The narrative on this is not point shaving. It is that the players caused problems because Carr wouldn't kneel. The suspicion is that the offensive line deliberately lost the game by not protecting the quarterback and that receivers dropped passes they should have caught. Now, if this information had been bet on, and/or transmitted to wise guys before the game, then there's good cause to allege point shaving.
I said point shaving because team members took deliberate actions to cause the team to lose (or to not be competitive throughout the whole game). I understand the personal betting aspects of it (like with Pete Rose being banned from MLB for life), but not all motives are monetary.
What if a player shaved points (caused a team to accrue less) for personal reasons alone, such as to cause loss of player reputation or to cause injury to a rival in a statistics race?
Remember a few years ago in NASCAR when Clint Bowyer allegedly spun out on purpose to cause a caution with seven laps to go in the last race before the playoffs? People said he did it on purpose to give a teammate a better chance for points. The impact was that NASCAR beefed up their competition rules, requiring all racers to remain competitive for the entire race or be penalized.
If NFL linesmen fail to play competitively for the whole game in order to influence the final points (even if their motive is personal revenge on the quarterback), isn't the end result still the same, that they shaved final points?
Wouldn't that put the integrity of the games in doubt, and force the owners to take immediate remedial action to protect the reputation of their teams and the league?
-PJ