Has there ever been a situation where a high-level athelete had some conflict with his team, and, in the middle of a game, turned coat and started helping the opposition? In soccer, for instance, it would be TRIVIAL for someone to score a goal on his own team on purpose, which would likely be decisive…
But I’ve never heard of such a thing happening.
Do you mean like the Chicago White Sox throwing the 1919 World Series?
The variouspoint shaving scandals in college basketball.
The closest thing I can think of is a Cavs-Jazz NBA game in 2003 where Ricky Davis attempted to shoot at his own basket so he could grab a tenth rebound and complete a triple-double (he got fouled during the shot, but it wouldn’t have counted if he’d hit it or grabbed the rebound.)
Hal Chase was a baseball player in the deadball era who probably threw games. No definite proof, but he had a tendency to make deliberate errors (actually, as a first baseman, he’d be just a little bit slow to get to the bag, so he couldn’t get the throw. Since he was one of the best fielding first basemen of his time, this was very suspicious.)
Easier and more likely as well as almost impossible to prove would be a critical failure.
An incomplete pass at the wrong time, a convenient fumble, a missed catch or a gift pitch that a batter knows is coming.
A pro athlete could probably do this numerous times and still keep their jobs.
Hansie Cronje, Salim Malik, Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja recieved a lifetime bans for match-fixing in Cricket.
Italy’s national team goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon is under investigation in relation to the Serie A scandal, which implacates referees and a UEFA official, a government minister and the coach of the national team in alledged match-fixing.
There was an earlier, somewhat more amusing betting scandal in international cricket.
In 1981, when the Australian cricket team was in England, two Australian players bet against their own team.
In the middle of the third Test match (each match lasts 5 days), Australia was so far ahead that it looked like nothing could beat them. Bookmakers were offering odds of 500-1 against an England victory.
Two of Australia’s best-known and greatest players, Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee, both placed a bet on England to win.
Over the next couple of days, England proceeded to mount one of the most amazing comeback victories in the history of cricket, dismissing Australia for 111 (a very small total) in their second innings and defying all expectations to win the match.
Once people learned that the two Aussies, Lillee and Marsh, had bet against their own team, some started to ask whether they might have done anything to help throw the match. However, it was generally accepted that, while the betting itself was ill-advised, neither Lillee nor Marsh had played poorly, and no-one really believed that they had done anything intentional to help England win.
The two players themselves claimed that the bet was only a joke, and that they had fully expected to lose their money. The Australian Cricket Board, and the Australian public, accepted this explanation, and the players received a reprimand but no other punishment.
Eight men out.
Any Steeler fan will point to Neil O’donnell in Super Bowl 40.
October, 1964, Minnesota Vikings player Jim Marshall picked up a fumble and carried it 62 yards the wrong way on the field, going into the end zone and producing a 2-point safety for the opponents, the San Francisco 49ers.
But this was not a betrayal, just a mistake.
Still, he was called “Wrong-Way Marshall” for a long time after that.
(a) Wrong Superbowl.
(b) Mistakes like that aren’t what the OP was asking about. No reasonable interpretation of O’Donnell’s performance could possibly interpret it as intentional betrayal.
Hmmm… the examples people are giving all seem to be gambling-related, which I suppose is definitely a betrayal, although different than what I had imagined. I wonder what would happen in a soccer game if someone just started blatantly playing for the other team. Would the refs stop the game? What if that team had used all three subs? Would the coach have any way to stop him?
Well, if it’s anything like the original Bad News Bears, a pitcher might hang onto a bunted ball and let the baserunners circle, just to spite the pitcher’s abusive father.
The closest I can think of to this is a football (soccer) match between Barbardos and Grenada, where an entire team tried to score against itself…
[black humour] Why wasn’t Hansie Cronje cremated? [/black humour]
They couldn’t find anyone to throw the match.
Best. Football story. Evar.
A 2004 UConn Player football player tried to sell his playbook on Ebay in 2005 and Ebay removed it at the school’s request – at that time the news noted that there were 100’s of playbooks on Ebay – none as recent as that one though.
[snarkily]UConn has a football team?[/snarkily]
Meh. OTOH, a UConn women’s basketball playbook would be priceless.
LOL. I started to type that last night and then decided against it. It sure *seemed *like it at the time… but watching him afterwards I think he just sucks.
I don’t get it. Did Barbados score twice in the extra time? I thought the whole point was that if Barbados won by only one goal, Grenada would advance.