Official Championship Games Thread 2014

[mraynrand]

Awesomeness. I just saw the post game 'interview' by Erin Andrews. You don't want this all the time in the NFL, but a little bit of unvarnished emotion is refreshing, especially given what we know about the Niners trash talking WRs.

[Willard]

My impressions from SF-SEA game:
Even against the "best defense in the NFL" Kaep will occasionally break containment and gallop down the field like a freak of nature. I think any team/scheme is likely to get torched on occasion by this unique talent.
I kept thinking how Frickin good/fast/decisive Bowman was in the middle of SF's defense. What a difference he would make in GB if we grabbed him in free agency. Then his knee was pulverized. Bad break so to speak.
It also occurred to me that GB played SF as tough as did SEA. GB certainly looked tougher on both sides than the previous year. Lacy brings tude to the running game. Now shore up the middle of the defense and contend. In short, all is not lost in Packer Nation.

[pbmax]

Just in case its not clear, let me repeat:

Head to head collisions are not illegal in the NFL.

For QBs, defenseless player (WR during catch or punter/kicker) or straight-line crown of the helmet hits OUT of the tackle box are treated differently.

[woodbuck27]

i turned the game off after seattle scored the TD after the blown roughing the kicker call

that was when i lost my last ounce of faith in the nfl

i find it hard to believe that a top rated ref can see that happen, throw the flag and call the wrong thing

up to that point i also saw 1 huge penalty on san fran for a shot to the head that kept an early seattle drive alive, even though whitner didn't hit the head or neck area. and i saw at least 4 obvious h2h hits by the seahawks that weren't called

for me it was like watching the WWE. good guy goes to hit the bad guy with the chair and the ref stops him and takes away the chair. while the ref has his back turned to get rid of the chair, the bad guy grabs another chair and drills the good guy in the face. and the ref turns around in time to count the good guy out

i don't think the nfl is "scripted", but i think the outcome is predetermined or at least heavily guided, and they just use the human error excuse to cover it all up

what i saw last night was all the big calls and no calls were very one sided. and this was suppose to be an all star crew made up of the best of the rest. they shouldn't have made mistakes at all, much less so many of them

Wow red. Mae and I just finished with this discussion or in the NFL : Is the fix in?

Mae says looking at it all yesterday and her just being rather relatively new to becoming a fan of the NFL compared to me. That seemed to be the case or obvious to her. Mae says the fix is in. Mae is very bright.

I was at first somewhat surprized at Mae's call; certainly that having been seriously into Pro Sports for 5 1/2 decades. The more I thought about all the clear corruption I saw in both games. The more I came to offer credence to Mae's observation.

In some games I've watched this season my stomach turns. There's something really sick in the NFL right now. That's covered up by what may "only" appear as NFL official incompetence. I believe the final say has all to do with $the almighty dollar$.

I'm on the bench and thinking still about this. I'm not sure I need to see more interms of any serious claim of "the fix". Yet looking at this:

How can the NFL generate more money for all those that benefit most from "football" in terms of maximum gains.

Is it really....Screw the honor of the game of football and double screw the football fans!??

The owners suck in all the revenue that can by whatever ploys they can conceive and the fans are actually passed over in terms of our best expectations based in "fair play".

What that is isn't doing the game of football and at the level of the NFL any good.

PACKERS !

[pbmax]

TV Markets Ranked

Rank Metropolitan Market Regions / Areas
1 New York
2 Los Angeles
3 Chicago
4 Philadelphia
5 Dallas-Ft. Worth
6 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
7 Boston
8 Atlanta
9 Washington, DC
10 Houston
11 Detroit
12 Phoenix
13 Tampa-St. Petersburg
14 Seattle-Tacoma

Someone must tell me what the NFL and TV have to gain by fixing the game to put a smaller market in the Super Bowl.

Also notice, Boston (7th) somehow managed to lose to Denver (18th). Unless you have substantial evidence about how the NFL makes more money by having smaller markets for their marquee game, you must believe the NFL fixed to games to their detriment.

Source: http://www.stationindex.com/tv/tv-markets

[woodbuck27]

TV Markets Ranked

Rank Metropolitan Market Regions / Areas
1 New York
2 Los Angeles
3 Chicago
4 Philadelphia
5 Dallas-Ft. Worth
6 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
7 Boston
8 Atlanta
9 Washington, DC
10 Houston
11 Detroit
12 Phoenix
13 Tampa-St. Petersburg
14 Seattle-Tacoma

Someone must tell me what the NFL and TV have to gain by fixing the game to put a smaller market in the Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl isn't set to be played in Seattle.

