The narrative surrounding the National Football League and bias have been strongly linked together for years. However, the brother of former NFL Head of Officiating Dean Blandino belives the league is rigged, and has been for a long time.
The Kansas City Chiefs get a lot of the claims given how lucky they have been during their dynasty run, especially in the games we saw this current NFL Playoffs. But for Blandino’s brother, it does not lie just with the Chiefs, but it impacts every team, every game.
“My brother who is, that is convinced that I signed an NDA . . . when I left the league office that I cannot tell anybody that it’s rigged,” Blandino said. “The officials — there’s too many variables, there’s too much going on. To me, it’s the hardest sport. When you think about football, with seven different officials, to say, ‘OK, I’m gonna rig this game’ or ‘the game is rigged from the league office down.’ The officials are just trying to get it right.”
Let’s take a jump back to how similar situations that the Chiefs are dealing with impacted the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jaguars took on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game back in 2017.
Patrick Mahomes is highly linked to Brady in terms of getting calls, or at least to the fans, calls go certain ways because Mahomes is the face of the league, just like how Brady was in his playing days. Flexing the narrative, in a crucial moment that would have put the Jaguars up 17, was erased.
Jacksonville led the Patriots in the fourth quarter by the score of 20-10 when Brady fumbled the football, in which former Jaguars linebacker Myles Jack recovered and was set to return for a touchdown. The touchdown would have made it a three-possession game, but Jack was ruled down by officials.
Yes, the Jaguars got the turnover, but erasing what could have been a 27-10 game against the legendary Tom Brady in a game that would send them to the Super Bowl has to prove something to Blandino’s brother’s claims.
The Jaguars would end up losing that game, sending New England to the Super Bowl. While the play has raised eyebrows from several players, coaches, and fans since occurring, when will the proposed “rigged-ness” end in the National Football League?
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