Sports-Related Conspiracy Theories

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Some of the recent posts about various things being rigged has gotten me thinking. I love a good conspiracy theory, and I'd like to know how much you all do, too. I think this thread should be a place to hash those out. I'll start:

Joe Paterno decided to kill himself rather than face the public for his proximity to Sandusky and the kiddie porn dungeon that became the Penn St facilities.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

Shoeless Joe Jackson did throw the World Series, even though legend claims he was unjustly banned from baseball

Statistical analysis shows that it is highly unlikely that he did. He was the team's leading hitter in the WS and put up a .375/.394/.563 slash line.

[RunKC]

I think the NFL purposely helps nfl greats go out on top. Perfect example is the Seattle/Pitt SB.
That was some outlandish bullshit

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Statistical analysis shows that it is highly unlikely that he did. He was the team's leading hitter in the WS and put up a .375/.394/.563 slash line.

Shoeless Joe Jackson hit an outrageously high .545 in games they won. He hit really poorly in games they lost (which you would argue would be the games the team was trying to throw) and was accused of fielding balls slowly on defense. That's what makes it an interesting conspiracy theory. Maybe he was just legitimately bad at the wrong times, but he did seem to hit much better when it was conveniently okay for him to hit well.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Every pitch in a royals game/pete

[Don Corlemahomes]

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by Cunning Linguist

That's pretty bad.. If it were a bootleg, Favre would have at least completed the motion of handing it off.. If it were a pass he would have started looking upfield.

[TribalElder]

Originally Posted by RunKC

I think the NFL purposely helps nfl greats go out on top. Perfect example is the Seattle/Pitt SB.
That was some outlandish bullshit

Ray Lewis Ravens

[BWillie]

Baseball its rigged. I'm convinced. Last game at Yankee Stadium and he hits a walkoff...bullshit

[Silock]

Originally Posted by Cunning Linguist

Kinda looks like a guy that doesn't want to get obliterated. I've seen Cassel do that way too often.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

The main reason for the spike in home runs during the steroid era was moreso due to a juiced ball than because of performance enhancing drugs

Explain.

[Nzoner]

In 1995 shortly after the Cowboys played the Chiefs on Thanksgiving Day Jerry Jones was interviewed and said he wanted no part of the KC defense if it came to that in that seasons SB.

KC that season had a kicker who shall go unnamed that not only was from Texas,went to school in Texas but better yet played with the Cowboys before coming to KC.

Fast forward to a frigid day in Jan when a dome team came to Arrowhead as a 10 point dog and knowing that Jerry Jones would sell his mother for a SB ring and you know the rest of the story so draw your own conclusions.

[Prison Bitch]

"Racial abuse" lulz

[blaise]

On the subject of fat people shitting - I once heard Jay Mohr say his friend worked at a hotel in New Jersey where pro wrestlers would stay when they got to town. The guy claimed Andre the Giant got adjoining hotel rooms, one for sleeping and the other so he could shit in the bath tub.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Explain.

There's some real interesting reading on this. Cliff notes, and it doesn't begin to tell the story... First of all, steroids doesn't help as much as people think. Much of power is built in your lower body and hip rotation, and steroids doesn't help much there. Steroids helps with bat speed and to help balance your arms to allow for a quicker swing. No doubt steroids helps.

But juicing has been going on for years undetected. Who's to say the juicing in the home run era was far different from juicing in other eras? Two things we do know from history, however. Baseball's can be juiced or unjuiced. Not even just a little bit. Significantly. You'll recall that the solution to guys hitting a bazillion home runs at coors field was unjuicing the ball. The rockies hit a lot less home runs. If they did it there, who's to say San Francisco couldn't have unjuiced their baseballs too? It sure seems to me that baseball had the power to tone down the home runs but chose not to.

And historically, it's not like this is the first time we saw peaks and valleys in home runs. This isn't the first home run era in the history of baseball. We had a dead ball era, several spikes in home runs, and most believe those spikes are heavily attributed to changes in the baseball. So if you believe that players in the 50s weren't using steroids, how do we explain the several home run eras that occurred in baseball well before the 80s?

[blaise]

The one I believe isn't that outlandish - Jeff Van Gundy claimed an ex ref told him that the league told the refs before a Rockets/Mavs playoff game to call illegal screens on Yao Ming. Then in Game 3 they called two on him in a span of a minute or two in the first half.
Van Gundy said what he heard publicly and got fined like $75,000.
It was shady to me because it's one thing for another team to say watch this or that, but it seemed like the league told the refs to specifically target one player.
And it must have bothered Stern that the information went public because the fine he gave JVG was steep.