The Super Bowl is set to be played in a HUGE Market area pbmax.

[hoosier]

Nice to see that Kaepernick's teammates have his back. Anquan Boldin:

On the last drive we had enough time, we were driving down. We started with three minutes, we had all three timeouts, so there was no need to rush. We put ourselves in great position. Unfortunately we threw an interception at the end.

[pbmax]

The Super Bowl isn't set to be played in Seattle.

The Super Bowl is set to be played in a HUGE Market area pbmax.

The Super Bowl is already sold out, so where its played matters not. The gate receipts are fixed.

TV revenue is both far larger and still flexible (some TV spots carry variable rates and Networks who fail to deliver ratings can be forced to give refunds).

Again, how is the NFL making more money with Seattle than San Fran, or Denver over NE?

[oldbutnotdeadyet]

TV Markets Ranked

Rank Metropolitan Market Regions / Areas
1 New York
2 Los Angeles
3 Chicago
4 Philadelphia
5 Dallas-Ft. Worth
6 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
7 Boston
8 Atlanta
9 Washington, DC
10 Houston
11 Detroit
12 Phoenix
13 Tampa-St. Petersburg
14 Seattle-Tacoma

Someone must tell me what the NFL and TV have to gain by fixing the game to put a smaller market in the Super Bowl.

Also notice, Boston (7th) somehow managed to lose to Denver (18th). Unless you have substantial evidence about how the NFL makes more money by having smaller markets for their marquee game, you must believe the NFL fixed to games to their detriment.

Source: http://www.stationindex.com/tv/tv-markets

It is just too hard to believe that a big time sport like NFL is fixed. Now all of the close games against the Packers is another story...

[hoosier]

Much easier to believe is that many fans are selective in what they see: we see the blown calls that cost the teams we root for, and we hear the things announcers say that could be construed as critical of our team or in favor of the opponent. Those announcers then acquire an anti Packer bias.

[woodbuck27]

The Super Bowl is already sold out, so where its played matters not. The gate receipts are fixed.

TV revenue is both far larger and still flexible (some TV spots carry variable rates and Networks who fail to deliver ratings can be forced to give refunds).

Again, how is the NFL making more money with Seattle than San Fran, or Denver over NE?

Why did I pick (predict) the Super Bowl Finalists to be:

(AFC) DENVER Vs (NFC) Seattle before the season began?

This season from an overall NFL marketing standpoint had to be about Denver and Peyton Manning. His whole career statement was based in his success or not of getting into and the next step winning the Super Bowl.

That step will be described in terms of Peyton Manning and his Denver Broncos winning the BIG GAME.

Bet your bank on that; as it won't be anything else.

THE DENVER BRONCOS ARE YOUR SUPER BOWL XLVIII CHAMPION.

Everything ultimately will be driven to that singular result.

[Bossman641]

I certainly agree that the calls seemed to go against SF but I think that's more a function of home field and the refs feeling a bit of pressure from the crowd. There's no way you can convince me that the NFL fixed it to come down to a end zone INT with 30 seconds left.

[pbmax]

Why did I pick (predict) the Super Bowl Finalists to be:

(AFC) DENVER Vs (NFC) Seattle before the season began?

This season from an overall NFL marketing standpoint had to be about Denver and Peyton Manning. His whole career statement was based in his success or not of getting into and the next step winning the Super Bowl.

That step will be described in terms of Peyton Manning and his Denver Broncos winning the BIG GAME.

Bet your bank on that; as it won't be anything else.

THE DENVER BRONCOS ARE YOUR SUPER BOWL XLVIII CHAMPION.

Everything ultimately will be driven to that singular result.

So your argument for the playoffs being fixed is that the entire season is fixed?

[run pMc]

just for the record, I would not be opposed to seeing Pete Carroll get clobbered with a folding chair.

+1

If SF had won I'd be thinking the same thing about Harbaugh.

Not a Denver fan AT ALL but I have to root for them. Is it possible to root for everyone to lose?
In a perfect world, Peyton Manning will throw a last second game winning Hail Mary that Eric Decker rips out of Richard Sherman's hands. Also, Golden Tate fumbles three times.

[bobblehead]

Just in case its not clear, let me repeat:

Head to head collisions are not illegal in the NFL.

For QBs, defenseless player (WR during catch or punter/kicker) or straight-line crown of the helmet hits OUT of the tackle box are treated differently.

But on the final series of the previous superbowl, spearing directly into the ear hole of a defenseless receiver is perfectly OK.