Speaking for myself, I actually had no opinion on the play, as the rules and their interpretation changes constantly. I don’t read the updated rulebooks, and I can’t judge the attitude on the field.
In fact, that is what I hate about today’s NFL. Too many penalties based on intent (flagrant versus non flagrant facemask, roughing the kicker, etc.). Worst of all is the idea that there might (or might not be) two different sets of rules for regular season and playoffs.
As a Ram fan, I was non-plussed by the repeated holding non-calls performed against Rams receivers, more so than by the practice videotaping in the Rams-Pats Super Bowl.
I suppose that if the NFL or the refs warn the teams that the game is going to be called “loose”, that both teams are obliged to adjust as best they can to the new scenario, just as a warm-weather/dome team would have to adjust to New Jersey in February. Still, I’d like the football played in February to be played by the same rules as the football in October (minus the pink).
As I perceive that Pats have been net beneficiaries of the caprice of NFL rules and their enforcement, my first inclination was to treat this as a “What goes around comes around” moment.
Oh, and just to show that I am not in the tank for my favorite teams, this Dodger fan willingly admits that the Cincinnati Reds were robbed of a chance at the World Series in strike shortened 1981, when MLB went to a split season in the middle of the year, locking out the team with the best overall record for a chance at the pennant.
I hear you, but I don’t care a lot about that. People have all kinds of “The refs favor the Patriots” things going on, and that has been going on for years for the Green Bay Packers, the Dolphins, the Steelers, the 49ers, etc.
That is just how a lot of fans are. In my younger crazy days, I was one of them.
The issue I have here is people in this thread taking a stance on something COMPLETELY and TOTALLY unsupported by the facts.
People hate the Patriots, I get that. They also hate the Miami Heat, the NY Yankees, the NY Giants, the Boston Red Sox and so on.
But some of the comments in here by people who willfully (actually, probably ignorantly since they didn’t even take a second look at the plays in question) use use emotion as fact to buttress a point.