the non-call issue continues & has earned another thread

I am really enjoying all this angst, I have Schadenfreude.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude (/ˈʃɑːdənfrɔɪdə/; German: [ˈʃaːdn̩ˌfʁɔʏ̯də] (About this soundlisten); lit. ‘harm-joy’) is the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another. It is one of four related emotions or concepts.

Schadenfreude is a complex emotion, where rather than feeling sympathy towards someone’s misfortune, schadenfreude evokes joyful feelings that take pleasure from watching someone fail. This emotion is displayed more in children than adults, however adults also experience schadenfreude, they are just better at concealing their expressions.[1]

Well, I’m not a Witlock fan. He reminds me of the NFL version of rush limbaugh.

I dont mind the Saints fans raising hell over the big-bad-call. It was big. It was bad. One of the worst ever.

But having said I dont mind em raising hell — i also dont care. Rams earned the win, in my mind. For all the reasons we’ve discussed. So…I say…let’em raise hell. They are entitled to raise hell. And, at the same time….fuck em.

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Zooey wrote:

I suspect that their emotional level is higher partly because of their brutal loss to the Vikings last year. Two terrible losses in the row.

I also think…and I haven’t seen anyone comment on this, so maybe it’s just me…but when I saw the play live, it didn’t look terrible. The replay they kept running was from behind the play, and depth perception is skewed from that angle. From that angle it looks awful. I rewatched the game last night, and…again…it looked more bang-bang than the replays. I would like to see it from some other angle, but apparently there isn’t one.

Anyway. The clear response for the Rams is to blow out the Patriots.

Agreed, Zooey. The chosen angle makes it obvious. The other one makes it look bang bang. A ref looking at it from one angle could easily make the no-call. But not the other.

Immediately following the game, I felt bad about it. I didn’t want the Rams to have even a remote chance for an asterisk on this win.

But after three days of endlessly moaning about the call, from far too many media outlets, I’ve changed my mind. To hell with it. The Rams won. They deserve to be in the Super Bowl. Efff the Saints.

If they had shown some class about this, and said it was one factor among a host of others, and they never should have let it come down to just one, I’d probably still feel some sympathy for their take on things. But not after Payton’s call to the NFL, and the owner’s letter, and the fans’ lawsuit, etc. etc.

A number of sports pundits have egged this on, too, and I think less of them now.

Bottom line: In any game, there will be hundreds of pivot points, so it’s impossible for any one of them to be “decisive.” And if you alter the course at any point prior to that no-call, the context of the game is altered and that play never happens, so it’s still not decisive.

Cherry picking is wrong in sports, politics, history, anywhere.

The sports world needs to move on.

Zooey wrote:

I also think…and I haven’t seen anyone comment on this, so maybe it’s just me…but when I saw the play live, it didn’t look terrible. The replay they kept running was from behind the play, and depth perception is skewed from that angle. From that angle it looks awful. I rewatched the game last night, and…again…it looked more bang-bang than the replays..

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Yeah, I agree. From the offical’s perspective and at live-speed, its not so obvious. Pundits are acting like it was obvious, but they are not looking from the official’s perspective at eye-level, at game-speed.

Still, it was a terrible non-call. I am guessing every hardcore, longterm football fan has their own list of terrible calls that cost their teams playoff victories. Thats football. Off the top of my head, one that I always think of (for some odd reason) is the ‘push-off’ noncall between the old Cowboys and Vikings. A lot of Viking fans STILL grumble about ‘that’ one.

Yesterday I watched the Roughing call against the Chiefs. Good lord. Probly cost the Chiefs the game. Ah well. I’m glad the Rams are not playing the Chiefs again. I’d rather play the Dark Lord himself. To be the evil-est you have to beat the evil-est.

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nittany ram wrote:

As a Rams fan, instead of thinking about a bad call that ruined the lives of a lot of Vikings fans (something that should be celebrated) I think about the 74 playoffs when the Rams has the ball on the Vikings one yard line and Alan Page jumped offsides, but the refs called a penalty on Tom Mack. Replays showed that Tom Mack never moved. Cost the Rams the game.

I’m sure it warms your heart to think of that moment but for Rams fans it’s a painful reminder that the universe is is cold and uncaring and that the Vikings must be destroyed at all costs.

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Well, it ‘was’ good strategy by Alan Page. He had nuthin to lose but a few inches if they called it against him, and he had a lot to gain by tryin it.

…oh..er..wait…what i meant was, Those DAMN VIKINGS cheated and I’ll NEVER forget it %$$%#@!! We need a Petition and rule changes and @#@@@$$~~!!

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The dumbest part of the discussion, IMO — which again, sports media is obsessed with — is when someone accepts that the Rams had several calls go against them, but they still think the Saints were robbed. They try to make it sound “logical” by saying how pivotal that particular (no-call) moment was.

But that moment never would have happened if the Rams hadn’t had their no-calls, like the facemask on Goff. That moment never would have happened if the refs had called the three or four delay of games by the Saints. That moment never would have happened if the stomper dude had been flagged, etc. etc.

As in, if you alter the game at point X, everything subsequent to that point is different. Everything. Even the cheerleaders are different. And the beer. And the cheeseberders.

Oh . . . and I’d outlaw those damn whistles in the stands. Seriously. That shouldn’t be allowed. It’s amazing the players on the field didn’t stop, mid-play, dozens of times.

wv wrote:

So…I say…let’em raise hell. They are entitled to raise hell.

also. the more they raise hell the funnier it gets.

Zooey wrote:

I do think there is a tipping point. Seriously, most people don’t actually care. Eventually, the non-partisans are going to get sick of the story, and since most of them know what it feels like to have their team “robbed,” they are going to turn on people who won’t get over it, and move on. Is my guess.

oh yeah. it’ll die down eventually.

in this day of 24 hour news channels. online media, and social media outlets everything seems to get amplified more than it used to. but it’ll eventually settle down.

Billy_T wrote:

Agreed, Zooey. The chosen angle makes it obvious. The other one makes it look bang bang. A ref looking at it from one angle could easily make the no-call. But not the other.

I just re-watched it on my desktop computer where I have better control over Stop Go than I did on the Chromebook I used last night. From the live angle (which is a better angle than the angle they showed repeatedly on replay), R-C clearly hit him early, and by quite a bit. At full speed it looks bang-bang, but if you freeze it at contact, the ball is 4 feet from the receiver. So…yeah…I’m dropping the “it may not be as bad as they say” argument.

I will never drop the “tough shit; that’s the breaks” argument. “You lost the game AFTER that play, anyway, by letting the Rams drive not once, but TWICE on your defense.”

We should send the Saints a nice participation trophy for trying really hard.

nittany ram wrote:

They seem pretty empathetic actually.

well they should be.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by InvaderRam.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by InvaderRam.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by InvaderRam.

One of the things that makes me tilt my head iz, the whole ‘rule change’ movement. Like, if I am a Saint fan, what the hell do i care if the rule gets changed NOW. Doesnt change anything about the Saint loss.

At any rate, this is following the usual ‘trajectory’ for this type bad-call-fiasco. The Saints fans will always fume over it. (John Madden STILL gets emotional about the immaculate deception) But the League and the other teams fans will wince and move on. Raiders fans will always be furious about the tuck thing. The rest of us just kinda grouse about it a bit for a mili-second and then we move on and obsess about our teams. The NFL will be as popular as ever. Saint fans will be back in force.

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