Gnawing, Irrational Feeling That NFL is Fake

I would like somebody to explain to me how a football team I'm following can stop the other with its defense almost the entire game and then, at the end, changes its strategy to a so-called "prevent defense", allowing the opponent to march down the field in a matter of seconds, at a rate of about 10-25 yards per play. And scoring at the end, beating my team. Or suddenly my team, with its highly-paid professionals with years of college and high school stardom and experience behind them, mysteriously can no longer hold on to the football, repeatedly fumbling it away or dropping easy passes, kickoffs, and punts. It's almost as if the game had been scripted, and as if it was my team's predetermined role to fold at the very end.

I have had this gnawing feeling for years about the National Football League in this regard, although I know that the competition there is at almost a cutthroat level, with little or no room for manipulation. Still, there are some games that give me that same feeling I get when someone sucks me into watching one of those professional wrestling travesties, outcomes already written out and only needing to be acted out by the "athletes".

In football, though, I think that stupid coaching decisions may account for much of that perceived manipulation of events. Especially with time running out in close games. No real need to add the suspicion that professional football is fake to my conspiracy list. Yet. After all, what are professionals really but bumbling humans who are just getting paid for being bumbling humans? Better to presume incompetence over conspiracy, as a general rule.