Hypothetically, what if the NFL is actually like the WWE?

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What might “the script” call for?

Lately there’s been a lot of speculation about Kansas City winning football games with a little help from their friends. Which friends exactly? The NFL’s own officials. This has many fans crying foul and making statements that the game we all love has become like the WWE. This isn’t a new phenom either, with Li’l Skarekrow growing up hearing similar accusations from his dad after each Buffalo Bills Super Bowl loss.

That got me thinking. What if the NFL really is like the WWE? What might “the script” have in store for us?

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Face or Heel?

When it comes to professional wrestling and story lines, it’s incredibly important to know if a character is a face or a heel. For the uninitiated, a “face” is slang for a hero while a “heel” is code for villain. What makes the designation so critical? There are two major reasons this is important that I want to discuss.

Who wins?

In reality, both faces and heels win. Heroes and villains both must be successful and winning is highly dependent on being “over” or popular with fans. However, the timing of wins can be a bit formulaic.

For many wrestling story lines, the idea is that the face should win in the end. Wrestling is not intended to be high art and a basic rule that is nearly always followed is that good prevails.

That last word is critical. The hero beating a bunch of jobbers (unpopular wrestlers perceived as “weak”) is not satisfying nor is it “prevailing.” The bigger and badder the villain, the better the eventual victory is for the face. Or in other words, the face has to go through tribulations (heel victories) for that story of “prevailing” to land.

One last thought on the labels, a wrestler can shift from face to heel or heel to face. That’s because...

Your label determines rules, and rules determine label

There are some complexities to this, but in general faces and heels have codes to live by. A major reason is that fans need to know which one is which so we know who we want to prevail. Are Geralt of Rivia or Roland Deschain the hero or the villain? That’s highly dependent on the moment with these complex characters and neither Sapkowski nor King seem to want a simple answer.

In wrestling though, complexity can kill a character, so rules establish who you’re looking at to make it easy. Faces usually can bend the rules such as wrestling outside the ring for a short duration (but always mindful of sliding back in before the count). Heels are identified by their willingness to break the rules, such as deliberately sliding out of the ring to get a breather or to look for a weapon.

Now that we have some labels and rules established...

Who is who?

Skare, you just said it’s critical to know who is who, so then... who is who? As of right now, the Kansas City Chiefs should be considered the biggest heel in the league. Why is that? They’re over with the fans (again, this means popular), they’ve won a lot, but importantly your label is inextricably linked with the code of conduct you live by.

Assuming the national narrative is accurate, that means Kansas City has the refs helping them. That outside assistance and breach of the rules clearly defines Kansas City as the heel.

It’s not an uncommon trick in wrestling story lines to have a “guest referee” for big matches that just so happens to be biased toward the heel. The face has just landed their finisher and has the heel on the mat. The ref counts!

One!

Two!

Suddenly... an old shoulder injury flares up and they’re unable to hit the mat a third time, allowing the heel to recover. As the face pleads for fairness with the ref, in comes the steel chair.

Kansas City hasn’t always been the heel. Right now though, I think it’s safe to call them that without too much kickback.

Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images

What about the Buffalo Bills? The Bills aren’t everyone’s cup of tea (Baltimore Ravens fans), but are consistently one of the top draws for ratings and recent information suggests a huge global fan base. Josh Allen’s “golden retriever” persona has him as a pretty clear face.

Okay, cool. So what’s your point?

I don’t really have one. I don’t think the league is fixed or the refs have a major bias (though everyone on the planet has a little bias, so there’s that). I know a lot of people aren’t me though. So if there is a point to this article, it would be this...

Professional wrestling is a very formulaic form of entertainment. The formula works over and over again because it’s a story so many of us cherish deep down. There’s no reason to stray from the formula all that much. If ever. Remember: To make the formula work, there are rules that need to be followed.

If the NFL has begun operating like the WWE, it’s likely good news for Bills Mafia. The NFL officiating conspiracy story line exploded this season. It’s been there for a few years now, but it’s been the story this postseason. That definitively paints the Chiefs as our pinnacle heel. While it’s true that there is more than one face looking to knock them off, there’ always a peak story for the end game.

The biggest heel needs to lose to the biggest face. As of right now, the ratings have the Bills as arguably the biggest face in the league. If watching wrestling has taught me anything, the pinnacle face is the one that draws the biggest crowd.