You can take your own case study into how the NFL rigs games...

ESPN today has posted a rules quiz by Kevin Seifert into the obscure NFL rules in the NFL rulebook.

Given the "Calvin Johnson Rule" and the like, you can take this as a primer into some of the non-intuitive stuff that the NFL uses to determine outcomes and predicate storylines.

The first question is actually a fair lay-up to anyone who has watched enough NFL football to chuckle when the rule in question leads to a ridiculous scoring attempt.  (I'm trying to keep the actual answers out of this as much as possible, unless something egregious occurs.)

The second one is an extension of an infamous NFL play that caused an immediate rule change about 40 or so years ago.

The third one is the most obscure score in American football -- and probably the first time it's ever been noted that it IS, in fact, the same rule in the NFL now as it has been in college!

The fourth one is actually a changed rule from when a Green Bay Packer actually abused the old rule on it to gain significant advantage for his team.  (And I got it wrong -- the abuse STILL EXISTS.  I thought the Packer -- Randall Cobb -- actually had caused the rule to be changed!)

The fifth one is a rare penalty, but a correctly identified one if it's identified.

The sixth one I also got wrong, because it is a weird situation that you wouldn't THINK would take place -- but could lead to abject chaos in the wrong hands.  It would appear that the play would be the right thing for the relevant team to do, but it does raise the chance of something else happening that could change everything.

Try the quiz yourself at the link (except for the one I pretty much gave you -- #4), and you'll get an idea as to some of the ways the officials can maneuver for certain outcomes.