How do you bet on a game where the official blowing his whistle is meaningless?

Read this today and I couldn’t stop laughing. As a kid you learn to play through the whistle. Not anymore, I guess?! Now you have to play even after the whistle!!

Terry McAulay, a longtime NFL referee who officiated multiple Super Bowls and is now a rules analyst for NBC and Prime Video, explained on social media why the call was reversed from an incomplete forward pass to an end zone recovery of a backwards pass.

“When a backward pass is ruled forward and incomplete, Replay can reverse if there is a clear recovery in the immediate continuing action,” McAulay said. “The recovering team is awarded the ball at the spot of recovery. Let me make this perfectly clear: whether a whistle is blown or not is completely irrelevant.”

@begginerboy

Gee, I didn't know it was all so complicated but week after week I am relearning the rules to an entertainment venue that I have been watching for over 60 years.  The 'NFL Effect' is what another guy called it. 

Think about this, buddy. They are so hell bent on creating variance and unpredictability in their sport/entertainment industry that the referees whistle means nothing! How do you cap a game where they can ignore the most basic, common sense rule in any sport (play to the whistle) when they feel like it. 

@begginerboy

The ironical thing about all of this might be that the business partnership between the NFL and the gambling industry just might kill the bookmakers instead of the other way around 

In their interest to make the NFL more entertaining, they (Goodell) just might kill the desire to bet on the games. I can only speak from personal experience though. 

@Buffalobob89074

 That indeed is what should happen. But it won’t. Draftkings, Fanduel, and all the rest have gotten this country so addicted to gambling that most people can’t stop. But if it was possible I would be glad to boycott the league and the gambling for a year if that’s what it took for the NFL to get these things right. 

At this point and for years now they just make up the rules as they go. One crew does it one way and another a different way. And the fans and gamblers are just told to deal with it. 

@Buffalobob89074

@brn2loslive2win

Rule changes in NFL that increase variance and randomization could be compared to the evolution of a game like blackjack. In the early days of the game, skilled players actually had an edge over the house, via card counting and knowledge of probability, but with all the rule changes over the years and the introduction of multiple decks and shuffling systems the house has tilted the odds decisively in its favor. No different than what the NFL has done, which makes you wonder how closely the sport is tied to the gaming industry.