Are Professional Sports Fixed?

What if all of that time, emotion, and money has been wasted on a lie? What if the action on the field isn’t what it appears to be? What if you, and millions others like you, have been duped – outright lied to – by those franchises you hold so dear to your heart, all in the name of making an easy buck? Well, my friend, it has happened. And although your name might not be “Mark,” you have certainly become one to those running the carnival known as professional sports.

When a win seems too good to be true - it is. When an impossible turn of events changes the course of a game - it is. When the story of an improbable underdog rises to the top like some sort of Hollywood screenplay - it is. The leagues, hand-in-hand with the TV networks which pour billions of dollars into professional sports, have fixed their own games to squeeze every ounce of drama they can out of each season and to ensure you remain committed to their sport and glued to your TV.

The Cowboys fell from power because the Salary Cap finished going into effect and Jones quite simply didn’t know how to build a team with a hard cap. One of the first things he started doing was signing players with deferred salary, which is pretty much the dumbest thing you can do in a capped league (losing cap next year for play this year is handicapping yourself). That was part of his continued obsession with BIG NAME players, which can work in an uncapped world where you can throw money around, but doesn’t work so well in a cap where you suddenly find you’ve got no money for an offensive line. He seems to have figured it out the last couple of years as he’s finally started building his lines and not running after old stars. We’ll see how next year pans out.

If the Post 9-11 SB was a “geographic trick” then why was it Pats (source of the terror flights but not actually a victim) - Rams (completely uninvolved in 9-11). Sure the Pats have that name, but if somebody wanted to orchestrate a 9-11 “tribute” SB each conference has 3 teams geographically close to where 9-11 victims were killed. A “Skins- Jets SB would have been much more “geographical” for that one.

Penalties aren’t random, so there should be a pattern. Some teams coach better than other teams. Some teams draft better than other teams. Some teams bring in NFL refs to officiate scrimmages and teach players the rules better, and some teams are too stupid to partake of this obviously smart move.

There are way too many blowouts every year, especially in the prime time games, to think the refs control the game to avoid them. Just look at this year’s Thursday night scores, CBS paid extra to get half those games, and they were all broadcast on the NFL’s very network, and most of them were complete snorers over by half time.

The Cowboys have a variety of incredible structural advantages that make it difficult to comprehend their Charlie Brown legacy since winning 3 super bowls.

I also tend to think the Steelers are getting some sort of weird bad deal as well.

The Cowboys did and still do have such a high prestige attached to their identity that their capacity to retain players at lower salaries is better than most any other NFL team. Yet, supposedly Jones is too stupid and too self destructive.

He is part of an agreement among owners and he wants the NFL to be highly profitable. Dallas has had a number of excellent coaches and they all seem to hit magic walls that keep fans interested but crestfallen right at the end.

I am personally glad that a statistical analysis came out about the Patriots. I think there are some semi-persuasive rebuttals but the lack of such analysis in a hyped up sports world is rather ridiculous. Lets start talking about whether the NFL is pro wrestling. Lets deconstruct every million dollar minute of the NFL and make them publicly defend the odd irregularities.

ESPN’s coverage of the NFL seems absurd. Their decisions to fire Craig James and diss Tim Tebow reek of politics gone wildly leftist. The public should start raising hard questions on statistical anomalies. Part of what affects me is that I have moved quite a bit over the years and recently came back to Dallas. I cheered for a number of other NFL teams while I was gone from Dallas area. Seeing Dallas games compared to several other AFC and NFC teams I cheered for, it seems ridiculous. 2010-2012 was mind blowing for calls against the Cowboys. Just the fact that so little is said about Seattle’s ball fiasco against Dallas seems sketchy presently.

I do cheer for the steelers and their games resemble cowboy games. These two seem selected for Charlie Brown designations— close but no. Other teams seemed charmed in officiating. I also think this is starting to happen more and more in college football games.

In a hard capped league you lose a lot of structural advantages. That’s the point of the hard cap, eliminating structural advantages. In the hard cap it’s about spotting talent that’s cheap, building out, don’t over pay, and don’t get enamored of stars. I think Jones finally started paying attention to the Redskins, who under Snyder have been trying to build teams pretty much the same way Jones does, and having even worse results.

Steelers are in good shape. 3 trips to the SB in the last 10 years with 2 wins. They screwed up on getting rid of old talent, that’s what put them in the situation they were in. They had an old offensive line and an old defense. They fixed the o-line and are fixing the D. They also did a crappy job picking WRs, they’ve let a lot of guys go after 1 contract, and they were right to let them go (they really aren’t doing any better on their new teams), which means they were wrong to draft.

When was the last time you heard of a player giving a “prestige discount”? “Home town discount” sure, “prestige discount” never. Prestige means nothing for signing players. Also the best teams are really built from the draft not free agency. As soon as a team starts making high profile free agent moves you know they’re over paying for talent. Look at the regularly successful teams the last decade, they almost never sign anybody in the first week of free agency, aka the expensive week.

Dallas has had a number of bad coaches. And a number of castrated coaches. And a number of coaches that used to be good. Garrett is really the first time since the SB years Dallas looks like they have a pretty good coach who is actually being allowed to coach. The wall your coaches hit was their own talent. Coaching counts more deeper into the season, when your opponents have more film on you and more opportunity to inspect your tendencies, and more time to figure out how to crush them.

Most of the “odd irregularities” in the NFL are based on expect the data to be something it actually shouldn’t be. Like randomly distributed penalties.

They didn’t fire James, he quit to run for the Senate. And the “Tebow conspiracy” people are, frankly, crazy. ESPN guys mostly seem to like him as a person, but they were doing their job and pointing out he was seriously flawed as a player. That’s not a diss, that’s the job.

2010 to 2012 Cowboys were coached by the terrible (and castrated by Jones) Wade Phillips and then the not quite ready yet Garrett. They were a sloppy team that made sloppy mistakes. As for ball fiascos, they happen all the time, people only care when it gives them a chance to call Belichick a cheater.

Steelers games only resemble Cowboys games when the Steelers aren’t doing well. In general they’re a much more disciplined team, taking fewer stupid penalties and doing a better job of the little stuff. It’s not charmed, it’s discipline and reputation.

That shows how the media world is with controversial situations. Everybody is entitled to beliefs, but you’re NOT always entitled to drag your employer into a situation. By and large the TV networks want to stay away from anything that’s an “issue”, by being a paid mouthpiece for Fox, by being in a situation where their name is in the same sentence as his name in a story, he needed to know don’t step in controversy land. You can argue about whether or not it should be but the fact is it is and Fox didn’t want to be in it. It’s a simple rule that a handful of people on both sides of the line fall afoul of every year. Never, ever, under any circumstances, publicly associate your employer with ANY position on ANY issue ANYBODY complains about; and if you do, understand they probably won’t be your employer very long.

Fumbles are a.pretty easy.way and hard to know. Also the NFL is pass happy. A secondary guy on defense could throw a game easily. Almost impossible to detect. Being a redskin fan this past year they played a very good game and beat Dallas. The next.week they play a bad minnesota team and guys are running 5-10 yards open all game. Even the announcers mentioned how open the minn recievers were. Easy throws for a mediocre QB. Redskins lose a close game. I call lack of effort throwing games too. Games are thrown every week in the NFL. There is point shaving going on in the college ranks too. Probably a lot more than fans would want to know about, and games.being fixed.

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