Top 10 Most Controversial Things in the NFL
Don’t get me wrong. I like football and The NFL is one of the most popular sports leagues in America. However, there’s been several controversial moments in the NFL. This list will include things that have happened in the league as well as game changing referee calls that were terrible.
This controversy is the newest one. It occurred in the middle of the 2017 season as a way to bring awareness to police being harsh to blacks. While they do have the right to protest many people saw the whole movement as disrespectful to the flag country and military.This caused several people to look down on the NFL (including Donald Trump).
The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
In 2020, Washington after 87 years got rid of the Redskins trademark due to it being labeled racist to native culture. It was named the Washington Football Team until February 2022, when the team was renamed the Washington Commanders. The Redskins claim that the franchise name Redskins was to "honor" the native Americans however many native Americans thought it was very offensive and racist. Not only is it the most controversial NFL franchise name but it's got to be one of the most controversial name in all of professional sports
They changed the name.
In the 2014-15 AFC championship game the patriots were accused of under inflating the footballs in a very lopsided win. Their punishment was Tom Brady being suspended for 4 games, losing 2 draft picks and a $1 million dollar fine. It was so big that even the Supreme Court was involved
This game was in the playoffs between the Patriots and Raiders. Charles Woodson had sacked the young Tom Brady. This resulted in a fumble recovered by the Raiders that would have sealed the deal. However, according to NFL rules Brady appeared to tuck the ball and instead of a game winning fumble recovery for Oakland it became an incomplete pass which led to an OT win which eventually led to Brady's dynasty
This incident occurred when the Patriots videotaped other teams' signals.
This game sucked. It's what brought the real refs back. That was a pick, Golden Tate just put his hands on the ball ane acted like he caught it
This one was just downright horrible officiating.The game happened in 2012 on Monday night football between Green Bay and Seattle when Seattle threw a Hail Mary pass and it was called a touchdown and The Seahawks won despite the "replacement refs" missing a clear Offensive pass interference on Tate.
Hm, the Saints won the Super Bowl during the 2009 season...
This was also a recent controversy when Ben Rothlisberger threw the game winning TD pass to Jesse James with just under 30 seconds left. It was initially ruled a touchdown but was overruled because James didn't "maintain control of the ball" this controversy brings back up the age old question of What is a catch?
I'm surprised it wasn't on here before. I have mixed feelings about this play, but I think it was somewhat a catch
One of the most famous plays happened in the playoffs in 1999-2000 when Buffalo was up with 16 seconds to go and had just scored. The Titans then throw a lateral pass that wasn't called and would've sealed the deal for Buffalo. But they missed it and Tennessee scored the game winning TD
Spongebob Squarepants creator, Stephen Hillenberg, died from complications from ALS in late 2018. To memorialize him and pay tribute, fans started a petition to get the song 'Sweet Victory' from the episode Band Geeks at the super bowl halftime show.
This request was fulfilled… kinda. Supposedly, it was played at the stadium, but it wasn't broadcasted on T.V., nor did it happen during halftime. However, there was a brief segment with Squidward, which was merely used to Segway into Travis Scott's performance of 'Sicko Mode'.
Spongebob fans felt cheated and betrayed, with many voicing displeasure with the execution of the issue. Mo Bamba or Sicko Mode? I think everybody's going with Mo Bamba now…
The 2018 NFL season was filled with a lot of questionable calls in games all season long. From Clay Matthews "roughing the passer" to the "roughing the passer" in the AFC championship for touching Brady's shoulder. To obvious penalties never called the biggest one in the NFC championship. The officiating has been questionable from time to time but it was at its absolute worst in 2018. When one controversial call ends up potentially changing the outcome of games then it becomes a problem