Why do people call this a "Stern job" when calling games in favor of what's gonna be the best storyline exists all over sports? The NFL did it this year the minute Ray Lewis announced he was gonna retire and started going nuts with the jeebo shtick. The Ravens' D starts randomly playing well after getting lit up to end the regular season largely because of how physical their secondary was allowed to be in coverage. In 2009 the Saints win the superbowl and it's spun as a

for the katrina victims!

storyline in 4+ years after katrina. Another NFL example is the 2005 season when the refs shamelessly favored Pittsburgh over Seattle because Jerome Bettis was gonna retire and the superbowl was being played

where it all started

for him. This year in college football the refs and the BCS gave Notre Dame a huge blow job all season because Manti Te'o's

grandma and internet girlfriend died within 6 hours of each other!

Meanwhile I can't think of an NBA playoffs in recent memory that was called in favor of some bull overly sentimental storyline. They're the league that has by far the least amount of

against all odds!

storylines. The NFL is the biggest culprit in using the "whichever of the 12 playoff teams has the most compelling storyline wins" method. Finally, don't blame the leagues that do this. Blame the re ed American population that has a fetish for extremely cheesey, overly-sentimental and cliche jeebo stories that inspire them because they convince themselve it's confirmation a mythical man in the sky is watching over us. They're the reason this happens so much.