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| Packer Head Coach, who cannot seem to sufficiently game plan W's to get his team to win a Super Bowl |
The first time I had this conspiracy minded thought was in 1998. The Packers were about to play the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXII. Two good quarterbacks, John Elway and Brett Favre would be featured in the game. John Elway was nearing the end of his career and the Packers had won the prior year Super Bowl by beating the Patriots 35 to 21. Before the game there was a news report that the television contracts would be opened the week or so after the Super Bowl. As we all know, the NFL is a big money organization and the bulk of that money comes from television contracts. To show how much money the NFL receives for the telecast of its games, the television organizations signed an eleven year deal with the NFL in 2020 totaling more than $110 billion. That is $10 billion a year. The television contracts are important to the NFL. So important, would they rig a game? Perhaps. As Super Bowl XXXII was set to play the NFC had won 13 consecutive Super Bowls. At that time, my thought was the NFL will want an AFC win to get the television contract price up for AFC games. Add to that situation, that the NFL lead for the contracts was Pat Bowlen (now deceased) who owned, you guessed it, the Denver Broncos. Sure enough, Denver won. One could argue certain incompetence, as usual, on the play of the Packers, but I still hold the thought today that the game was rigged. A fourteenth consecutive win by the NFC would have had the those putting bids for mainly AFC games wondering why should they pay so much money. That and the desire to give John Elway a Super Bowl victory (he would win a second consecutive Super Bowl by winning XXXIII). Not unlike Peyton Manning getting a second Super Bowl while playing with the Broncos.
Let us fast forward to this last Christmas Day. My brother-in-law was watching a Packer team barely eek out a win over the Cleveland Browns. The Packers had difficulty putting the game away, and even my brother-in-law wondered if it was not rigged to keep television viewership high for the featured Christmas Day game. Perhaps it is the parity in the league, or maybe how they rig the game.
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| Packer President Mark Murphy Who oversees a team that meltdowns like no other |
That theory plays right into the close Divisional and Conference Championship games played this year. Most decided in the last minute of play, if not by the last play of the game. This year the Super Bowl features the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams. Cincinnati has a devoted fan base, and Tinseltown has trouble filling its new stadium. How much trouble do the Rams have filling their stadium? Well, they had to use a silent snap count in their own home stadium against the 49ers in both week 18 (last week of the season) and the NFC Championship game. That is because so many 49er fans were in the Los Angeles Rams new stadium. At first I wondered if the LA fans were simply stupid by yelling and making noise when the Rams had the ball, but when they showed a shot of the crowd there was almost as much red (49er color) as blue (Ram color)--an indicator of fan base. Of course, Super Bowl tickets are expensive so only the glitterati get in to the game, no regular Joe need apply. As much as the NFL talks about equity, they are an organization, that when it comes down to its final game of the season is about the money and moneyed interests. NFL football privilege. I am sure the LA glittering intelligentsia who fashion themselves as the harbinger of all that is good and right will be well present for the Super Bowl since it is in the Rams home stadium. The broadcasting network will show photos of LA Laker players, politicians and probably even Roger Goddell.
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| Robbie Gould, kicking game winning field goal as time expired. Just when one thinks it not possible, the Packers find a way to rise to an even higher levels of incompetence. On this play the Packers had only 10 men on the field. |
This is the second year in a row that the Super Bowl game will be played in the home stadium of one of the Super Bowl participants. Tampa Bay beat Kansas City last year in the home stadium of Tampa Bay. This is concerning to some, so much so that the NFL is considering holding all Super Bowl games at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, MN, in a way to assure that a team does not make it to the Super Bowl to play in their home stadium again. Perhaps it should be Ford Field. (That is a joke.)
In the meantime millions of people, including my wife, turn to television to watch football games. This year I knew the Packers would lose to the 49ers. How did I know? It is history. Let me count the ways of Packer incompetence which has a tendency to show up in such games. This too plays into the rigged nature of the game. Is it possible that a team can be so incompetent, for so many years, in such playoff games? It is not just Matt "Unprepared" LaFleur as their head coach. It happened with Mike Holmgren, Mike Sherman, and Mike McCarthy, too. Think of the loss to the Seahawks in January 2015 when the Packers had a 19-7 lead, and ended up losing the game in overtime. Or, in January 2004 when they lost to Philadelphia which featured Philly making a first down on the infamous 4th and 26. (It is so infamous it has its own Wikipedia page.) What are the odds that a team could be so incompetent in playoff games? Sure, the Packers have two Super Bowl victories since the Lombardi era (1997 and 2011), but the league throws them in to avoid people like me thinking the league is rigged.
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| Packer Meltdown against Seattle |
But, it is not just the players. Matt Unprepared LaFleur receives a great deal of money to have properly prepare his team for a game, and with the last loss (and others), he freely admitted that he was not properly prepared. What type of game does it take for LaFleur to be prepared? Is that a sign of knowing incompetence to throw the game? The incompetency of the Packers did not disappoint in this season's Divisional playoff game. I think it would be hard pressed to find another team that rises to such a level of incompetence during playoff games. On the other hand they were a team that could barely beat the Cleveland Browns, and lost to the Lions, so maybe they are just bad. In the last game of the regular season the Lions had the lead before the Packer first team skilled players left the field, so the highly regarded Packer offense did not produce against the fourth worst defense in the league.
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| Part of 4th and 26 Wikipedia Page |
Were the Divisional round playoff games rigged? I am not sure, but with all the close games, it makes one wonder if it is parity or the NFL rigging games to get even more viewership and money that is at play. The NFL is a money machine, but in the end does not produce much wealth but for some players and the oligarchs and its Commissioner. This year it is hard to say what will occur, and which way the NFL will go. Will they get an AFC victory for the upstart star QB with the Bengals, and to show the home team does not always win in Super Bowls? Or will it be the Rams in the hopes of actually getting Ram fans to attend a game, and not be out-voiced by 49er fans? This weekend will show which way Roger G., wants to rig the Super Bowl.
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