FINALLY we agree.

Yes, it's an embarrasment of riches......pretty sure the Dodgers bought the 2024 Title, should be confirmed in a week or so.

"The club also signed starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow to a five-year, $136 million extension after acquiring him from the Tampa Bay Rays, putting their total offseason spending close to $1.18 billion."

Yankees are lucky many of these pitchers are out or they'd have ZERO chance.

If Yankees can get lucky and have Freddie Freeman also miss or play injured they'll have a slight chance, but if he plays and plays well it should be over fairly quick.

Surely MLB wants it to go 7 and will make that happen, no?:eek: Come on, man, having gotten what they want, the conspiracy must continue, look at all the money each game makes.

True. Both the Yankees and the Dodgers had the best record in their respective Leagues during the regular season and redemonstrated their superiority in the playoffs. Not that I was happy to see that but....

:(

Possible....you'll have to watch those close calls when the game & series is on the line. Should be no funny business in Games 1 & 2, but anything is possible as it gets later.

It explains why no obvious Yankee calls in Game 5 at Cleveland, MLB would have been fine if it went back to NY. But with games on TBS & FS1, instead of the major networks....eh...yah know.....it didn't matter a whole lot.

Pete, I know you are a music man.

Here is the theme song for this Postseason for the Yankees and Dodgers.

Please substitute "MLB" for "My Friends"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXV4WyQMHFM

:)

Let's see.
Would you believe in ball four called a strike?
Yes I'm certain that it happens all the time.

I remember the hand wringing outrage that two teams with the worst record made it to the World Series last year to the point of MLB considering changing the rules to make the best teams end up in the World Series, while there might not be a grand conspiracy, there is definitely a financial interest in, and motivation to, make the popular teams end up on top. Let's not fool ourselves that there isn't an agenda to make the WS as profitable as possible.

Who'd a thunk, hmmmmm

You might try it sometime then.

:p

Anyone else notice the 2 really bad calls on Tommy Edman in the bottom of the 10th?

Good news for Yankees fans if the Yankees keep getting this awful calls late it might make the difference of a win or 2 for them.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYSosH7mhLw

1:20 mark

Anyone else notice the heinous strike calls against the Yankees in the 1st inning?

The home plate umpire was bad, but he wasn't particularly partial. There's no strategic sense in waiting until the 10th inning to start ruling towards the Yankees.

Growing up in the NYC area, I learned decades ago that the Yankees can never lose an important game where they weren't obviously screwed by the umpires. They are pre-ordained to win every game. Has to be an unfair third party agent scheming against them. Every single time.

Regardless of the validity of this as a description of NYC fans, I'm unsure how this fits in as a reply to my comment. (Maybe I'm just reading too much into your reply.) I brought up the calls against the Yankees just to show there were calls against both sides - as I said, I don't think the umpire was partial.

I did notice his bad calls throughout yes. Game 1 of the World Series and he was the best MLB could do?

You could care less? You're logically challenged. We might have taught you better up here in Canada.

:D

exactly

Early in the game I thought they were gonna have to go back to L.A. but they pulled it off. I'm neutral though I live in L.A. Still, I'm glad for the Dodgers in part that spectre of the 2020 win hanging over their head that they couldn't get it done in a full season.

Well the crook Goodell did it again. How bad were the Refs in that game, at one point it was 6 penalties to 1 (Chiefs did refuse 2, so stats showed 4 to 1, but those 2 penalties were called in case the Chiefs didn't make the play), but 6 to 1!!!!!.........an unbelievable terrble spot on 4th down that gave the Chiefs the ball instead of Buffalo the 1st down, not to mention the bad spot on third down. and replay booth 2 reviews that should have gone Buffalo's way but went the Chiefs way, big surprise. Sorry Buffalo you got hosed again. Goodell gets his Chiefs in again. And I'm no Buffalo fan and didn't bet it, just a neutral observer, the NFL is a joke!

Because of the insane money that mere mortals can't even comprehend, and now legalized gambling on every sport, do you seriously think it's not fixed? Forget the Black Sox, Hal Chase and Pete Rose. That's ancient kiddie stuff. It was pre-determined that KC was going to the Super Bowl, and they will win it. Again. They are the NFL's poster boys. Just like the Dodgers in baseball. Once it's fixed, and it clearly is, nothing can stop it. Too much money.

The Allen first down was egregious. That call wouldn’t have gone against the Chiefs if it were the other way. Fact.

The Jomboy breakdown of both first downs....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs-L3jODWdE

all of you conspiracy theorists and yet nobody has explained to me why the other owners go along with it. You do all realize that the "NFL" and "MLB" is made up of the owners and that the "League" including the commissioners serve at the owner's pleasure.

