I doubt that. Everyone acknowledges that Jones won that fight. Even his opponent looked ashamed to have been awarded the victory.
Canadians are still angry over the preposterous Shawn O’Sullivan-Frank Tate gold medal bout in the 1984 Games, in which Tate was given the victory because he was American, despite having clearly been outfought. Tate was knocked down twice in the second and mysteriously won the round.
But then, a list of fixed Olympic events would fill a book.
Remember that “how many times a boxer was knocked down” is irrelevant in Olympic boxing scoring - at least, it was until 2016, when the new professional-style system will be used.
Remember the “push-button” system that was introduced in 1992 (each judge pushed a button when a boxer threw a “scoring” punch - one that landed clean and wasn’t weak)? Technically, punch counting was supposed to be done from 1972 through 1988 (count the number of punches each boxer threw; whoever threw the most got 20 points for that round; subtract 1/3 of the differences in punches from 20, and give that many points to the other boxer), but, of course, most judges used some combination of professional-style and politics to score the fights.
You mean, like Wallechinsky’s books?
Apparently, they stopped making those - I couldn’t find one for 2014. (Yes, there are separate Winter and Summer Olympics versions. I still have the 2010 and 2012 books.)
I stand corrected; Amazon lists a 2014 edition. Strange, as I made it a point to look for it in early 2014 and couldn’t find it anywhere.
Interestingly enough this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this.
It makes sense in that the NFL probably doesn’t want a thug like Lynch to be the MVP of the Super Bowl, but they would have to convince Pete Carroll to agree, and have that perfect scenario come up.
It makes sense, but I’m with you that its too perfect to be true
Don’t know about other leagues, but this is absolutely false about MLB. The umps know their exact schedule (minus the All-Star game and the playoffs) before spring training even begins.
Crews work together all year (minus injury or illness) and often have their travel arrangements (flights/hotels/cars) for the entire season set up within a day or two of finding out their schedule.
I read that Joltin’ Joe definitely got a couple of favorable scorer rulings during the streak. I have never seen the hits in question, though to judge for myself. But this wouldn’t shock me at all, especially if it happened in Yankee Stadium.
Yeah… I did in the OP. C’mon, you have to at least read the OP! I can understand skimming the three pages of stuff and maybe missing something, but the OP? That’s where the premise for the thread is defined! :smack:
I would be shocked if it wasn’t Carl Lewis. Although I am not shocked that he kept it under wraps. He was in line for some big endorsement deals, and that news would have gone over badly with sponsors in 1984.
There is an interesting 30 for 30 right now on ESPN that discusses the point shaving scandal at Boston College in the late 80’s. Interesting because of the characters involved, including many of the hood that appeared in the movie “Goodfellas”, including Henry Hill.
As far as pro sports playoff massaging goes, I think it is possible that refs can influence NBA or NHL games. If Donaghy’s allegations are true, that would just suck. I hate the idea that the league would discuss game outcomes with refs to attempt to influence their calls to benefit one team over another.
The NHL refs can have even more of an impact, because they can call a penalty that gives a team a man-advantage for 2-5 minutes. That is a significant advantage. The team still has to go out and score, but the refs can increase their odds of winning by putting a “preferred” team on the power play.
It would not have taken much to convince me, in the early 90’s, that the European fencing foil/epee/sabre makers were deliberately sending all the defective weapons to the USA to keep our rising fencing movements at bay.
I admit I have the CT gene, but I can suppress it!
But I really have to hold my nose sometimes to enjoy an NBA season. Even allowing for confirmation bias, there seems to be too many calls that are questionable - ticky-tack fouls, obvious make up calls, phantom fouls, superstar bias, huge foul disparity between teams in the same game. At least they seem to get the monitor review calls right.
Any one foul can be argued not to be a fix, and what is a season but a collection of “any one foul”, but if you watch season after season, it does start to make you wonder if the fix is in. Even if it isn’t fixed, it seems like it is, and that can take away the enjoyment.
That’s why I love the NFL - refs can’t control a game like the NBA refs could. But now instead I have to worry about players getting brain damage.
I have to think that if the NBA was fixed, the small-market Spurs wouldn’t have so many championships.
Well, one argument some CTs would probably fall back to would be, “They won in spite of it and could have won more without it.”
Nobody coddles superstars like the NBA does. The top-tier players can get away with murder on the court. Basketball has to have the worst refereeing of any major sport. (Not counting boxing, which everybody knows is fixed.)
