Hello...I'm a niner's fan here. I just came to your boards to see what your thoughts were on last night's game.
I wanted to post my feelings on the game and the NFL in general.
The call last night on Cook was absolutely crap. I think by looking at the game last night you might notice a pattern.
The NFL is a ratings monster, but with this new age of internet and global marketing they need to track "eye balls" on the game at all times for the maximum advertising dollar. Just imagine if this game were a complete blow out? By the 2nd half, no one would be watching this game any longer. Thus they would lose the ad $. Also the more the blow outs and poor ratings, the lower the tv contract for Sunday/Monday night football. Does everyone remember that monday night football was struggling and just in 2011 alone they lost 10% of their ratings? They need to do something to have the most competitive, most controversial, and explosive game possible so people want to watch.
Last night what I think was happening is this. The rams were the heavy underdog, unheralded replacement QB, injured defense and offensive stars. The 49ers were the favorites (think betting here as well, upsets lose casinos money). So what do you do? You think that the Rams might only get a few shots to score, so when they are in the redzone you favor the underdog. Get them a few easy scores by steering some minor calls in their favor at critical times. HEre is where you insert blatant holding on RAMS entire left side for the TD. Before you freak out, really go back and watch with an unbiased eye. There are others, but i wont go into every single call. Back to the point...so now the game is starting to take a turn for the unexpected and the niners are getting killed. I literally told the people i was watching the game with, "watch what happens now, the refs will start making weird calls in our favor". This is where the RAms are marching down the field with a possibility of going up 21-3. This would be a disaster really for ratings, people would start dropping like flies watching this game....so BAM phantom call on Cook (controversial), backs up the O and creates a momentum shift....The niners get to score on a defensive scheme that almost anyone in the world thinks is something even a high school coach would never call...ever. Niners back in the game, explosive play, game is now close (competitive). Now we go to the plays after the niners take a lead. This is where the calls start killing the niners again from going up toooo much and leaving the rams without any chance. They manage to keep this game going all the way until the final minute or so.
The NFL is fixed. Plain and simple. You really just have to do a little googling to find some really weird stuff. Look at the last few superbowls and championship games for proof. Go back to when the Steelers won against the Seahawks. The calls in that SB were so bad, that even years later the refs had to admit that the calls were atrocious.
I'll bet you that either Dallas or Denver wins this next SB because of the ratings for manning or "America's Team". They cannot get enough bad calls in the world to help the JETS or GIANTS to go, and the Redskins wont change their name. Those are the ratings teams. Watch this, once the Redskins change their name (and they will eventually), in the next year or so afterwards, they will win a superbowl. It will be the NFL trying to rebrand and remarket an nfl team.
The next SB for next season might very well be the 49ers. New stadium hosting the superbowl, what better story than to have the home team play in it?