The NFL is Changing its Story on HugGate
“Actions that constitute defensive pass interference include but are not limited to: (e) Cutting off the path of a receiver by making contact with him without playing the ball.”
PFT – NFL head of officiating Dean Blandino said in an interview on NFL Network that … the back judge threw a flag on Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly for grabbing Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski but the side judge came in and told the back judge that Panthers safety Robert Lester had already touched the ball before Kuechly restricted Gronkowski’s movement. “The back judge is going to see restriction right there and he’s going to throw his flag for that restriction,” Blandino said. “… Because once the ball is touched you cannot have pass interference. This is a judgment call; the officials don’t have the use of replay. They don’t have slow motion replay and ultimately they ruled that the restriction occurred simultaneously with the ball being touched. When you watch it at full speed, you could see why they would make that call on the field.” That’s a different explanation than referee Clete Blakeman offered after the game. What Blakeman said is that the flag was picked up because the pass wasn’t catchable, not because the restriction occurred simultaneously with the ball being touched.
Clearly what the NFL is doing here is forgetting the first rule of conspiracies: Get your story straight. It doesn’t matter how ridiculous your story is, just stick to it. It doesn’t matter if you’re saying Oswald’s bullet changed direction twenty times and hovered in midair, just keep saying it until someone starts buying it. You can’t say Nixon didn’t know squat about Watergate and then say he knew but he was trying to get to the bottom of it. You can’t spend decades saying Area 51 doesn’t exist and then say “Oh, it’s real alright. But we just test new planes there so don’t worry about it.” Just like you can’t have your referee say Gronk wasn’t interfered with because the ball was uncatchable then have your Minister of Propaganda come out the next day and say Gronk wasn’t interfered with because Kuechly didn’t sexually assault him until the ball was touched.
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I mean, either way you’re lying your ass off and the whole world knows it. That’s how coverups like this are done. Hitler called it “The Big Lie,” where you say something so outrageous, so preposterous, the public thinks it has to be true because no one would ever make up anything that bloody stupid. In 1984 George Orwell called it Doublethink: To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient.” But you can’t expect anyone to buy what you’re selling if you can’t get your story straight. Hell, you might as well just come up with a “Magic Hug” theory and stick to that. How ever stupid it might be, at least it would be a consistent lie. And it couldn’t be any harder to swallow than these two lines of bullshit. @JerryThornton1