Conspiracy theories and salacious rumors are just as prevalent in sports, both professional and college, as they are in politics and entertainment. Whether your team lost on a strange last play, or the team you bet on looked like it took a dive, the money and competitive nature of sports make it a natural breeding ground for unsubstantiated myths to take hold. There are tons of sports conspiracy theories floating around out there, but which ones do you believe?
Oh, and the women. Sex is just as much a part of the sports industrial complex as money, and many players and coaches have seen their stars fall due to an improper advance with a reporter. Or another player's mom. From these sexy sports scandals, to Michael Jordan's "flu" and more than a few boxing match ups that ended suspiciously, there's a sports conspiracy for almost any big game you can think of.
These crazy sports theories, urban legends, and rumors related to murder, gambling, sex, money and victory - all took place in the sports world, and some just might be true.
http://www.ranker.com/list/sports-conspiracy-theories/mike-rothschild,
Caster Semenya
After she won the gold medal in the women’s 800 meter sprint at the 2009 World Championships, rumors swirled that Caster Semenya was actually a man competing as a woman. Years of humiliating gender tests and salacious whispers followed. It came out that Semenya was intersexed, having been raised as a girl and with female reproductive organs, but also with undescended testes.
The controversy wore on Semenya, who won a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics, but has struggled since then.
Jimmy Hoffa Is Buried Under Giants Stadium
More of an old fashioned urban legend than a rumor, this theory holds that the famously disappeared union boss was killed by the mob and buried somewhere under Giants Stadium in New York. It would theoretically be possible to prove this, by digging up every inch of the old stadium.
But the fact that the police, whose job it is to solve murders, have never bothered, should tell you everything you need to know about what they think of the theory.
The Phantom Punch
It’s long been thought that Sonny Liston took a dive for Muhammad Ali (then still fighting under his birth name of Cassius Clay) when they fought for the second time in 1965. Ali’s “phantom punch” knocked Liston down early in the first round, despite barely connecting with the fighter. Even the FBI suspected some kind of mafia involvement, or possibly that Liston was deep in debt and bet against himself.
No investigation ever proved that anything untoward happened, and everyone involved denied the same. At worst, Liston might have realized Clay was going to beat the stuffing out of him, and wanted no part of it.
Michael Jordan's Father Murdered Because of Gambling Debt
Michael Jordan’s gambling habit was always an open secret among NBA fans. In fact, his retirement in 1993 is thought by many to have been a secret suspension because of his betting woes.
So when Jordan’s father was shot dead in 1993, seemingly at random by two men trying to rob him, rumors flew that the two were connected. However, the two killers later said they didn’t know who James Jordan was at the time, only that they stumbled on a Lexus parked in the back roads of North Carolina, and thought it was theirs for the taking.
#Deflategate
Immediately after crushing the Indianapolis Colts 45-7 and earning yet another trip to the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots were accused of intentionally deflating their game balls to give themselves an advantage. A subsequent investigation found that the Patriots had indeed played with 11 of their 12 allotted game balls deflated slightly. But it’s also apparent that the under-inflated balls had little to no effect on the game itself, considering the score was 45-7.
The NFL Is Run by the Mob
Organized crime and professional sports went together hand in glove during the early days of pro leagues. The influence of gambling and bookmakers is well known regarding baseball, but the mob also had its immaculately gloved hands all over professional football in the '20s and '30s. Several teams were either financed or outright owned by bookies, including the Chicago Bears, New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers, and the original Cleveland Browns.
Many of these teams are still owned by descendants of these families, and with illegal gambling being a $100 billion industry (yes, billion with a B) it’s not hard to imagine some of these ancient connections still bearing fruit for modern bookies. The NFL works hard to keep the game free of gambling influence, but also doesn’t do anything to discourage people from wagering on games.
Magic Johnson Boots Donald Sterling
After former Clippers owner Donald Sterling was suspended by the NBA, a conspiracy that Magic Johnson set him up took off thanks to Rush Limbaugh, who said: “What if the reason Sterling told [his mistress] that he didn’t want her showing up in pictures with Magic is that he knew Magic was going to make a play for his team?! What if he knew that?!”
Of course, Johnson didn’t end up buying the Clippers, so the whole conspiracy almost instantly became moot.
The 1972 US Basketball Team Gets Robbed
One of the most controversial endings in sports history, the US Men’s Basketball team lost to the Soviet team in the Finals of the 1972 Olympics, with Russia getting three chances to score a winning basket.
A combination of unclear rules, seemingly random clock stoppages and bizarre referee decisions gave the Soviet team enough chances to win 51-50, kicking off 40 years of accusations and denials, with the American team never having accepted their silver medals.
Super Bowl III Was Fixed
Super Bowl III, in which Joe Namath guaranteed victory for his upstart New York Jets, was a pivotal moment for the NFL. They had just merged with the AFL, but the NFL teams had proven themselves far superior. Another Super Bowl win by an NFL team might have proven the AFL to be inherently inferior, and driven fans away. So did the league arrange for the team it needed to win to, in fact, win?
That was the opinion of Baltimore Colts player Bubba Smith, who theorized that the league rigged the game to allow the more lucrative AFL team to beat his Colts. While the Jets, who were an 18 point underdog, pulled off an unthinkable upset, it was just as likely due to the Colts playing poorly and underestimating the Jets, rather than shenanigans by the NFL.
The Head of Maradona, the Hand of God
Was the most famous goal in world soccer history, Diego Maradona’s infamous “Hand of God” goal in the 1986 World Cup against England, actually punched in by the Argentinian striker?
Maradona has, in his usual gadfly style, fanned the flames of the controversy, while subsequent photographic evidence has shown pretty clearly that Maradona palmed the ball in, meaning it shouldn’t have counted. But it did, and a legend was born.