So explain to me really slowly what super competitive alpha male agrees to let some team besides his win the championship every year. Oh and you basically have to convince ALL of them because if you don't one of them will blow the whistle.

Private deals are routinely brokered by Goodell and certain owners on many issues. Naive to think otherwise in my opinion.

NFL, like the NBA protects it's "Stars". In the NFL, that essentially boils down to about 3 or 4 veteran QB's a year that get special treatment.

That's essentially the long and the short of it.

I'm a little jealous because the Giants haven't had that type of protected QB in like.....well......ever.

Even Eli never really got any special treatment. Peyton certainly did, but not Eli.

Mahomes, let's be honest, has gotten really good at baiting the refs. I think he's been watching a lot of James Harden footage lately.

So you're saying Goodell made some kind of deal with the Chiefs owner to make sure calls always go their way and none of the other owners have figured it out?

There's a pretty big difference between saying certain players tend to get favorable calls (which is true in all sports) and saying that the leagues are fixing games to make sure certain teams win championships.

Agree

I think it can be made clear to refs in direct and indirect ways that many millions of not billions are at stake and when in doubt, no first down for the chiefs opponent.

What billions, and to whom? How are the league as an entity (and again, in reality it's not even it's own entity, it's an extension of the owners) and the uninvolved owners in particular going to make more money off of one result than another? If you're claiming organized crime, that's a lot different than saying "the league." though I'm not sure I buy that either.

I don't buy legalized gambling as the villain because they don't make their money on outcomes they make it on the line. They're not trying to "score" they just want their juice. Lines don't change because the book decides that they suddenly like one team more, they change to try and get the money wagered even on both teams, because then the profit is assured.

It's the same question I ask for any conspiracy theory. How do the people you're accusing benefit? At least if you're saying crime you have an answer for me.

Mahomes is the face of the NFL. Good for the brand to keep him in. More importantly, the Chiefs bring with them an army of Swift fans that otherwise don’t care about football. They would not tune in for the Bills.

The Super Bowl is the most watched broadcast on television every year regardless of who plays in it.

Jeez.

#1. Don't you think the NFL would want another very marketable QB in the mix to generate excitement? Josh Allen ticks literally all the boxes, for who you want to represent the NFL from a marketing standpoint.

#2. You overestimate the influence Taylor Swift has on the economics of football, or anything else outside of loud internet chatter. Sure, they use her as a marketing tool, as they would any celebrity...but deciding games? C'mon!

This literally doesn't explain how anyone makes more money.

Higher viewership, higher merchandise sales. Advertisers understand that the Chiefs bring with them an army. If you think Swift does not add hundreds of millions of dollars to the enterprise, you underestimate her global significance.

In the last 11 playoff games the chiefs opponent has been flagged more 11 times. Better coaching I guess. Nothing to see. If you watched the Texans and Bills game it didn’t pass the eye test.

How global is the Super Bowl?

The most watched Super Bowl in history (pre-streaming) was the 2015 Patriots / Seahawks Super Bowl. Katy Perry was the star of the halftime show. The quality of the game determined that more people tuned in as the game went on. Imagine that.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/...bdc0a2930d6129

Pick your source, the media was running with this $331.5 million only from September 2023 to January 2024 alone. She brings a ton of eyes and money. There is a very long history of the biggest players and teams getting more lenient officiating in sports, leading to more wins and better outcomes for them. I would be quite surprised if the NFL right now is a sudden exception to that.

When Greg and I agree on an issue that makes it an unassailable position, almost by definition!

All it takes is massive amounts of money.

That ignores all other revenue generating story lines. If the Bills made it to the Super Bowl it would bring a ton of eyes. Who wouldn't want to see the Bills either finally win or pitifully lose a fifth Super Bowl?

I do agree that exceptional players get the benefit of a lot of doubts. An umpire might call a strike on a rookie they wouldn't call if Aaron Judge were at the plate, for example. But league-wide collusion to alter the outcomes of games at the executive level seems farfetched.

Why do you think the owners are in it, it's all Goodell. Pretty simple.

It is, but a lot more with the Swifties.

It happened last year too if you go back and watch those games.....the other times the Chiefs made it they made it there cleanly, but the last 2 Super Bowl visits are highly questionable.

This is true for Guys. But for female viewship it's all about the Chiefs and Kelce and the Tramp.

And no league wide collusion, not sure who started that. This is all Goodell, he is a crook. He is money & power happy. He wants the most watched most money generated SB's while it's under his helm.

Never mind that so much of this makes absolutely no sense at all (gambling? wouldnt Vegas DO BETTER by having the Chiefs LOSE??), so lets put that aside.

Whats the damn point of all of this? SURELY if you believe its fixed you arent watching the NFL now or ever again, right? I mean, my god, what a colossal waste of time. So if you arent watching, how is it you can recount all of the injustices? Why would you care? I dont see anyone giving us WWE updates.

