NFL Conspiracy? Steelers-Chargers final play looks fishy

[JackRiddler]

I just watched my very first Canadian football game tonight. You peeps have weird ass rules! I need to read the wiki on the rules. Your endzone is too big. The uprights are like NFL football used to be in the 1950s, at the top of the endzone (WEIRD!!) and you have TWO fifty yard lines. WTF? Your wide receivers run up to the line of scrimmage and time their routes with the snap. WEIRD!!! I honestly had no idea. Plus, it seems as though the players play much more dirty than here -- a lot of cheap hits I saw tonight in the Edmonton VS Hamilton game. The QBs throw more wobbly passes and there is very little deep play or running game. As a dude who has watched his share of football and paid attention to this game all his life, all I can say is I feel like I've just been burped out of a vortex that leads to a parallel universe that seems the same, but isn't. Like PKD's "Time Out of Joint".

I guess there must be a lot of feverish prep by the Canadian league to promote itself if the NFL cancels.

[Saurian Tail]

The NFL field is too small for the size and speed of the players. There are only a couple of teams that are actually fun to watch because there are only a few QB's that can beat the tiny margin for error on a regular basis. Can you imagine how entertaining the games would be with NFL players and Canadian rules?

It's the same basic problem with the NHL vs International rules in hockey. The NHL holds offensive talent hostage because of the tiny rink.

[JackRiddler]

The NFL field is too small for the size and speed of the players. There are only a couple of teams that are actually fun to watch because there are only a few QB's that can beat the tiny margin for error on a regular basis. Can you imagine how entertaining the games would be with NFL players and Canadian rules?

It's the same basic problem with the NHL vs International rules in hockey. The NHL holds offensive talent hostage because of the tiny rink.

Yes, ironically for the reason it makes for higher scores.

Praise the lord baseball was once much bigger than any other sport and preceded TV by a hundred years.

If TV had come first, it would have killed baseball for not fitting into the time format, or else, bad as it is today with the commercialism, we'd also have:
- Corporate brand-name uniforms.
- Pitch clock! Go over, automatic ball.
- Seven-inning game, two extra innings, and if it's still tied: homer derby!
- Electronic radar bases that call safe-out and balls and strikes. (This is coming one day, foreseeably.)
- 120 game season, 16 teams in the playoffs.

.

[82_28]

As the Packers are the favorites to win it all, we now have this:

Source: Body found is son of coach

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers canceled player availability on Monday, bracing for bad news as authorities searched for the missing 21-year-old son of offensive coordinator Joe Philbin.

Oshkosh police have yet to release the identity of the body. However, a source close to the family tells ESPN that Philbin's body has been positively identified.

Police have been searching for 21-year-old Michael T. Philbin since Sunday evening. He disappeared at about 2 a.m. Sunday after an outing with friends in the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh campus area, about 50 miles from Green Bay.

Joe Philbin spent Monday in Oshkosh, where divers recovered the body of a man between the ages of 20 and 25 from the Fox River in late afternoon after a security guard reported hearing cries for help from someone on the ice. Oshkosh Police said no foul play was suspected, but the man's name was being withheld until his family is notified.

"The Philbin family's obviously going through a tough time right now, and as we always have, we're a family-first philosophy with our organization, with our program," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said Monday afternoon. "So we're supporting Joe and his family the best we can, and we're holding out hope that this comes to positive conclusion."

News of Michael Philbin's disappearance made for a difficult day in Green Bay, where the Packers are preparing for Sunday's NFC divisional playoff game against the New York Giants at Lambeau Field.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the Philbin family during this difficult time," Packers general manager Ted Thompson said in a statement.

McCarthy spoke in a somber tone during his regularly scheduled news conference, confirming that Philbin was away from the team and in Oshkosh.

Although the offensive-minded McCarthy calls his own plays and has a hands-on role with game planning, Philbin's behind-the-scenes detail work with Aaron Rodgers and the rest of the offense would be missed. McCarthy said he has contingency plans in place to prepare for Sunday's game if Philbin remains away from the team.

"We're prepared to do whatever we need to do as a staff to make sure our team's ready to go," he said, brushing aside a question about what the team would be missing if it didn't have Philbin's input this week. "We'll be ready to go."

Players, who were not made available to reporters, took to Twitter to post supportive messages.

"As children we all have to someday say goodbye to our parents, but a parent should never have to say goodbye to their child," said offensive lineman T.J. Lang, whose father, Thomas, died last week.

