# Sports Conspiracy Theories **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 5, 2014, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094 "2014-06-05T04:41:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/41 "2014-06-06T05:18:26Z")
I have it on good authority that the Kiwis threw their last 1992 Cricket World Cup league match against Pakistan, to ensure that they would play the Semis in New Zealand. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/42 "2014-06-06T07:59:15Z")
One conspiracy theory, [that seems to have been largely debunked](http://www.volokh.com/2010/03/22/did-anti-semitism-prevent-hank-greenberg-from-breaking-babe-ruths-home-run-record/), is that in 1938 Hank Greenberg was prevented from breaking Babe Ruth’s season home run mark of 60 due to anti-Semitism (he finished with 58). ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/43 "2014-06-06T12:51:02Z")
Too open to be a conspiracy, but: After “Tuffy” Rhodes hit his 55th home run in 2001 for the Kintetsu Buffalos, tying Sadaharu Oh’s season record in Japan, he “mysteriously” got intentional walks in every at-bat the rest of the season, so that a \*gaijin \*wouldn’t hold the record. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/44 "2014-06-06T13:26:41Z")
Another one - this one a little more widely believed than my earlier one: In the 1982 World Cup soccer tournament, West Germany and Austria conspired on a 1-0 result in their match that sent both of them through to the next round, whereas pretty much any other result would have sent Algeria ahead in place of the match loser. How much of this is active collusion between the two teams and how much is simply a mass case of “I don’t want to be the one known for making the stupid move that got us knocked out of the World Cup when we would have advanced had I just played more conservatively,” I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![LionelHutz405](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lionelhutz405/32/536_2.png) [@LionelHutz405](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LionelHutz405)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/45 "2014-06-06T13:41:54Z")
The fight between Ali and Foreman in Zaire was fixed in favour of Ali. The ropes were very loose, and Ali had trained with the ropes like that. Ali was allowed to blatantly break the rules by holding Foreman and pushing down on his neck. The suspiciously quick count. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/46 "2014-06-06T14:03:23Z")
[QUOTE=astorian] There have always been rumors than Sonny Liston took a dive in the famous “Invisible Punch” match against Cassius Clay/Muhammad ALi.[ [/QUOTE] And that Liston’s death was actually a murder, not simply a heroin overdose. I think Mills Lane, who was not only a boxing referree but a judge of some sort, has said that there was something suspicious about Liston’s death. Liston was owned and managed by mobsters, so it is at least not impossible. > [@davidw](#): > > In the classic Aaron Pryor vs Alexis Arguello fight, between the 13th and 14th round, Pryor’s trainer Panama Lewis told the other cornerman, “Give me the other bottle, the one I mixed,” and Pryor drank from that bottle. When round 14 started, Pryor seemed reinvigorated and battered Arguello to win a TKO. There’s long be a lot of speculation about what may have been in that bottle. Especially given Pryor’s later downward, cocaine-fueled spiral. Nor would I put it past Pryor’s handlers to pull something like that. I believe Panama Lewis, Pryor’s manager, later lost his license for fixing the gloves and removing much of the padding for another of his fighters, Lous Resto. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/47 "2014-06-06T14:12:32Z")
The Spurs, [knowing their international players were used to playing in such conditions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw1g0FxnTpk&t=1m32s), arranged for the A/C to “break” last night. 🙂 [Even more evidence…](http://www.businessinsider.com/parker-ginobili-broken-air-conditioning-2014-6) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/48 "2014-06-06T15:43:30Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > The Spurs, [knowing their international players were used to playing in such conditions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw1g0FxnTpk&t=1m32s), arranged for the A/C to “break” last night. 🙂 > > [Even more evidence…](http://www.businessinsider.com/parker-ginobili-broken-air-conditioning-2014-6) 😉 Different arena, but… years ago, I went to see a Jimmy Page & Robert Plant concert at the San Antonio Alamodome on a summer night when the A/C broke down. We weren’t playing sports, we were just sitting and listening to msuic, but it was MISERABLE there. I refuse to believe that the Spurs would willingly have agreed to play in such awful conditions if they’d known it was coming ahead of time. Heck, the Spurs as a whole are a pretty old team. Bad conditions woudl probably wear THEM out more than the Miami players. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/49 "2014-06-06T15:47:15Z")
Evidence suggests otherwise… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/50 "2014-06-06T16:07:44Z")
The bad conditions would wear out the Spurs _if_ they played as many minutes. Due to their vastly superior bench, San Antonio is able to limit the playing time of everyone. I read recently that this years team is the first in over 30 years to not have at least one player average at least 30 minutes a game. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/51 "2014-06-06T16:22:27Z")