And further, why talk about it at all? Yall just trying to help us see the light? Thanks? But like many things in life, you may find that nobody GAF what other people think.

Nope. This is just the 2025 contortion of bitching about teams/outcomes we/you dont like and pretending to put some sort of intellectual hat on it.

I hope all you fella's were equally up in arms when Brady was getting the star treatment......or was the Gisele's fault?

People thinking Taylor Swift fandom is determining the outcome of games is just bonkers to me. :confused:

I didn’t bring gambling into it but Vegas benefitted from the Chiefs win. More money was on the Bills with a higher payout.

And was that the case for every Chiefs game or can we conclude that there is no strong correlation between Vegas' position and the Chiefs outcome?

Listen to Burr on Rich Eisen, he pretty much nails it....

start at about 15:52

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvFA5N9muBI

That is far from the case on every Chiefs game. More money was wagered on the Bills. Usually, but not always, more money is wagered on the chiefs. The books typically try to balance the money out but in this game they took in heavier bets on the Bills.

We've all heard the storyline plenty of times. Im not interested in leftovers. Im trying to have a conversation, apparently, with people who cant/wont answer questions. Im good here.

So then we agree that the Vegas angle is nonsensical? Cool.

Gambling never impacts sports. Run with that lol.

I think some of you are completely missing it. This has NOTHING to do with Gambling and Vegas.

Don't you all recall when Swift and Kelce first became an item and she showed up at a Chiefs game, then another, then another, and as this happened, it get every NON-Guy interested in Football.

Goodell saw this OBVIOUSLY, the Chiefs and the Swift thing were nearly doubling viewership and he knew the Chiefs were the team going to last years Super Bowl and again this year. With females interested in football you nearly doubled every source of income.

I know a girl, she's about 40, never cared about football. Last year she bought a Chiefs jersey and sewed Swift over the name on the back of it. She watched "Chiefs" games religiously week and week and the SB. She never watched a minute of footballl in her previious 39 years on this planet.

She is just an example of what happened and Goodell, hell call him smart, but I prefer power hungry and money hungry saw his meal ticket = the Chiefs to make the SB, the game itself as was last years will be clean, this was all about helping the Chiefs get there by the NFL once they're there, they've done their part. SB is clean.

100% agree.

Couldn’t agree more.

Im with you completely. Just please explain how Vegas is involved in making sure that the Chiefs when when....as you said...the Chiefs almost always had more money wagered on them.

Or just come up with some dismissive snippet pretending to be intellectual again.

Someone should start their own thread on this being about gambling. Has nothing to do with gambling.

Focus people.

I said I didn’t bring gambling into this. You did, with verifiably false statements that I addressed.

I laughed lol. This is the definition

Man this is tough. Do you believe Vegas is involved in the fixing of Chiefs games or no? Simple yes or no question.

I did not bring up gambling, someone else did earlier in the thread. You responded. I proposed that the idea was non-sensical, you retorted with a single example in which it was not. Thanks. My theory still stands. Moe agrees with me.

And I'll even give you a diversion. "Vegas" probably is involved in the fixing of games, in the sense that people do gamble and that leads to corruption that we've already seen. But that has absolutely nothing to do with the NFL unless you'd like to offer up your own theory there.

And yet still neither one of you has even gone so far as to confess to no longer watching games or explaining why you do.

I missed clicking the link but now have and here is a good factoid:


How much money has Taylor Swift made for the NFL?
Swift attended her first Chiefs game of 2023 on Sept. 24. Since then, she's attended 12 games total, including the AFC championship. The Super Bowl will be her 13th game, which, if you know the 14-time Grammy winner, couldn't be more fitting.

Ahead of the Chiefs' AFC title win over the Ravens on Jan. 28, Apex Marketing Group calculated how much brand value Swift has generated for the league and the Kansas City-based franchise. The revenue added by the singer came out to an estimated $331.5 million between print, digital, radio, TV, highlights and social media, according to Front Office Sports.

Damn, Mahomes been getting calls long before Swifties showed up!

Same way Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and a few select others have been the favored sons of the league at different points in time.

I'll be rooting for the Eagles and Saquon to get a ring, and I'll probably yell at the TV whenever the Chiefs get a call to go in their favor...but blaming it on Goodell having some sort of Satanic Pact with Swifties, is super silly at best.

I won't be watching the Super Bowl, only exception would be if I were to be at a party, but since not planning to go to one at this moment, I'm boycotting the SB and will watch something else. Hopefully Hockey is on but guessing prob not, then I'll watch a few episodes of the Sopranos. My boycott means nothing to anyone or the NFL, but I will like having known I didn't give Goodell a second of my time that day. Again he could give 2 shits.

