Brian Tuohy, in his NFL season page, has just related a third probable game from Week 15 of this year - important to the remaining storylines - that well probably was fixed:
Packers-Panthers.
And he does it with this GIF -- and I hope he doesn't mind I yoink it:
Successful strip by the Packer, and there's no way he's in bounds when he lands.
Just like the CBS crew with the Pittsburgh game, no one in the FOX booth thought the refs would have the balls to be so blatant about it.
This was either the touchdown that made the game 24-14 or the one which made it 31-17 (Byrd was credited with both.). The fact is that this ended the Packers' season -- and, as a result, Aaron Rodgers was returned to Injured Reserve, almost dooming it to 7-9 and the team finally having to ask some real questions (hint: you're soft and teams can cheap-shot the shit out of you -- change that culture first or more of your boys are going to get hurt bad).
But I posited: Why, especially after the investigation of the Panthers owner about sexual harassment, would the Panthers win a game, especially a rigged one?
Well, Tuohy answers that: If the NFL knew he was going to have to sell the team, then Cam Newton and the Panthers in the playoffs might merit a few more million on the purchase price. Problem solved.
Now, I haven't had any comments on the one in Pittsburgh, but I want to show people why this was such a blatant rig-job here...
It's about as clear as it gets. James has the ball, and, once he makes it to the ground, then makes the football move to extend the ball over the goal line because he has not been touched down, breaks the plane of the goal line, and then appears to have the ball slip just as it hits the ground.
He is on the ground -- save being touched, he is down.
But the call and the cockamanie explanation is that he now must "SURVIVE the ground". Meaning that, under the shit rule, he must not only go to ground but actually surpass going to the ground -- he must actually still have the ball AFTER he hits the ground, not just as he hits the ground (which was the former understanding of the rule).
And then watch how closely to the ground Jesse James actually "loses control". You cannot, in any way, tell me that is not an intentional act of someone attempting to invoke the Calvin Johnson Rule, throwing the most important regular-season NFL game of the year to the preferred Patriots, unless you wish to tell me the ruling was bullshit.
SOMEONE rigged that game, and did so under orders from Roger Goodell.
I mean, the two plays have left me with two inescapable conclusions:
1) If a player cannot complete the catch before he is out of bounds, the official must rule the catch incomplete, as he, once he completes the catch, is not a legal receiver -- now, two feet and going and surviving ground are no longer sufficient.
2) If a player is touched down with the ball but before he can complete the catch, the pass must be ruled incomplete because he might have possession of the ball, but no catch when he is downed.
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