Packers defensive lineman B.J. Raji wrote that "life is too short."

"Live in the present," Raji tweeted.

Joe Philbin has been with the Packers since 2003, and has been the team's offensive coordinator since 2007. He interviewed for the Miami Dolphins' vacant head coaching job last week.

Michael Philbin is the second-oldest of six children to Joe Philbin and his wife, Diane.

Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/74427 ... oe-philbin

[Freitag]

He disappeared at about 2 a.m. Sunday after an outing with friends in the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh campus area, about 50 miles from Green Bay.

Hmmmm, reminds me of the deaths attributed to the Smiley Face Killers: young, athletic victim; University area; late-night drowning. Remember the SFK? They would supposedly gang-stalk people, drown them, and make it look like an accident. In any event, there's more info on sites like this: http://www.sfkillers.com/

(Or on this creepy website that looks like it was built by the killers themselves: http://surfdete.ipower.com/smileyface.html)

[MinM]

Jerry Rice sides with Tim Brown on sabotage claim

Game On!
Simon Samano, USA TODAY Sports2:46a.m. EST January 23, 2013

Tim Brown caught us off guard over the weekend with his claim that former Oakland Raiders coach Bill Callahan intentionally threw Super Bowl XXXVII so that his old boss, Jon Gruden, could win a championship with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Perhaps even crazier than Brown's accusation is the fact that Jerry Rice, who was on that 2002 Raiders team, is in complete accordance.

"For some reason — and I don't know why — Bill Callahan did not like me," Rice said on ESPN, via ProFootballTalk. "In a way, maybe because he didn't like the Raiders, he decided, 'Maybe we should sabotage this a little bit and let Jon Gruden go out and win this one.'"

NO WAY: Ex-Raiders OL Kennedy refutes sabotage claim

As we know, the Buccaneers annihilated the Raiders 48-21. And as far as Brown and now Rice are concerned, the fix was in once Callahan decided to alter Oakland's offensive game plan 48 hours before the game.

Callahan vehemently denied the whole thing in a statement obtained by USA TODAY Sports' Mike Garafolo.

"I am shocked, saddened and outraged by Tim Brown's allegations and Jerry Rice's support of those allegations made through various media outlets over the last twenty four hours," Callahan said. "To leave no doubt, I categorically and unequivocally deny the sum and substance of their allegations."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/20 ... l/1857133/

viewtopic.php?p=489554#p489554

[82_28]

This has all the makings of a multi multi billion dollar fix.

With the Harbowl just more than a week away and the media focused on the matchup of Ravens coach Jon Harbaugh and his brother, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh, the men themselves aren’t getting too caught up in all of it.

The Harbaugh brothers said they’ve only exchanged a few text messages with each other in the days since the championship games set Super Bowl XLVII, ESPN reported. They say they don’t plan on talking on the phone at all.

“It doesn’t matter who the coach is, what relationship you have with the person on the other side,” 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh said.

In fact, Jim said the hype around the so-called Harbowl (or SuperBaugh, if you rather), is a bit distracting.

“Well, I think it’s a blessing and a curse,” Jim Harbaugh said Monday. “A blessing because that is my brother’s team. And, also, personally I played for the Ravens. Great respect for their organization. … The curse part would be the talk of two brothers playing in the Super Bowl and what that takes away from the players that are in the game. Every moment that you’re talking about myself or John, that’s less time that the players are going to be talked about.”

They do say that it feels good to be the first brothers to coach against each other for the Super Bowl.

“I like reading a lot of history … I guess it’s pretty neat,” John Harbaugh offered Monday. “But is it really going to be written about? It’s not exactly like Churchill and Roosevelt or anything. It’s pretty cool, but that’s as far as it goes.”

The Harbaugh parents (dad Jack is the one who turned his sons on to the idea of coaching) said they aren’t picking sides in the Harbowl. If they decide to pull for the underdog, that would be John and his Baltimore Ravens. USA Today has them at 5-point underdogs.

I wouldn't touch that bet and over/under with a ten foot pole.

[MinM]

Forget about deflategate .. the Seattle Seahawks' head coach seeks the truth ..

@MostWowFacts: Pete Carroll interrogated a 4-star US general about whether 9/11 was an inside job.

