A bit over three years ago, I made a post talking about refereeing in the NFL and how it's about as bad as I've ever seen, excluding the lockout in 2012. In that, I defended referees, saying their job is hard, and the turnover we've seen in the past few years and the increase in technology makes officiating seem worse than in prior seasons. Well, I'm here to defend them again.
The 2022-2023 Conference Championship games happened yesterday as of this post. For both games, I noticed numerous posts, comments, tweets, and online mentions that the NFL is rigged. I've seen these kinds of comments many times before, but it seems they are growing in volume. I am putting this out there: THE NFL IS NOT RIGGED. Nor are any of the other major professional sports leagues, but the NFL seems to be the one that gets this accusation the most. It's arguably the one where officiating can play the largest role.
Here's why the NFL is not rigged:
1) They'd have a better script if it was
2) There'd be at least somewhat of a leak if it was
3) Players would not put their bodies on the line if the outcome was predetermined
4) Calls go against the teams that end up winning anyway
5) If it was and word got out, a league worth hundreds of BILLIONS would go under
6) Officiating is tough, and basically, any bad call can be defended to an extent
7) When would the rigging of games have started, and why? The NFL wouldn't need to.
Let's examine each of those points further.
1) They'd have a better script if it was
This year's Super Bowl will be the Eagles vs. the Chiefs. Each team has won a Super Bowl in the last 5 years. Don't you think fans would want to see a matchup with teams that haven't won in a while? Imagine how cool Bills vs. Cowboys or Bills vs. Vikings would be. Or how about the 49ers, who haven't won in 28 years yet possess one of the largest followings in the NFL? Granted, you have the Kelce brothers facing each other and Andy Reid facing his former team. But that doesn't get non-NFL fans to tune in; it just makes NFL fans want to tune in slightly more. If the NFL was rigged, they'd rig it for a Super Bowl that would generate the largest audience, and Eagles/Chiefs is not it.
2) There'd be at least somewhat of a leak if it was
Think about how many officials, referees, coaches, and staff would have to be in on this if the NFL was rigged. With that many people involved, a leak would almost positively come out, whether it be a stray text/email, someone overhearing, etc. It would just take one person out of those hundreds (if not thousands) to make a mistake. Yes, the NFL can pay people to keep quiet, but they can't undo something getting out to the public.
3) Players would not put their bodies on the line if the outcome was predetermined
The counterargument to this would be that the players aren't filled in on this. They're like puppets in a show. Ok, that's fair. But these players know better than even us fans the line between a bad call and a game being rigged. Yes, you see players griping at officials in basically every game, but you never see them call one out. This isn't my strongest point, but if games were rigged so certain teams win, players on the opposition would notice. Each team has a chance to win a game and hardly any point to officiating for the reason they lost.
4) Calls go against the teams that end up winning anyway
The counterargument to this would be that the NFL has to make it seem like the game isn't rigged. Ok, fair, but if they're going to rig games, wouldn't they want to ensure they get the result they desire? Anyway, I have seen my share of bad calls. I have seen games where it does seem like one team benefits more from controversial calls. But I can always go back to one or two calls that went against them. Let's say you think there's a game you think was rigged in Team A's favor. Now put yourself in the shoes of a huge fan of Team A. The biggest homer. You live and die by their success. Watch that game from that perspective, and tell me there is not one call that doesn't upset you. I bet that you can't.
5) If it was and word got out, a league worth BILLIONS would go under
Imagine the shitstorm that would hit the NFL if word got out that a single game was rigged. It may spell doom for the entire NFL. At the very least, they would lose millions through losses of endorsements, advertisements, and merch and ticket sales. Why would they risk rigging games for that? To have slightly better matchups in January and February? It's like risking your car to win tickets to a local college game. It just wouldn't make sense to do.
6) Officiating is tough, and basically, any bad call can be defended to an extent
Imagine a horrible call. Just an awful one. For me, I think of the non-PI call in the NFC Championship game between the Rams and Saints a few years ago. Yes, that was a bad call. But I can see how an NFL official can miss that. It was a bang-bang play. NFL officials have to monitor certain parts of the action going on, which involves trying to focus on multiple things at once. Perhaps the official monitoring that side of the field was focused on something else nearby and didn't definitively see the entire PI happen. Granted, they should focus on where the ball goes, but they do miss things. The point I'm trying to make is that officiating is hard, referees are only human, and so long as we allow the human element in the officiating of our sports, bad calls will happen. We can't just call out the game being rigged because a referee made a questionable or bad call.
7) When would the rigging of games have started, and why? The NFL wouldn't need to.
I bet most people who've said the "NFL is rigged" wouldn't be able to come to a consensus on this. We all can certainly agree that the rigging of games has not existed since the start of the NFL. So when would it have started, then? Going back to point #5, the NFL does not need to risk losing millions for that. If two teams were predetermined to make it to the Super Bowl by the league, I would wager that the league would go completely under if that word got out. Imagine being a part of a franchise that got screwed by that. You would be like, "Why bother?" There'd likely be teams that would consider ceasing their operations, even if that cost thousands of people their jobs. NFL owners would sue the league like you wouldn't believe.
The NFL is a multi-billion dollar operation. Fans and partner companies will fork over millions regardless of the results of games. Yes, certain results help the league out more financially, but that boost is minuscule in the grand scheme of things. The NFL is not rigged. To suggest the NFL is rigged is as asinine as the NFL rigging games themselves.
