Backside wrote: ↑Mon Oct 27, 2025 11:56 am
I just don’t know why it’s easier to believe that the game is completely rigged to a level that would basically end all sports as we know it if it ever got out, over believing that these part time workers are just sometimes awful at their jobs.
Do refs make atrocious calls that you can rightfully piss you off more often than they should? Absolutely
Are refs being coerced to determine outcomes of games by outside influences? No, I’m not ready to say that the entire sport is fake just yet.
Btw the game was not close whatsoever, the Saints didn’t get within two TDs of covering the spread. I don’t remember any Saints drives being extended due to ticky tack calls that certainly could have been made if refs felt like it.
Starting with an answer and working backwards makes it easy to find examples of terrible officiating that seem to support your conclusion. But you are unable to be impartial about all of the conflicting evidence when your mind is already made up. They just aren’t very good at their jobs a lot of the time, don’t overthink it.
Long story short: the constant ‘league is rigged and refs are out to get the Bucs’ stuff is so exhausting and dumb. Why are you watching if you truly think that? It’s because you don’t actually believe it. It’s just a convenient coping mechanism when things don’t go our way. Which makes the conspiracy theories even more annoying, it’s not even genuine.
It was truly hilarious how often Winfield was taking the ball into the endzone on defense though, bummer he was unjustly shutout from a deserved defensive TD. He was a beast yesterday.
Sure, officials make mistakes at times. I get that.
1) Remember, betting is not just on the final outcome. There can be bets on how many defensive TDs there are, etc.
Calls that I can disagree with but not complain about. Examples from this game:
Winfield ruled down by contact. I get that it is a judgment call. I thought he gained control after he was touched. I can see the call going either way. I don't mind that.
Otton being ruled down at the 1. It would have been nice to see a pylon camera shot, but again it was close. I think he was down at the one in this case.
Calls that can not be explained as a judgment call.
Winfield's TD return on the fumble. There was no whistle. The official ran with the play. The players all ran with the play. No whistle was heard live. No whistle was heard in the replay. I could hear whistles in other plays, so it was not an audio issue.
That one play is the one that makes it awfully hard not to think there is influence on what officials are doing.