The Super Bowl Disappointment 2010

I can’t bring myself to root for either Superbowl team this year, neither the Saints, nor Colts. The reason why I can’t is because the refs decide the games regardless of actual penalties or plays that have occurred.

My prediction is that the Saints will win the big game this year, only because it supposedly “makes a good story.” It’s a damn shame that we can’t see an untainted NFL game anymore. Maybe it’s just the nostalgia speaking, but I could have sworn that the penalties and decisions handed out in the past weren’t as horrific. There will always be bad calls, and people will always feel you screwed over their team, but it’s not just the bad calls, it’s the blatant IGNORING of illegal hits, and the like that seem to be heightened these days.

I remember reading two things somewhere in a certain diatribe against the NFL: 1. You can call a holding penalty against either side every play in any modern NFL game; and 2. The eye can’t track more than a certain number of moving objects (7 I think), at a time. So of course the Refs are going to miss some calls at times, because of the chaos on the field. All this aside, I still believe there is some sort of an unspoken order to call penalties against the leading team, just to supposedly make the games “better” and keep the scores closer together. Either that or penalties are disproportionately inflated on the leading team, or too soft on the underdogs.

I’m tired of seeing bad calls & questionable rulings endlessly tainting “the sport.” It’s not a “sport” unless the rules get followed, all of them. As of today, there is no way of telling who is the winner or loser in any NFL game, because of biased play-calling and penalties. The unspoken rule of every sport should be “make it as fair as possible.” Calling penalties & plays just to keep scores near parity is abominable!

What kind of credentials do these Referees have? Is it as simple as passing a written certification test? Do they even receive ANY continuing training? They can’t be making enough money each year to ensure they can’t be bribed.

So, I say we need enforceable penalties for the REFS! 3 bad calls in a season and you’re banned from refereeing for 5 years. Maybe more than that should be forgivable, but I’d really, really like to see a statistical analysis of the historic penalty rate per NFL game through the years. What kind of correlations could we draw between penalty frequency, contesting of penalties and calls, and score variance or game outcome? I understand that there are no completely impartial judges anywhere, but where is the accountability?

Do I just misremember? Or were the NFL games of the past more fair? Someone who is a complete sports geek, please get on this soonest. Thanks.

I questioned putting this on my New Media/Design Blog, but decided to post it here because what is more social than sports? Could it be more contentious, mythic, glorious, disappointing, hopeful, crazy, and fun? Maybe if we held those who hold the ultimate powers accountable.