I've been thinking about everything and have a few things to say. I am probably far too addicted to the Seahawks to quit them, but I am definitely never going to watch an NFL game again, including Seahawk games. I'm going to restrict my Seahawk addiction to just reading about them. I'm going to start watching a lot of college ball. I won't be buying any Seahawks gear again. I'm not a conspiracy kind of guy, but I'm beginning to think there's a lot of stuff in this world that's rigged including the NFL to some extent. There's been talk about parity since I was a kid some 40-50 years ago. The salary cap was pretty successful for parity, and I now believe that the league uses the refs to assist them in their quest for parity. The bottom line: it's all about ratings and money. They can have their money but I will never give them another penny. I think the refs are used to help certain teams lose and certain teams win.
Another example: the Raiders were flagged 24 times today...the Bucs only 6 times. One might respond by saying, "Yeah, but the Raiders still managed to win the game". Consider this: the Raiders outyarded the Bucs 626 to 270. Think about that...the Raiders played so much better, but yet, because of the refs, they barely won the game, and that was in OT. BTW, the Raiders were 5-2 and the Bucs were 2-4. It really made me wonder if there was some master plan for the NFL to make the NFCS look better than it actually is.
I can't believe that the refs actually called a 3rd penalty on the Saints in today's game, besides the two 5-yard false starts. They did call one offensive holding on Zach Strief...but then again they called it on a 5-yard sack of Brees knowing that the Hawks would decline it. What a bunch of crap. Just way too many coincidences to just be random.
I just can no longer believe that so many poor calls and non-calls are caused by human error. I think they are simply used by the NFL to improve parity. I don't think allowing the Seahawks to win SB's helps with ratings in the rest of the country. I even remember thinking prior to the Rams game that the NFL most likely wants the Rams to beat the mighty Seahawks in L.A. in order to excite one of the most populous regions in the country. Then in the game this bs happens with the OPI calls on our offense. I remeber the season after the win in SB48, noticing how biased the refs seemed against our Seahawks. Check out this stat on penalty differential for the 2014 season. The Hawks differential was -3.75 penalties per game, the next closest were the Patriots at -1.75.
http://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/stats ... tial/2014/ #32. In 2013, we were #31. In 2015, we were # 29. Guess who was #1 in 2015...the Cardinals. I remember in the 2014 season the Rams averaging like 8 penalties per game, but only getting called for 2 or 3 against us. I think the Chiefs had 2 penalties in their game...both of them delay of games called at the end of the game to run out the clock. The Cowboys game was similar to the Rams numbers.
I've come to the conclusion that NFL refs don't like to throw flags on Seahawk opponents. It's blatant. I remember last season when our guys even recovered a few fumbles that were called incorrectly and then even the reviews confirmed the cheating refs bad calls. It's not always penalties...it's fumbles, TD's, Russell getting hit on slides and it never being called. If I had the time, I could go through 4-1/2 seasons of this and write an entire book because it has happened so many times.
I guess from now on I'll just be reading about Seahawk games and maybe occasionally checking out the standings.