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Monday Night Football Is Rigged

2003 Season

What does Disney have in store for us this season?  Let's see how it's fixed.

Week 1
Tampa Bay 17
Philadelphia 0

"Tampa Bay's 17-0 win over Philadelphia last night was the highest-rated Monday night game in two years. The National Football League game was watched by 13 percent of the 108.4 million U.S. households with televisions, according to Nielsen Media Research Inc." -Bloomberg.com

Good ratings so far, Disney.  The only downside is that Disney has gone against conventional theory and has let the home field team lose.   The explaination must lie in the new Lincoln Financial Group Stadium.  It could be no one discussed building this with Eisner.  Not even a personal appearance by Sylvester Stallone could win this one for the Eagles.

Week 2
Dallas 35
NY Giants 32 (OT)

The drama behind this game was self evident.  Again, the home team didn't win, but they didn't have to for America to be happy about this one.  This game was all about Bill Parcells' return to New York, battling Jeremy Shockey and the Giants.  Do you think Shockey really made those derogatory comments about Parcells? A more likely scenario is that Disney writers cooked up the controversy to make the game a little more interesting.  A victory for Parcells against his former team (and now disgraced Shockey) is icing on the cake.

Week 3
Oakland 10
Denver 31

The most touted matchup on Monday Night Football.  Now all we need is a little drama, like last week.

Sebastian Janikowski's drinking problem is just the story. Who knows if this is a real drinking (and fighting) problem, or if it is something suddenly created by ABC to make a good story. So he's out of this storied rivalry, and the wheels come off. Broncos are undefeated, at home, the defending Super Bowl runners-up are on their heels. Their excuse is Janikowski. Keep an eye on him later in the season, as well as on the Raiders themselves. If they win the Super Bowl, this game was obviously fixed to create ratings.

Week 4
Green Bay 38
Chicago Bears 23

The Bears are no stranger to losing on Monday nights.  Especially to the Packers.

Philadelphia loses at home.  At a new stadium.

Chicago loses at home.  At a refurbished stadium.  No surprise they'd take a dive for some extra cash to cover the construction costs.  

Note: Disney re-releases the Lion King.  Expect Detroit to win some games.

Week 5
Indianapolis 38
Tampa Bay 35

If there was ever a perfect example of Disney fixing a game, this would be it.  With ABC competing with FOX's baseball playoffs, ABC and Disney needed a historic game.  And they delivered with the script pages hot off the press.  The home team didn't win, but sometimes, as we saw in Week 2 with Parcells, the drama outweighs the home field win.

The setup:  Tony Dungy is head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for six years, becoming the winningest coach in franchise history.  He sets the team up with a fantastic defense, but the owners think they could do better, especially on the offensive end.  Dungy gets the ax, and Jon Gruden is brought on board.

The Colts hire Dungy.  Gruden's first season with the Bucs, they win the Super Bowl.  Dungy is left with a less-than-stellar Colts season.

That brings us to our current season.  Week 5.  The coach who nursed the Bucs up to a championship team (from 14 straight losing seasons) and was given the boot faces his old team with the new, cocky young coach with a Super Bowl ring.  You can cut the drama with a knife.  Just the way Disney wants it.  

The Bucs dominate the Colts all the way down to the fourth quarter, with the Bucs up by 21 with 4 minutes left.  The Colts pull off a miracle rally to tie the game with only seconds left.  Overtime.  

The Colts go for a field goal in overtime but miss.  Bucs get the ball, right?  Nope.  That wasn't in the script, Tampa Bay.  Let's give them a second shot.   The Bucs' Simeon Rice is called for leaping, a penalty almost unheard of in the NFL.  The Colts get another try and this time put it through the uprights.  Dungy finds his victory, and along with it redemption.  The so-called Super Bowl Champions are left second guessing their decision to get right of the victorious coach.

This one deserves an Oscar, Diz.

Week 6
Falcons 0
Rams 36

Not much of a surprise here.  Disney pretty much accepted the fact that they are going to lose the ratings battle to playoff baseball this week, and didn't bother with a tight script.  The Rams win one at home.

Week 7
KC Chiefs 17
Raiders 10

Disney knew this matchup had potential.  Even though the Super Bowl losers Raiders were having a tough season, people would be tuning in to see if the Chiefs can go 7-0 and remain undefeated.  The writers came up with a nice fourth quarter comeback which even went down to the very last play, reminiscent of the 2000 Super Bowl when Mike Jones tackled Kevin Dyson at the 1-yard line as time expired.  Rehashing some of your old scripts, Diz?

Week 8
Miami 26
San Diego 10

Due to fires in San Diego, the game was moved to Tempe, Arizona.  The Chargers couldn't stand the heat, so they got out of the kitchen.  Not their home field, so Disney was free to let the "visiting" team win.  

Week 9
New England 30
Broncos 26

This was actually one of the better games in recent memory, with a purposive safety, defensive stand, and less than 2-minutes to go comeback to win.  The Broncos were supposed to win this game.  Need proof?  Take another look at that punt that was a do-over because of a trumped-up penalty on New England.  Broncos returned it for a TD.  That's how Diz wanted it to end, but the Pats had other ideas.  Watch out for some retaliation agains New England later on in the season.

Week 10
Philadelphia 17
Green Bay 14

The Eagles win on the road.. a little unusual.  Until you learn that they were playing at a refurbished Lambeau Field.  We saw this in Week 1 and Week 4.  New or refurbished stadium = loss.  The money for the upgrade has to come from somewhere, why not uncle Disney?

Week 11
Pittsburg 14
San Francisco 30

Niners win at home.  Disney likes to favor games in California or Florida when they can.  Case in point..

Week 12
NY Giants 13
Tampa Bay 19

Tampba Bay Buccaneers win at home.. the same week Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean comes out on DVD.  Coincidence?

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