This is an assertion. Nobody knows the NBA is rigged, some people might think so. Some people that watch the NBA think they've been abducted by aliens. Doesn't mean all or most NBA fans believe it's rigged.
Are you an NBA fan? That storyline hews tightly. When the referee rigging was uncovered a couple years ago, few people were surprised. Were you surprised at what the refs said? These guys openly admitted that they punished teams they didn't like.
It's a problem, whoever controls the refs could exert influence over them. Yet somebody (or some group) must be in charge of them. However the competition committee has many people on it with competing interests. A rule that helps one team hurts the others. The assumption here is the committee all have the same interest. Obviously they don't, different teams equals opposing interests.
There are 5 people on the committee. 2 coaches. The other 3 are GMs. Bill Polian and Jeff Fisher were 2 of 5 people on that committee.
Another assertion, no evidence of this.
No evidence of what? Conference officials? In college, officials aren't independent contractors. They work for one team. What are you saying exactly? The officials are paid by one team in each matchup. Do you follow college sports? The reffing for Duke bball games and Michigan football games is legendary.
He was speaking about Polian trying to help his team by emphasizing the defensive holding rule. Polian has his own interests, he tries to help himself. As does everyone else. But Polian working in his own interest does not equal the league working in concert to advance one agenda.
He was speaking about the opposition's inordinate influence on the refs.
The Patriots removed the cameraman and didn't report to the NFL. Then Goodell put out the memo. Then the Jets reported the Patriots to the NFL. They could have just removed him but Mangini is a slimeball. Goodell could have done nothing or very little but he's a Jet fanboy slimeball. But what does that mean? Goodell is a crappy commissioner who loves the Jets? We all know that, and when he gets a chance to help his team he probably will but that merely establishes motive. What is the mechanism for influencing games? Does he tell the refs to help the Jets? Does he change the rules? He doesn't have the power to do those things and if he did he would be opposed by the 31 other teams who don't want the Jets to win.
I find little here to disagree with, especially the bolded part. This is exactly what I am saying. When the Jets do it, he does nothing. And when the Patriots do it, he comes down as hard as he can. The only difference is that the NFL absolutely did get the report (maybe not officially). But the NFL did say that the Jets had permission. That was a quote from the NFL. When the reporter followed up with the Patriots, the response was that no one gave the Jets permission. Besides, the NFL basically admitted that the Jets got permission to cheat. Which is absolutely absurd. This had nothing to do with the refs. It was all about the league office damaging the Patriots badly for something the Jets had also done and got through without a scratch.
Goodell has his team,
He certainly does.
Polian had his, Shula had his, Jeff Fisher has one, and so does Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft. But none of them have the same interest, and none of them have the power to exert influence over everyone else except in rare isolated circumstances. In fact I would bet that every single person in the league office, competition committee, and all the refs have some team they were fans of long before they worked for the NFL. But I'll bet that 99% try to keep that from influencing what they do (even if subconsciously it may effect them sometimes). But that doesn't make anything rigged because they don't all have the same team they want to win.
The biggest problem with the entire theory is that it's just an exceptionally poor investment to try to rig NFL games. Tons of players, tons of officials, and replay. If you were given a million dollars to try to rig and bet on a sport you would have to be an idiot to try the NFL. Even if you paid every official you couldn't guarantee a victory. The NFL is like Fork Knox security but without the money. People rob gas stations- not because they have the most money but because they have the least security. But in terms of betting you can put just as much on a boxing match as on a football game, but you only need to get one guy to have a 100% chance of rigging boxing. Which is why boxing is known for being corrupt. In football it would take many people and still there wouldn't be 100% guarantee. You would just have to be an idiot to try to influence an NFL game when almost every other sport is so much easier to rig.
