No, the NFL is not on the take. The game between the Steelers and Chargers sure made it seem so. Even though the referee made the biggest mistake every seen, a mistake that cost $66 million dollars it was still only a mistake but it sure brings out all the conspiracy theorist in a hurry. I have never been a Sasquatch, UFO, Lochness monster type guy. I believe in what I see and thats it.

With only five seconds remaining, the Chargers trailing 11-10, go for one of those multiple lateral plays to keep the ball alive. In the midst of it all Steelers safety Troy Polamalu broke it up, scooped up the football and ran in for an apparent TD. After a review, Green announced the play was upheld and the TD counted. But the officials huddled again before the Steelers extra-point attempt and changed the call, declaring Tomlinson’s lateral to be an illegal forward pass which should have ended the play.

The problem with all of this is that Steelers were heavy betting favorites. There was over $100 million dollars placed on this game and $66 millions alone on the Steelers. The Steelers were 4 point favorites. Instead of winning 17-10 or 10-10 they win 11-10 and don’t cover the spread. For those of us that eat our next meal or make a house payment from this industry took a shot. This of course led to a conspiracy theory that someone was on the take. As Peter King said in his article

1) There are too many safeguards in place that would cause the ruination of too many people — the officiating crew, those in the league office who supervise and regulate the officials all the way up to the highest offices of the NFL — whose lives and careers would be forever tarnished for a few million dollars. 2) There is also the sheer impossibility of inventing some sort of fix like this to consider. How do you make up a play like that and get the word to the officials to call it a certain way? There’s no way.

I have to agree, time to chalk it up as a bad week.