[seemslikeadream]

Pete Carroll admired by '9/11 Truth' movement
Martin Rogers, USA TODAY Sports 10:11 p.m. EST January 29, 2015

USA TODAY Sports' Martin Rogers explains why conspiracy theorists are backing the Seattle Seahawks coach in the Super Bowl.

2015-01-29-pete-carroll
(Photo: Matthew Emmons, USA TODAY Sports)


PHOENIX -- Pete Carroll is a conspiracy theorist, at least that is how the conspiracy theory goes. And it is one that has gained the Seattle Seahawks coach an unlikely following from the "9/11 Truth" movement in the lead-up to his attempt to win back-to-back Super Bowls.

Two years ago, Carroll met with former Army chief of staff and four-star general Peter Chiarelli and, according to Deadspin citing "sources," brought up many popular conspiracy theories concerned with the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on the World Trade Center and quizzed Chiarelli about their veracity.

When asked by USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday about the "9/11 Truth" movement and supporters who back him, Carroll made no attempt to deny his interest.

"Any notoriety is good I guess," Carroll said, when told by USA TODAY Sports how he had become a favorite among Truth activists. "I will always be interested in the truth, yeah."


USA TODAY
Pete Carroll: Sherman's take on Goodell, Kraft 'just Richard's opinion'
The 9/11 conspiracy movement is polarizing, so having even the implied support of a high-profile and successful figure such as Carroll has been a welcome boost.

"He kind of became an instant celebrity in the 9/11 Truth movement," said Danny Torgersen, a member of the 9/11 Studies and Outreach group at Arizona State. "He's won the Super Bowl once, he might win it again. That's lots of credibility and popularity."

Last year's Super Bowl came with a surprising conspiracy twist, when a Brooklyn man, Matt Mills, managed to bluff his way into the media entrance at the end of the Seahawks' 43-8 victory over the Denver Broncos.

As Malcolm Smith was being presented with his MVP trophy, Mills rushed onto the podium and grabbed the microphone before security could intervene. "Investigate 9/11," he said. "9/11 was perpetrated by people within our own government."

Unsurprisingly, Mills' stunt created a flurry of activity on social media, which for him, was mission accomplished.

"Really my memory of last year is that 'Investigate 9/11' was trending worldwide the next day," Mills told USA TODAY Sports in a telephone interview. "I am pretty proud to have helped make that happen.

"And I believe that the implied support of Pete Carroll does help our cause. Every single 9/11 skeptic that I have ever spoken to has great respect for him."


USA TODAY
The father missing from Marshawn Lynch's life
Carroll is an intriguing man with strong views. Last year, he told the Seattle Times his feelings on how the Iraq conflict could have been handled differently in an impassioned interview.

"Let's say, after all the stuff that we heard about what was going on in Iraq, we sent 10,000 people to Iraq as peacefully as we could go," Carroll said. "And we walked wherever they would let us go, and we just talked to people and listened to what their issues were.

"And then we tried to figure out the best way we could support them and change things, as opposed to bombing (expletive) thousands of people with shock and awe. It might've taken us longer to influence change, but nobody would've died."

Those comments further emboldened some in the Truth community, feeling a sense of connection with Carroll as someone who did not automatically agree with the actions and statements of the U.S. government.

"What Pete Carroll is essentially doing is throwing the challenge flag on the official story that we've heard so far," said Steven Cohn, a member of the same Arizona State group as Torgersen.


USA TODAY
NFL keeps grip on Super Bowl tickets, except for owners
This Super Bowl has had plentiful theories of the football variety, thanks to the oddball tale of Deflategate, and whether the New England Patriots took advantage of underinflated footballs during the AFC Championship game.

Issues surrounding footballs, Brady and Belichick have dominated the news media agenda this past week and got the nation's sports fans talking, while frustrating 9/11 skeptics who struggle to be taken seriously.

"The 9-11 conspiracy theory, if you talk about the science of what happened and the way the towers fell, and the 2,300 architects and engineers that are calling into question the official findings, you're labeled a conspiracy theorist," Cohn said.

"But if you accuse an entire team of deflating footballs or spying on the other team, then that's just being a sports fan."

[Project Willow]

Ha!

Solidarity—and the Seattle Seahawks—Forever
http://www.thenation.com/blog/196601/solidarity-and-seattle-seahawks-forever#

[82_28]

I don't know if you're being facetious, but I want neither team to win, actually. And to wit, I have two "12s" on my birth certificate and I will be out and about wearing Broncos stuff tomorrow. If anybody tries to beat me up, I will simply break out my ID to show the old 12/12. Doubled you bitchez!

