Since Goodell has been ushered in to voice the wishes of the owners, we have witnessed the near obliteration of NFL football as played for more than 5 decades...I admit I'm a die hard fan of the product still...but I'm getting very suspicious that the entire demographic is being played for sukkers by the greed of this Fraternity of 32.
I STILL have not read nor heard ANY valid reason WHY that particular ref crew, headed by THAT ref, was given an AFC Championship game. I know of no business whereupon the performance of an individual was so reprehensible that that employee issued a public apology and THEN that very same employee was sanctioned to perform the same duties at a later date. If the NFL is an above board operation, how does THIS man get that game? It makes no sense from a strictly business point of view.
If however, we are being sukkered and this thing called the NFL is nothing more now than a step below the WWE, then it all becomes clear. Then the unbelievably anal retentive "discipline" decisions by Goodell since 2006 aimed at disabling, damaging and denigrating in the press those NFL teams whose success rate falls outside of the NFL's own "parity!!" declarations begin to make sense...and as one sees the sweeping under the carpet of the vile, totally disgusting, degenerate behavior that vomits forth like a broken sewer pipe from a team situated in the biggest market in the country, it starts to become clear. These "matchups" have become nothing more than closed door marketing decisions built on demographic data. The target audience is all that matters now...NOT the game. Not the integrity of the league. It's just become one huge treasure bath for the 32 Caesars who rule the world of football.
20 years ago, if I was going to wager on this game tomorrow I'd bet SF big...by at least ten points. Tomorrow I think the game will be close with all kinds of dramatic "plays" in the 4th quarter. Last week I would have guessed Ravens, but the public outrage that has arisen over Lewis and his history, I think, has moved the Goodell Cabal to make it 9er's...by three....and Lewis will fall toi his knees and praise God....by this summer he will be primetime of NFL Today on ESPN...everybody wins.