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Remember when NJ Governor Chris Christie was the NFL's public enemy #1 for trying to legalize sports gambling in his state? Why's he jumping around with Jerry Jones after the Cowboys' highly controversial win over the Lions?
Also, remember when it was a big deal that the NFL's Head of Officiating Dean Blandino was filmed getting off Jerry Jones' son's party bus back in the summer and the NFL told everyone it was no big deal because there certainly wouldn't be any conflict of interest (even though every review is now run through the NFL's home office in NYC while being overseen by Blandino)?
Then came Sunday's grand finale of Wildcard Weekend. So here's the series of events that gave the Cowboys the game: On 3rd-and-1, Stafford's pass to Pettigrew resulted in a pass interference call against the Cowboys which is not only announced, but the marked off on the field. About 45 seconds later, that call was reversed - without an explanation. During this fiasco, Dez Bryant charged out on the field to argue the call which also should've resulted in a flag against the Cowboys. This was ignored. So even if referee Pete Morelli was correct in picking up the flag on the pass interference call (which he explained away to an unnamed "pool reporter" as being too minimal of contact to warrant a flag - even though former Head of Officiating turned FOX broadcaster Mike Pereira stated on air & on twitter that the call was incorrectly reversed), the Lions should've had a drive-extending first down thanks to Bryant's antics.
I love, by the way, how ESPN (one of the NFL's biggest broadcast partners) added this nugget of information to one of its articles on this penalty, "This sequence of events will push this game into the echelon of NFL history -- the "Phantom Flag Game" was an initial start on social media -- and the ensuing confusion was a bad look for the NFL. Is it the primary reason the Cowboys won and the Lions lost? No. The decision reduced the Lions' win probability at that point from 78 percent to a still-healthy 66 percent."
True or not, I wonder what that percentage dropped to after the Lions faked going for it on 4th-and-1, and then kicked a 10-yard punt to give the Cowboys the ball back on their own 41? Or I wonder what those percentages became when the Lions were called for not one, but two defensive holding penalties--the first
on 2nd-and-10 at the Lions' 21, the second on 3rd-and-7 on the 13--which kept the Cowboys' game-winning drive alive?
Of course, it's only "conspiracy theorists" like myself (and dozens of people who emailed or tweeted me about this game) who think that this was done purposefully. You know, because the first Cowboys-Packers playoff game to be played in Lambeau Field since the famed "Ice Bowl" won't draw in a massive audience as opposed to that Panthers-Packers rematch to which we should've been treated. And becase, you know, there's no way a league as powerful as the $10-billion-a-year-and-rising NFL -- when backed by those same broadcast partners set to benefit from such a TV-made matchup -- could orchestrate such an outcome (despite all the facts as pointed out on this website and elsewhere saying it's really easy and legal to do). No, there's no reason for "reputable" sports outlets like ESPN, FOX, or CBS to actually question what occurred on the field because only "loons" think there might have been an ulterior motive behind all of this.
I mean, was anyone up in arms over Carolina beating the Cardinals? Or the Colts advancing to play the Broncos (so we can hear about how Peyton Manning once led the Colts to a Super Bowl victory and now Andrew Luck is breaking all his records in Indy)? Or that despite giving up 6 TDs to Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers just a few weeks back, the mighty Ravens D held them to a mere 17 points so they can put that "hard-hitting" crew up against Tom Brady?
Can't we all just enjoy the Presentations of the National Football League as brought to us by monopolistic broadcast entities without all this negativity?