Since I live here in the "land of the 12s" and "beast mode" and whatever else fucking gimmick the seahawks have going, I really want "the 12s" to shut the fuck up. When I moved here in 1999 everyone had left the seahawks for dead. Now all of a sudden INTEREST! I would say that 90% of it is fake and bandwagonning. In places like Denver and other cities we never had to resort to this kind of shit. Take the Broncos sold out history going on 50 years, Seattle. Whatever, just a stupid game that makes loads of money for everyone.

[American Dream]

The NFL's Dirty Secret

By Don Bauder, July 4, 2012

Picture a couple cozily cohabitating for more than 90 years but publicly pretending they aren't conjoined. That's the National Football League and the gambling industry (both legal and illegal).

This faux separation is in the news again. Today, Nevada is the only state in which sports gambling is legal, regulated, policed, and taxed, but it only accounts for about 1 percent of sports wagering, according to the American Gaming Association. New Jersey wants sports gambling permitted at its racetracks and in Atlantic City; other revenue-hungry states want in on the action, too.

The National Football League, which earlier beat back Delaware when it wanted to have Nevada-like privileges, might sue New Jersey. Well, sue with a wink. Commented one wag on the ProFootballTalk website, “NFL has its headquarters in New York, but ‘dey keep de books in Joisey.’” In reality, Joisey’s all-powerful mob will probably decide whether the state goes for legalized sports gambling. Dem kneecappers may prefer to keep it in their own hands, although if they surreptitiously control the Atlantic City casinos and state racetracks (quite possible), they might want sports gambling legalized. In either case, the league will quietly rejoice.

The National Football League’s feigned indignation about gambling is a joke. A conservative estimate is that $80 billion to $100 billion is wagered on NFL games each year, only a fraction legally. People place their bets through bookies, office pools, fantasy football, and the like. This gambling clearly boosts attendance and TV revenue, the mother’s milk of the sport. When you have money in a game, your interest is intensified. (Would you even bother to watch a horse race if you had no cash on a nag?)

The National Football League’s actions belie its supposed contempt for gambling. For example, the league requires teams to state before games what players may have to sit out because of injury and what players are questionable. That information only benefits gamblers. And does the league complain that newspapers run the point spreads on the games? Of course not.

Continues at: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2012 ... ty-secret/

[Perelandra]

True, Mr 82, although those were different times. Regardless, happy super bowl freakout, SEA peeps. Stay safe!

[American Dream]

"Stick to sports" only goes so far. Ray Lewis’ involvement in a double murder can be written off as an aberration and ignored as so much old news. Roethlisberger’s double rape allegations are now old news, but back then, they were distorted by the funhouse mirror of Goodell World until dismissing them seemed almost less than outrageous. By the time the soft-focus pregame features of Super Bowl XLV came along, you had people like Fox’s Curt Menefee actually suggesting that winning the game would complete Roethlisberger’s "redemption season," while everyone else portrayed being accused of violating another woman as more or less "adversity."

This alone explains why you will hear no end of invocations of “deflated balls” this Sunday. Deflating a ball is a crime only in Goodell World, where the fraction of people who give a shit about it is only slightly greater than the people who care about it in real life—which is zero. It’s a crime about the integrity of the game, one that only exists within the game and can only be prosecuted and disciplined within the game. It is the sweetest outrage because it is 100 percent recreational. Most importantly, it’s not a crime, or at least a horror, created by the normative function of the game.

— Jeb Lund, “Everything Stupid is Alive, and Everything Stupid Can Kill You: Welcome to Goodell World”

[82_28]

It's not the NFL, but this is definitely fishy:

http://espn.go.com/chalk/story/_/id/125 ... -las-vegas

A foul that almost wasn't called resulted in a last-second free throw that caused millions of dollars to change hands in Las Vegas. And this time the sportsbooks took the worst of it.

Duke guard Quinn Cook made one of two free throws with 0.7 seconds remaining, capping the Blue Devils' 63-57 victory over Utah on Friday in Sweet 16 action in Houston. Duke closed as a 5-point favorite at the majority of sportsbooks, which were rooting for the underdog Utes.

"It caused a million-dollar swing with parlay liability, to the bad," MGM vice president of race and sports Jay Rood told ESPN.

I didn't watch the game, but I "know" how this shit works. And this unorthodox decision by the refs is totally, TOTALLY, fishy.