I hate to sound like a conspiracy nut, but

[dolphins4life]

The Saints game:

The refs gave the Saints two TDs on bad officiating and bad technique.  On the Colston play, they should have ruled he was short and let the time run out.  Then, they could have reviewed it and if he had gotten into the end zone, given him the TD.  By calling a TD, they gave the Saints an extra play that they should never have had.

Then, the Sharper play.  The ref was looking right at and called a TD.  Ridiculous.

NO APOLOGIES OFFERED BY THE LEAGUE.  NO STATEMENT ADMITTING THAT SHARPER DIDN'T SCORE!!!!!!!

The Titans game

Camarillo didn't do anything illegal.  No whistle blew, he didn't know if the guy was going to get up and run.  Horrible call. 

THE NFL DIDN'T APOLOGIZE.  THEY FINED CAMARILLO!!!

Of course, that premature whistle blew when JT had the winning TD in his hands.

The Texans game

A basic rule of officiating is, let the play go forward.  They called an incompletion when it was CLEARLY a fumble.  There should have been no doubt anyway, but at least you have to let the play go forward.

No apologies from the league

That tripping was bullshit as well.

Again the league didn't apologize or admit that the call was bad.

Something's amiss here.

I have discussed calls Miami has gotten on other boards, the only one that other team's fans have given is

http://www.nfl.com/videos/miami-dolphins/09000d5d814c2732/NFL-Scoreboard-Patriots-vs-Dolphins-highlights

The Left Tackle moves early on the fourth down play.

I hope you people realize how close Miami is being an SB contender.  Without ref errors, they'd be 9-6 or possibly 10-5.  They've beaten the Patriots, and almost beat the Colts (who always play with a ref advantage), and they REALLY beat the Saints until the refs took the game from them. 

What do you people think?  Do conspiracies hold any weight?  Could the NFL not want Miami to play the SB in its own stadium? 

[Sunstroke]

The short answer... "nope." Oliver Stone is sitting this one out.

Miami is not "close to being a Super Bowl contender." It is a team with good leadership (finally) that is in stage 2 of a 3-4 part "total" rebuilding job.

It's close to being a playoff contender though...give Miami a good FA/draft offseason and I think stage 3 is upon us. Once we get to that position, THEN you start looking at "which 1 or 2 players could we acquire to push us over the edge?"

Patience, young Grasshopper4life...the Dolphins are walking the right path now, and prosperity is surely coming.

[hordman]

I believe many years ago, Shula used to sit on the NFL Rules Committee and during his head coaching days, the Dolphins were one of the few least penalized teams.....hmmmmmmm

not saying that influenced the refs decisions when and when not to penalize the team...............hmmmmmm

all and all, I think the Phins have been on the short end of the stick when it came to bad plays this season, more than their share.  and yes, the calls in the NO game were HORRIBLE.

I also believe you make your own luck and good teams over come this stuff in the long run, say, thru out a 16-game season.

we first need to address the need for some playmakers, ie game changing WR, SAFETY and LBs and we can look at it again in another year's time.

Let's Go Phins.....beat the Stillers!!!!!!!!

[Philly Fin Fan]

Dude, let it go. The officiating is horrible all over the league. You are looking at it thru aqua-colored glasses, and saying "whoa is us, the ref's hate us".

Like Stroke said, the Fins are not "close to being a Super Bowl contender". They are moving in the right direction, but not quite there yet.

And BTW- why do you expect the league to apologize? Officiating involves human error, whether you want to admit it or not. Like Brian said in another thread "good teams can overcome bad calls". The Dolphins did not show up for the entire first halves of the Titans, or the Texans game. Had they showed up for those first halves, this team would be in the playoffs, and you wouldn't have to use officiating as an excuse.

[Tenshot13]

I don't care what anyone says, looking through my aqua and orange glasses, I say there is a conspiracy.

[Doc-phin]

I think Tommie should be head of the committee for referee discipline and every year a vote is taken on which team of refs is the worst for screwing a team.  Once the votes are in the committee follows Tommie out on the field during the Pro Bowl's half time show and they commence punching each ref in the face.   

[Dave Gray]

1) I don't see why the NFL would want to keep Miami out of a Super Bowl in their own stadium.  It seems to me that the extra media attention and coverage for having it be the first time it happened would be great for the league, and great for their wallets.
2) The NFL didn't need to keep us out of the playoffs.  Realistically, there's no way we were going to the Super Bowl.  It was such a long shot that we didn't need any help not making it.

[BigDaddyFin]

there are 32 teams in the NFL who think the refs are screwing them every week, and fans of 32 teams who think the refs are screwing them on purpose.  I have my suspicion that sometimes games are rigged or encouraged too because of some of the stupid shit I see.  Last year I know we had a discussion, not exclusive to the the Dolphins that there was an abnormally high amount of glaringly bad calls, but I'm not sure on a week to week basis that this year has been as bad.

[stinkfish]

"Bad calls" are part of the game.

[dolphins4life]

^^^^

Not when they happen to one team over and over and over again