Chiefs or Niners?

My head picks the Chiefs, due to the mental boost from recent Mahomes/ Reid / team success in the playoffs. Experience in the playoffs might add an unknown edge for them. Plus, the Chiefs are 6-1 against the spread recently. OTOH, the 49ers are 2+ point favorites and may have the better overall team / roster, man for man. Gotta admire McCaffery's varied on-field contributions plus off-field charity work. My heart choice is with the 49ers. It'd be enjoyable to see how the respective defenses handle the opposing running games..might be a key if KC can limit Bosa's ferocity. The O/U?  47.5 ? Might take the over..but who the hell knows.

           San Francisco 49'ers, if the refs officate an honest game. I have seen to many instances where cry baby Mahomes tears affected the calls and the Chief's were allowed to hold without being penalized.

I'm going to go for the Niners, Nines.  About the only thing OT Trent Williams hasn't accomplished in the league is a Super Bowl Championship.   Also, it would be a kick to see a Mr. Irrelevant lead his team to a Super Bowl Win. A few have won, and even one has started, but none have been the quarterback.  

Yeah, it'd be great if the officials just call a clean game and let em play ball.

True, Purdy's journey has been uniquely compelling as an NFL youngster. But I think he's shed that irrelavancy thing with his overall performances. We'll see.

 I never bet the NFL and I seldom watch the games - too many strange things have happened over the years, with most of the "strangeness" attributed to the refs. But I will watch this game ( with the 1000 commercials) and would like to see a storybook ending for Brock Purdy with a 49'ers stomping of the Kansas City.

I have access to sports betting here In Portland (nearby), and I bet a small amount on the Niners -1 (a better price than I would have gotten in Vegas) and a fairly large amount on the Over 47.5. The two teams have too much big-play potential for the game to be low-scoring.

Ultimately, it'll come down to whether the Niners can put up a decent run defense. Both Mahomes and Purcy can light it up (and they will), but the Niners have the better run game.

I am going with the niners 

Onw of the problems with the proliferation of gambling in this country has been a similar growth in in conspiracy theories that the games are fixed. 

I have officiated small college & minor league football & you can't believe the speed, athleticism & strength of these players. Obviously the NFL players are even faster & more athletic. That said it is extremely difficult to make spit second decisions at the speed they play. Try seeing thru a mob of 6 foot+ & 300lb people and making a decision. 

Plus after a game each official is reviewed & graded on every play. Another reason why the officials fixing the game is tough. 

Fixing the game would require the coordination of all 7 officials plus replay. It would be a lot easier to get a player to miss a key block, fumble or drop a pass. 

Nibody said Flowrers was on the take when he fumbled in the end zone after committing a taunting penalty 

Sometimes missed calls and fumbles just happen. 

The same idiots who said the 2020 election was rigged are behind the conspiracy theories about the Super Bowl being rigged.

I really wonder, though, who came up with the "Taylor Swift will start in place of Mahomes and throw nine touchdown passes" crap. That's absurd, even for MAGAs. For one thing, San Francisco is a liberal city in a liberal state. Kansas City is a semi-liberal city in a drastically conservative state. If those crafty liberals were rigging the game, don't you think they would rig it in favor of SF?

For once, what Tom says makes sense. NFL officials are highly skilled professionals. They also have a great deal of integrity. To rig a game would be almost impossible. As far as getting the players to toss the game--would they risk their multi-million-dollar salaries? Not bloody likely.

I don't think there's any sort of widespread fixing going on..too many stopgaps for that to occur. Individual player miscues/ payoffs?  Who knows? Even though it is tough to make split second decisions on some of these officiating calls, they have some replay systems in place to correct some of them real time. There has been  an officiating problem in the NFL this year, though; there's a need to upgrade the replay options on calls in real time ( some type of individual booth replay system that can correct call errors rapidly and efficiently, not limited to but especially in big games). OTOH, there's no way to remove all the humanity from the game ( and whom would want to as long as the errors are reasonably balanced for both teams?)..eg human errors by both players and refs. Can't make an X-box game out of it. I mean, what would Dick Butkus think about that?

And Dez Bryant caught that pass from Romo several years ago vs Green Bay, btw. Just sayin.