Well, I don’t believe the Spurs did that to the AC, either. But the CT is out there and it’s germane to this thread… ---
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/52 "2014-06-06T17:50:37Z")
No hard evidence to back me up on this but I’m convinced that the NBA playoffs are rigged. At least to ensure, beyond the first round, that ALL series go at least 6 games, and sometimes to ensure that certain teams make it to the Finals. The first time I made note of that was in 1993 but I’m sure it happened before that, as well. There are many reasons why I don’t really watch the NBA these days but the fact that I don’t feel that the NBA is an “honest enterprise” is a maybe the biggest one. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/53 "2014-06-06T17:55:46Z")
Partial to the Ben Johnson one where he claims to have had his urine sample spiked in Seoul 88. He freely admits to being on a steroid program (like everyone else in that race), but the drug he failed on, stanozolol, was not something he was training with. He’d tried it and it didn’t work for him, made his joints feel tight. He alleges that an associate of Carl Lewis gave him a dodgy bevvy after the race - Johnson was an overt threat to Lewis’ stature as top dog - an outsider to the US / IOC -approved narrative of Lewis being the King. I’ll grant you the steroid-laced beer from a villain sort of makes the CT fall on it’s arse (is it even possible to chug a beer and piss out a steroid a short period (minutes) later?). But surely a spiked urine sample must have occurred at some point in sports history? The drugs are readily availble, there’s a lot on the line, and the athletes are taking them anyway which helps to blur the moral dimension. ---
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/54 "2014-06-06T18:06:12Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I never suspected that WASN’T true. You can see he dove before any contact. Favre was a such a nice guy.🙂 > > To go further, I think he threw the Super Bowl against Denver so Elway could get a ring before he retired. My SCT is that this was Favre’s own decision (just like helping Strahan’s record), and he never did (and never will) tell the “truth”. > > And for what? Elway not only took that one, he went and did it again the next year, **without any help.** Except for the fact that Eugene Robinson, the heart, if not the soul, of the Falcons’ defense that year, went out and got a hummer (or something) the night before the Super Bowl (that year it was in “The Big Easy”) and either got himself suspended from the game or simply wasn’t himself during it if he did play (I never watched that S.B. - I was mildly upset that the Falcons had knocked the record-breaking Vikings out in the NFC championship game and I can’t stand the Broncos). Giving Horse Face some help in getting his second straight S.B. win to close his playing career out with wasn’t intentional (well, I suppose the part about E.R. getting the hummer was) but it couldn’t have helped the Falcons’ cause in that game. ---
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/55 "2014-06-06T18:12:42Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > The big SCT I have, is that the NBA is fixed. Like pro wrestling (shhh), except in this case, the players don’t know it. > > The NBA has the narrative they want, and the refs guide the games to get that outcome. This explains the games with 20 fouls called on one team to 4 on the other. The teams still have to make their shots, and since the players and coaches don’t know who is supposed to win, you can still get the unexpected surprise win. Other than the payoffs, that surprising outcome is useful-it “prooves” that the games aren’t fixed. > > The NBA wants dominant “good” teams, dominant teams that everyone hates, middle of the road “spear carrier” teams, and a designated loser team. For the longest time, that team was the Clippers. > > This is why owners and coaches are fined so much for criticizing the officiating. Not because the NBA is thin-skinned, but because the less people talk about it, the less chance of anyone figuring it out. > > It’s not that some refs are crooked - it’s that they ALL are, in the sense that they’re not officiating a game, they’re managing a stage show. The refs get the assignment daily, and know who is supposed to win. But if the “wrong” team wins, it’s OK, because ultimately it’s about the “show”. Only in the playoffs does who actually wins a specific game matter. I’m sure there’s no hard evidence to back up any of what you posted but somehow I believe every word of it, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/56 "2014-06-06T18:16:02Z")
> [@racepug](#): > > No hard evidence to back me up on this but I’m convinced that the NBA playoffs are rigged. At least to ensure, beyond the first round, that ALL series go at least 6 games They went five games just two years ago, but sure. ---
