There is a lot of money and effort put into the notion of 'Integrity in the Game' after all, if the game lack this element why bother watching? It will be no different than watching a wrestling match. All of this being said, overall I believe the NFL does have integrity which is why its such a great product. That being said, I dont live in a vacum and I know that certain elements of human nature prevail when the stakes are high. So, in conclusion, instead of thinking 'integrity of the game' as something that is black and white, instead see it for the rainbow that it is.
Here are a number of examples:
1.Not Caring About Winning: The last thing anyone want to see is teams not caring about winning and not taking this element seriously Many fans would turn a blind eye even if it came out of the horses mouth and this past week it just did. Now Mike Shannahan, the NFL, and the Redskins are backtracking and for good reason. If you live in the world of color you will see this for what it is. A team quitting on a lost season.
2. Cheating: God forbid anyone would ever cheat in the NFL. I know that a good portion of fans fight the notion that teams cheat and would argue that such a thing would never happen in the NFL and then there was SpyGate. Whats most shocking about SpyGate is not that it happened but that it was so hard to believe.
3. Steroids: For the Longest time, major sports -especially the MLB- denied the notion that players would ever do such a thing. A decade latter and the truth is out there... I am sure there is a big potion of homers who argue, not my team not our players. Now there is at least 1 player that gets suspended every year for such activities.
4. Injury: Intentional injuries? No Way, that is just a conspiracy theory... Your crazy to think that grown men, professional athletes would try to inflict injury intentionally but they did.
5. Effort: This week, former Cowboys coach, Jimmy Johnson came out and spoke against the Cowboys saying that they are 'living in a country club' and bluntly pointing out that most NFL players need to be Motivated. That only a few are true professionals, and that is common that they go through the motions -like most of you at work. This runs contrary to what many fans believe: that each player is giving it their all, after all that part of the 'integrity of the game'. If they are not all giving a 100% than winning/losing loses their meaning.
6. Bull****TTT: Take it from me, the NFL bull****s with the best of them. That being said, the majority of you here would not notice a con-man until after he whipped you out and could not tell the difference between the truth and lie even when it was staring you in the face, which is exactly why you still think that everything the NFL does is legit, including the Seattle TD over the Packers.
7. Manipulation: This week a few more stories came out how Payton manipulated the Saints situations in order to become one of the most coveted FA Coaches in the NFL. If one man can manipulate so many people so well in such a well run organization imagine whats possible for the .500 and below teams. Further whats most interesting is how effective it was.
-Seeing all of the above, many of you are still not be open to the possibility that at times, and under the right circumstance an NFL franshise might forgo winning meaningless games for the chance to draft a once in generation prospect via manipulating their own internal organization and an already unmotivated coaching staff and players even though many of these elements are well documented: 1. cheating 2. manipulation from above 3. giving up on a season 4. players not giving 100% 5. NFL BS
