How can supposed professional referees not be held accountable?
Two teams, two levels of inflation, all handled by “one” set of refs.
Couldn’t they tell the difference in inflation levels?
Moreover, they were alerted in the playoff game the week before.
And, how does the NFL permit it that each team controls their set of footballs.
Never happen in major league baseball.
“National Felon League.”
The NFL allowed it because individual inflation preferences for QBs potentially increases offense. To the lowest common denominator fan, scoring = excitement and well played defense looks like a guy mauling someone who was about to do something exciting. Same thing in NBA. MLB has a different dynamic because of pitching, but almost all changes were still made to help hitting and scoring.
The NFL is the biggest US pro sport by leaps and bounds because it caters to casual fans. Looking around at the state of the culture, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that NFL is the most popular.
FReegards
You're assuming they checked the balls in the first place. I say they didn't. Throughout this entire spectacle, no one ever even asked if proper procedures were maintained by the officiating crew.
“National Felon League.”
Yet people will flock to the stupid game show each and every Sunday.
I used to love the NFL. It’s only a step up from WWE Wrastlin’ these days though. The rules anymore allow for almost any penalty to be called on any play. The refs can control the flow of a game w/o looking shady.
I kind of lost interest in the game show after the Steelers “won” the “Jerome Bettis Farewell Game Show” of the 2005 season. Seattle got shafted. I pretty much stopped watching the Steelers after that farce (and I’m from Pittsburgh ... I’m supposed to bleed black and gold!).
I should have been clued into the joke status of officiating about 3 weeks before that Super Bowl ... the refs tried hard to hand the Steelers’ second round playoff game against Indianapolis to the Colts (for Peyton Manning’s legacy’s sake), but the Steelers managed to hang in there and won after what’s-his-name shanked that field goal attempt in the final seconds after that Bettis fumble.
Prior to that disaster, Troy Polamalu intercepted the ball with ~3 minutes left ... it was an interception to anyone watching but the blind and the game should have ended right there ... however, the refs called it back and all of that “drama” unfolded.
I kind of think the 1990s was the last good decade of pro football ... either that or I hit my 30s in the ‘00s and couldn’t care less about it anymore :-). It just seemed that they started to pile on the rules and made the game more of a gonzo-spectacle right around the turn of the century. I know ratings are up, but the NFL just seems like an echo of what the league used to be like.
Actually it happens ALL THE TIME in baseball:
http://www.popsci.com/entertainment-amp-gaming/article/2008-11/why-do-colorado-rockies-keep-their-baseballs-humidor
http://a.espncdn.com/mlb/columns/neyer_rob/1380568.html
http://deadspin.com/a-major-league-pitchers-guide-to-doctoring-a-baseball-1562307090
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/doctoring-tricking-baseballs-tradition-old-game-article-1.1754822