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/57 "2014-06-06T18:29:30Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > Here in Sacramento, lots of people are still royally pissed about Game 6 of the 2002 NBA Western Conference Finals, which everyone \*knows \*was rigged so the Kings couldn’t eliminate the Lakers from the playoffs. > > Maybe the refs stole the game from them, maybe they didn’t…but none of it would have mattered anyway if they could have made a freakin’ free throw in Game 7… Well, I don’t think it was anything specifically against the Kings - the NBA wants (needs?) the Lakers to be successful. Huge market, huge fan base. I believe a similar thing happened to the Portland Trail Blazers when they played the Fakers in a playoff series around that same time. That a HUGE 2nd half (or even 4th quarter) lead dried up because, all of the sudden, it was against the rules to even give a Baker a dirty look. The NBA IS rigged. I’ve believed that ever since 1993 when the Sonics were engineered out of the playoffs by the Suns (but not before that series went all 7 games, of course) so that the NBA could get its (admittedly mouth-watering) matchup between Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan (uh, I mean, between “best overall record in 1993 Phoenix” and Chicago) in the Finals that year. This was, you may not remember, after the “best record in 1993” Suns LOST the first two games AT HOME in the first round to the 8th-seeded Bakers and then, miraculously, recovered in time to win three straight to avoid the fate that befell the Sonics the next year - becoming the first #1 seed to lose to a #8 in the NBA playoffs (I do believe that is probably the only time in the history of the NBA since _I’ve_ been around that I was actually pulling for the Fakers in a playoff series). Then after the Bulls went into Phoenix and won Games 1 and 2 the NBA helped ensure that the series WOULD go back to Phoenix by giving the Suns a RIDICULOUS edge at the foul line in Game 3 (you’re the 3-time defending NBA champions, you’ve got, arguably, the G.O.A.T. on your team, the game goes to TRIPLE OVERTIME and YOU’RE AT HOME, and you are awarded **9 free throws** _for the game_??? [1993 NBA Finals Game 3: Suns vs Bulls, June 13, 1993 | Basketball-Reference.com](http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/199306130CHI.html)) Yeah, the NBA’s not rigged. Not at all. ---
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/58 "2014-06-06T19:13:15Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > Another one - this one a little more widely believed than my earlier one: > > In the 1982 World Cup soccer tournament, West Germany and Austria conspired on a 1-0 result in their match that sent both of them through to the next round, whereas pretty much any other result would have sent Algeria ahead in place of the match loser. How much of this is active collusion between the two teams and how much is simply a mass case of “I don’t want to be the one known for making the stupid move that got us knocked out of the World Cup when we would have advanced had I just played more conservatively,” I don’t know. It is well known that the two camps conspired to fix that result (even in Germany that match is referred to as “The Game of Shame”), although why the Germans decided to get all “cozy” with the Austrians for a result they likely would have gotten anyway (check Germany’s/ West Germany’s all-time record against Austria in men’s soccer and you’ll see what I mean) is a bit beyond me. Maybe it’s just because the Germans were still pissed off after having their 20-odd match unbeaten streak broken by the Algerians in their W.C. opener that year and would rather see their fellow Europeans advance to the second round instead of “those Arabs.” ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/59 "2014-06-06T20:07:45Z")
I don’t know if field conditions fall into the category of “conspiracies,” but there have been many big football games in which the home team has been accused of either growing the grass way too high or of severely overwatering the field, creating a sea of mud In either case, the object was supposedly to slow down a team that had a much bigger edge in speed. In the old Southwest Conference days, several Texas placekickers (including current radio host Jeff Ward) accused Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer of tampering with footballs before games. Switzer allegedly kept footballs in a freezer to make them harder for Texas kikcers to make long field goals. Never mind whether Switzer actually did that. A more important question in my mind is, \*\*Would that actually work? \*\* Woulld a cold ball really be harder to kick 40+ yards? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/60 "2014-06-06T20:18:22Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Never mind whether Switzer actually did that. A more important question in my mind is, \*\*Would that actually work? \*\* Woulld a cold ball really be harder to kick 40+ yards? Yes. Special footballs (marked with a K) are used for kicking plays. [http://www.nfl.com/rulebook/ball](http://www.nfl.com/rulebook/ball) > [@](#): > > Twelve (12) new footballs, sealed in a special box and shipped by the manufacturer, will be opened in the officials’ locker room two hours prior to the starting time of the game. These balls are to be specially marked with the letter “k” and used exclusively for the kicking game. This is to ensure that a warmer ball isn’t given to the home team, which will travel further. You’ll see kickers try to warm the balls by squeezing them; that start as soon as the ref hands them the balls before the kick. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094.md?page=4)