If you like or pay attention to sports, you probably know that they have problems with either being terribly officiated, or maybe rigged in some cases. Recently, it seems as if officiating is at an all-time low for sports like basketball. Every week there is a terrible call that decides the fate of the game, and it ends up going viral on social media. The most recent occurrence of this was the holding call during the Superbowl that cost the Eagles the game. There’s no doubt that officiated can be awful, but are professional sports rigged? There are many fans who believe in the “NFL script”. People think that the games are set up, and that the winners are already determined before the games actually happen. Sometimes this can seem believable, like when the Minnesota Vikings came back from down 33-0. Even though an entire league being scripted is highly unlikely, it is still possible that some games are rigged, and several fans are wondering if they are.
There have been cases in the past where games have been rigged. As an example, game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento KIngs. The referee, Tim Donaghy, was confirmed to have been betting on games he officiated, and he ended up going to jail for it. It is a known fact that this game was rigged, and it cost a great team a potential championship. The Kings were the team that they called most of the fouls on. The Lakers got 40 free throws and the Kings only got 25. 27 of those free throws for the Lakers came in the fourth quarter. There were also a plethora of terrible calls during this game. This game is often looked back on as one of the worst officiated games of all time, and it was definitely rigged.
The next example is a conspiracy. The 1985 draft was the first year they introduced a lottery system to prevent tanking. This draft class contained one of the most promising big men to come out of college ever. Patrick Ewing from Georgetown was a stud, and he was almost guaranteed to be the number 1 pick, but you had to win the lottery to get him. The way the lottery worked was that Jack Wagner would place envelopes, with the team's logo inside of them, into a plastic ball. Then he would spin the ball, and after that, the commissioner, David Stern, would take out an envelope and that team would have the number 1 pick and get Ewing. This is where the conspiracy starts. Jack Wagner was part of the accounting firm that was part of the auditing firm for the ownership group of the Knicks. People believe that when he put the Knick's envelope into the ball, he bent the corner of it so David Stern could easily identify it, and give the Knicks the number 1 pick. This conspiracy theory makes sense because at the time the NBA needed a big market team to be good to take away from all the drug usage going on in the sport. Also, the Knicks were a struggling team, and they wanted New York to do well.
Those were two examples of how professional sports were seen as rigged in the past. Recently, there is a lot of buzz about the NFL script being leaked. It was said to make the Eagles win the Superbowl 37-34, but this didn’t happen. There is also a lot of talk from the players about the script. A former player from the Texans, Arain Foster, jokingly mentioned in a podcast about how the NFL is scripted. Also, in a playoff game, the Jaguars completed an improbable comeback, and their quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, said that they couldn’t have scripted it any better. This seems like a joke, but some people might actually believe it. Along with the script, there is terrible officiating lately, and a lot of people may think the holding call in the Superbowl was rigged for the Chiefs to win.
Personally, I think that professional sports aren’t rigged anymore. I think that there are questionable calls from officials from time to time, but they have a hard job. I believe that the only reason sports have been rigged is because of marketing and that they’re trying to create more revenue opportunities. I feel as if today, sports are heading in the right direction, and that less scummy things are happening.
http://https://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=3436401
Do you think professional sports like the NFL and NBA are rigged?
Do you think bad officiating is hurting sports?
Do you think we will see more conspiracy theories about how sports are rigged in the future?
Replies
I think that we won't actually ever find out that it's rigged, but I do think there is a chance of it being rigged.
I personally don't think that professional sports like NFL and NBA (ect.) are rigged. I think if they WERE rigged then we would've found out a long time ago. Anything is possible especially when you're playing at the highest level of sports and I think that extreme fanatics are just making something up to counter the fact that their team lost. However, not everyone is a good egg and there could be a possibility that people could cheat or rig the games for their own purpose.
I think the NBA and NFL could be rigged because of all the questionable stuff that goes on. I think there is too much money involved and people care too much about betting on games and paying certain players so much many. College sports are funner to watch in my opinion.
I think professional sports are not fun to watch and they are not enjoyable. I think that all the players are overpaid and make too much money. Bad officiating is not good for the sports. I think we will see a lot more conspiracy theories how sports are rigged in the near future.
I don't think that the NFL and NBA are necessarily rigged, but I do think that there are favorites. I think that there are teams that seemingly do better every year than others. I do think that bad officiating is hurting sports. A ref or officials can make or break a game especially a good, close game.
I agree with you that there are definetly favorites, and that referees do make or break a game.
I don't think that professional sports are rigged. I do not think that coaches are signing up just to purposely lose the super bowl or any game. There still training their players every single day. I do think bad officiating does hurt sports. You could get a bad call and it could be in favor of the other team maybe giving them another chance to win.
I don't think they are rigged as well. It wouldn't make sense to play on purpose just to lose.
I think that some sports are rigged, I think the NFL and NBA aren't staged but things like wrestling are definetly rigged. Bad officiating is hurting sports very bably because some calls can drastically alter the outcome of games. Conspiracy theories will keep coming out.
I think the NFL and NBA are rigged. I think they want curtain teams to win such as the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl. Some of it isn't rigged because no one would fake a injury or get injured. I think bad officiating can cause people to think that it is rigged. Conspiracy theories will always be a thing about proffesional sports being rigged.
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