a potentially game-changing penalty, often without any replay or slow mo. All in real time. In my opinion, this is one area where we could use technological advances to help. We have cameras with a ton of different angles, for instance. Have a separate “eye in the sky” crew that sees everything for a double pair of eyes or something. You see something egregious the ref misses, let em know. You see an angle that proves the ref wrong, let em know. For everything, not just changes of possession or TDs. 

  21. as an los angeles living hard core who dat national i literally have had a taste in my mouth since. nfcc serious bummer as we know and then afcc had me practically drop to my knees in a sherman oaks poquito mas scream GOD WHYYYY. tough season.

  22. My feeling towards sports changed a lot that day. I still watch all the saints games though lol

  23. Oh don’t bring up the rams, I was just trying to calm myself down from the hate posting and now I see this in my feed lmao.

    But yeah I’m still not over this crap, it’s when I realized the nfl is rigged. Sean mccheatervay is all super overrated and always gifted the calls when it matters. But when he plays the eagles don’t worry he’ll crumble again this year.

    Also the pats I used to hate but I realized it was more their bandwagon fans than the actual team who beat our rivals and stopped them from having rings (2003 panthers, 2016 falcons, and even that 2018 rams team lol)

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