Au contraire. That’s WHY they have so many championships, because of the fix. It’s not individual markets that drive it, it’s the big picture, the narrative that the NBA wants. The Spurs are a team you can love, and hate. Something for everyone. The Lakers are the same. No one really hates the Knicks, so they don’t win any more. No one even thinks about Deetroit, so they don’t win. Without Jordan, people forget about Chicago.
Next year, it might be Houston’s turn again. People love The Beard.
Well, about 1 in 9 lucky, if my math is right. Not enough to prove a conspiracy in my book.
I don’t think something really qualifies as a ‘conspiracy theory’ if everyone involved in any way admits (more or less openly) that it’s going on. You couldn’t find a single NBA player or coach who would say with a straight face that rookies get the same calls as superstars. Anyone who still wants to earn a living in basketball will add things like ‘shown they deserve the benefit of the doubt’ or ‘drawing fouls is a skill’ or something (they may even have convinced themselves the excuses are good ones), but nobody will seriously deny it happens.
Now, this I believe does happen. Again, the NBA isn’t stupid enough to say ‘let this team win’ , but they do send out ‘points of emphasis’ and what not to referees during the middle of series. No doubt some of them are neutral impartial responses to team’s legitimate complaints (which is a bit of a dubious practice anyway). But I believe the league does subtly encourage referees to tilt series a certain way (e.g. emphasizing offensive pick-setting fouls immediately before game 7 of the 2010 Celtics-Heat Conference championship. Kevin Garnett in early foul trouble = LeBron finally gets the championship his marketers were asking for).
The Big-12 refereeing in conference games involving Nebraska in 2010 was particularly sketchy, considering that they’d already announced that they were moving to the Big Ten the next season. Same thing happened to Texas A&M the next season, although maybe not quite as blatantly as for Nebraska.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the 1998 World Cup Final in the Stade de France. It led to official investigations in several countries; Nike was accused of picking the Brazilian team, FIFA was accused of paying the Brazilian team to lose (and be rewarded with hosting the WC), a medic was accused of injecting Ronaldo in a vein and not a muscle, Ronaldo was accused of hiding a medical problem.
I think it was probably Greg Louganis. The prospective scandal was why the hell did he have SHOE sponsorship?
So he can run in the pool area without falling and hitting his head.
It makes sense? You must know nothing about football. Poodle Pete or his Offensive Coordinator made a bad call, figuring only a TD or drop would be the outcome of the play. I’ve never liked the Poodle, but can’t see him making that call just to keep Lynch from the MVP. They play to win (especially the Superbowl).
Wasn’t Louganis out before the olympics? Perhaps not… but I agree, I can’t figure out why he would be selling shoes? The guy was a diver, and was never seen wearing shoes EVER. Very strange choice to sell shoes.
I would agree. And the call wasn’t as bad as people think. The execution of the play was what was bad.
Russell Wilson threw a very bad pass.
Giving the ball to Lynch was what everyone in the world was thinking… Including me. And if I was Carroll, I would have handed it to Lynch. But it is far from a guaranteed TD. Anyone remember the AFC playoff game between the Colts and Steelers, when the Steelers were on the 1 yard line with less than 2 minutes to go, and decided to go for the TD and end the game? They gave the ball to Jerome Bettis (who rarely fumbled), and a Colts defender put a helmet on the ball and popped that thing out of Bettis’ hand, the Colts recovered, and only a miracle tackle by Ben Roethlisberger kept the guy from scoring a TD.
If the Steelers lost that game, Cowher would have been blasted for not kneeling on the ball, running down the clock, and kicking a FG. Mike Vanderjagt missed the tying FG, the Steelers won, and all was forgotten.
Carroll made a call that very few people saw coming, and if the throw was on target, it was a TD. If Wilson threw it low, and out front of the receiver, the ball is either caught or incomplete. He threw it in the worst possible location, and the only place it could have been intercepted.
I think Carroll has taken a lot more abuse than he deserves. I personally believe that Lynch would have scored a TD if he was given the carry, and that was the play to run… but nothing is guaranteed. Players need to execute. Wilson threw a horrid pass. That was his mistake, not Carroll’s.
With all that said, I doubt the NFL was too upset that Lynch wasn’t the hero, going to Disneyland, and the SB MVP.