I really want to know how people get invested in all this being legitimate...

I know I had been getting in trouble with them throughout the 2021 season.

For about...  three years now -- and I won't name the group or their website, because this isn't a function of wanting to get them in trouble (Because 1) Fuck Vince McMahon and 2) they are more an "effect" than a "cause" in the regard I'm about to talk about) -- I ran into, as a subset of the Reddit professional wrestling website, a group of piraters who would get together and watch the weekly programming and pay-per-views on a mutual stream they created.

This year, they decided to add NFL RedZone to their repretoire, because they have a fairly serious fantasy football league between a number of them.  And I've never seen NFL RedZone before, so I dabbled in it.

Put bluntly, it is a perfect recreation of what the NFL has become -- right down to naming the final hour of the early afternoon games a sponsored "Witching Hour", where all the RedZone watchers get to watch the NFL rack up the points and the drama in the fourth quarter.  

Up to and including the now-record 23 NFL games this season to have been decided in the final minute of regulation and overtime.

I took most of Sunday afternoon resting an arthritic knee (and most of Sunday evening resting, because my home is a Fucking Chop-Free Zone), and didn't get involved in tuning into them until about early fourth-quarter of the one game which really mattered to the NFL this late afternoon -- Cowboys at Patriots.

I wasn't even planning on really saying that much -- if anything, I would've made mention of this being about the WORST Sunday in recent NFL memory.  Of the 11 games, the only four games to actually be within one score were the four games which added to the record I mentioned above.

This included Cowboys/Patriots, and how we got there constituted my final moments with that group.  I had run into quite a bit of "heat" with the group for stating the NFL was rigged and all, and, finally, the head of the group had enough of demands to have me banned for me not shutting up about the manipulations of the National Religion -- even though, sometimes, them banning each other was a meme and a joke within the group.

They were serious with me because they didn't want to hear it -- even though I think professional wrestling fans would have a more precise insight into what was going on and figuring it out.  As I told the guy before he banned me, the reason I can enjoy professional wrestling is when pro wrestling makes it entertaining.

I'd like to know what makes THIS entertaining to NFL fans, and how they can get so invested in the games (and individuals, if we wish to talk fantasy football!), when something like THIS happens!!!

2:36 to go, Patriots leading 21-20, 3rd and 15 at the Patriots 36 for New England.  Jones goes back to pass, is picked off, and this (again, I'll just link it, since it's NFL, it won't let me embed it here -- it's a general thing the NFL does) happens...

How is that not a block in the back on #11 Dallas -- especially when it's against the Patriots quarterback??

NFL 2021 Rulebook page 47:  Rule 12, Section 1, Article 3 (in part)

ARTICLE 3. ILLEGAL BLOCK BY OFFENSIVE PLAYER. It is a foul if an offensive blocker:

(a) Thrusts his hands forward above the frame of an opponent to forcibly contact him on the head, neck, or face; 

or Note: Contact in close-line play is not a foul, unless it is direct and forcible, or prolonged. 

Penalty: For illegal use of hands by the offense: Loss of 10 yards. 

(b) Blocks an opponent (from behind) in the back above the opponent’s waist, or uses his hands or arms to push an opponent from behind in a manner that affects his movement, except in close-line play. 

Note: The prohibition also applies to a player of the kicking team while the ball is in flight during a free kick or scrimmage kick. 

The use of hands on the back is not a foul when: 

(1) a player is making a personal attempt to recover a loose ball; 

(2) the opponent turns away from the blocker when contact is imminent; 

(3) both of the blocker’s hands are on the opponent’s side. (If either hand is on the back, it is a foul). 

Penalty: For an illegal block in the back above the waist by the offense: Loss of 10 yards

Watch that again and tell me, somehow, that's not an illegal block in the back against #11 on Dallas on the New England quarterback.

Back to my story:  No less than at least two other people in the chat (since it's late in the day, there's about 15 actual people left) were wondering the same thing and one of them (because it's so close to the return, CBS can't even cover up the block in the back) asked the magic question:

"HOW IN THE FUCK DO YOU MISS THAT CALL?"

One of the biggest pet peeves I have with EVERYBODY is the concept that the referees are THAT STUPID and should be fined/suspended/drawn and quartered/shot when they make "erroneous" calls.

To which I say, will say again here, and will probably say about a million times between now and LVI:  They aren't errors.

Of course, I realized they were sick of me (so much so, several people muted me over the course of the previous weeks, having to re-up the mutes when the site periodically logs everyone out) so I even reminded them when I showed up to check their mute situation if they were so inclined.

I even tried to be somewhat delicate this week, but you cannot ignore the NFL's penchant that, if the Cowboys are not in the league doghouse (and I tried to explain how they have been the last several years as well!!!), the Cowboys are going to get calls.

In fact, if not for Tom Brady, I'd be picking them for the Super Bowl right now.

That, of course, got my weekly dose of "Shut The Fuck Up" and all that -- which I'm used to.

But, finally, "Moik" (leader of the group/provider of the streams) stepped in.  Bless his heart (he's a Giants fan and all, so he has to get pitied just for that!!), we have a meaningful dialogue, and I try to explain my position.

But I have made the group too uncomfortable, so...  ZAP.

"Uncomfortable..."

As the New York City Police Department will attest, that might as well be my middle name, right next to "Controversy"!

Here's the fun part:  While all this is going on:

• The Dallas defense pulls an "Ole!" job on a 70+ yard touchdown pass before the two minute warning, the fourth touchdown in the last four minutes in the game.
• Dallas gets the ball back and kicks a game-tying field goal with under 30 seconds left -- we have overtime...
• And...

Pro Wrestling reference here a second:

Sometimes, in the Southern territories decades back, the local promoters would try to entice fans to come to the cards with various promotions, and even giveaway lotteries.  One of them, in a famous story often related by a now-cancelled (but still going) podcast host, details a Southern promotion where a young pony was being given away by the promotion.

Except for one problem:  When the time came for the drawing, the name is drawn, and here's how the announcer put it:

"Well, look who won the pony!"

The promoter's son had won the drawing, apparently.  This did not go over well...

Anyway...

• And look who won the pony!!  Dak Prescott drives the Cowboys to a touchdown victory in the overtime!

So I guess I want to ask a question.  Given how few people usually comment, I probably won't get too many meaningful answers:  But how is it, when it is SO GODDAMNED OBVIOUS TO ANYONE WITH TWO HALF-FUNCTIONING EYES that these games are being fucked with seven ways from Thursday, Sunday, and Monday, that you are so invested in the games and the individual performances (in the cases of fantasy football and Daily Fantasy gambling!) being legitimate.

Hell, I'll even TAKE the concept I use for professional wrestling -- but the game has to at least entertain me.  And when it's clear that the game is being THAT FUCKED WITH, I can't be entertained by it, because it takes all the flow out of the game and makes you wonder what the stripes are gonna do next to keep the game on razor's edge...

So there, one of your first homework assignments.  :)