(09-30-2024, 06:16 PM)mikesez Wrote:

(09-30-2024, 08:07 AM)StroudCrowd1 Wrote: I've thought about that and once believed refs were quietly told to keep their thumbs on the scale if small market teams become too good, but the irony of the league simping for KC kind of threw that theory out.

However, incompetence across multiple regimes is curse territory. I mean, heck, the entire #becausejaguars is rooted in a curse.

To expel a curse, you have to look in every nook and cranny. John Oehser is in that cranny, smiling.

It doesn't though.  The theory doesn't require the refs to put a finger on the scale every play every game.  And it doesn't require the market to be big, just big enough.
The theory only requires the refs to identify a marketable player to annoint as football Jesus.  The guy will already be talented, they just have to make sure he's nurtured. In the theory, Lawrence could be that guy if they figured out a way to put him in a bigger market.