It's like watching a pre-arranged marriage, just aint the same

I don’t think gambling played a role in the outcome of the Chiefs-Texans or Chiefs-Bills game. I won’t be watching the Super Bowl this year. The NFL doesn’t care, nor should it. There are millions of Swift fans that will more than replace the people that are fed up.

I agree with you in terms of the bigger star getting the benefit of the doubt. Jordan got it against the Jazz and just about everyone else, Brady got it against everyone. The combination of Mahomes and the Swift angle has made the calls going the Chiefs way seem to stand out more. Almost like they’ve decided they’re not going to bother to try to hide it better. Could the Bills have come out of that game with a win? Sure, and shame on them for not destroying the Chiefs. But if there were going to be any close calls they were going to go against them. Hence you get a first down that wasn’t called (they got it twice), a ball hitting the ground ruled a catch, etc. The Texans game was more egregious so maybe they did try to hide it better. Progress.

Something seems fishy and frankly I doubt BOTH sets of numbers. Forbes says the Chiefs revenue was $591M for 2023. Even if you spread Swift's impact over 2 years......that's remarkably significant.

https://www.forbes.com/teams/kansas-city-chiefs/

Because Goodell is the owners' lackey, not the other way around. There is no all-powerful "League." This mysterious force that somehow makes more money if Taylor swift sells more Travis Kelce Jerseys. There is a group of owners who hire some dude to protect their interests.

yah why believe Forbes, they've only been around since 1917.

Thank you both, gentlemen. For the record I wont be watching the SB either. Not because I think its fixed but because I dont care for either team. But my question was in the broader sense....I dont understand why you would watch any games at all. Just a hard habit to break?

Some lackey, he makes well over 63 million a year in salary (that was his 2019 salary), not mention anything he gets under the table. But that's pretty good money for a lackey.


EDIT TO ADD - shit he makes more than Mahomes

Oh, I believe Forbes reported the number they were given. Im just not certain I believe in the number they were given. But if you believe Forbes, how in the heck did the Chiefs generate $590M and $3XX million was attributable to Taylor? And why do the Chiefs suck so bad as a revenue generating organization when all of the other NFL teams revenues have very comparable revenue numbers without a Taylor Swift impact?


Is the link to the article you posted completely wrong?

because those figures ad intangibles into the value. Like the claim that Tiger's chip in at the Masters where the Nike logo hung over the lip of the cup nad then fell in was worth 100 Million to Nike.

Nobody handed Nike $100 million in cash, and their sales didn't go up by that amount, but the amount of airplay that shot got in terms of advertising was worth that much.

So first off, $300 million is chicken feed compared to the revenue the NFL as a whole generates even if it was actual cash in someone's pocket; And again who's pocket??? It's not like Goodell gets to stuff it in his mattress, league revenues get shared so now you're dividing the spoils 32 ways. But wait that $300 million figure is largely intangibles like the Nike figure.

But yup, the other owners are all going to agree to not win Super Bowls because Taylor Swift blah, blah blah...

because 99% of the games are fine.

I'll say this. I was at one point a Steelers fan. Until Roethlisburger raped a girl. And the Steelers did nothing to punish him (the League suspended him 4 games). Should have be off the team. Would have if he wasn't the star, any other player would have been gone. Lost all respect for that franchise. Once a proud franchise, the almighty dollar guided their very POOR decision to do nothing.

So I've never watched another Steeler game, nor visited their stadium(s) again, no more merch, etc.


So to be determined if this gets me out of "PRO" football. It might, we'll see how my not watching the SB goes. Guessing quite smooth.

The hope that next year the script favors my team or my team is good enough to overcome the stacked deck. Hard habit to break is correct but it’s showing cracks.

Never said he wasn't an obscenely well-paid lackey, but he has only the power the owners give him and he answers to them. He's a lackey.

When it came to getting rid of Dan Snyder the owners did it because Goodell doesn't have the power to oust one of his bosses.

Ok so he is like a GM to the owners, but as GM, or Well paid NFL Lackey, his job is about results and increased revenue. Owners are like YOU, make us money, we don't care how. You want to continue making $63 million a year, make us money or we'll replace you. All about the almighty dollar.

Part of the issue is Goodell’s fondness for the Chiefs is well known. If you’re a ref even getting the assignment for a playoff game is a big deal. They know what to do to keep the boss happy. The league office had an opportunity to address this after the Texans game with a statement that those calls against the Texans may not have been the best. Instead, they issued a statement (which is an odd thing to have to do in the first place) doubling down.

Exactly!!!!


This guy also knows it....

https://russellstreetreport.com/2024...ell-is-a-liar/


and some good comments at the bottom of the article.