The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time - Elliott Kalb [33]
Tuohy: Somehow, Shula, still in his thirties then, managed to take the most dominant team in the NFL and turn them into a bunch of semi-pro also-rans. Oddly enough, Super Bowl III would be the last game he would ever coach for the Colts before signing a lucrative deal to lead the Dolphins for the rest of his long career.
EK: Bubba Smith told Jeff Miller, “This might sound crazy, but I don’t think the game was kosher. In order for the merger to go through, [the Jets] had to win. If you read the terms of the merger, if [the AFL] didn’t establish credibility by the end of three years, the terms of the merger were null and void. You’re talking the difference of millions and billions of dollars. The line opened at eighteen and went down to fifteen or something like that because a big bet had been placed on the game. And I know where the bet came from. It came from Baltimore, from someone on the team, from what I understand.”
Tuohy: So what was the payoff for the Colts? If Shula and Morrall took dives, what did they receive for their efforts? Once the AFL and the Super Bowl were legitimized with an AFL victory in Super Bowl IV (which I believe was also rigged), the NFL could then let Rosenbloom and Morrall reap the rewards of winning Super Bowl V in January of 1971. And as for Shula, he ‘coincidentally’ then led the Dolphins to the first of two Super Bowl championships in Super Bowls VII and VIII. Payback can be sweet when paid in championship rings.
EK: I only wish Bubba had evidence—real evidence—to support this big bet from Baltimore. Was it a Rosenbloom bet? I can’t believe that he bet against his own team. He was described as a picture of complete and utter devastation at game’s end. Don Weiss wrote, “By the end of the game, Carroll was totally drained of color and just sat there in silence.” Plus, Rosenbloom’s relationship with Shula soured. In a fix, wouldn’t the conspirator/owner have taken care of his co-conspirator /coach? Here is another reason that I believe the game was not fixed: Shula was so perplexed walking off the field at halftime, he remarked to an aide, “Damn it, the flea-flicker is designed especially for Orr. Morrall is supposed to look for him. What in hell is happening?” That is not how Shula would react if he were in on a fix. Not even a great actor could pull that one off.
The truth is that the Jets were a better team than people thought. Their coach, Weeb Ewbank, was not only experienced (first assisting Paul Brown in Cleveland, and then later leading the Colts to a pair of NFL Championships as head coach), but he had been released by the Colts and knew many of their aging stars. Ewbank used an injured Don Maynard as a decoy, and that helped the Jets’ offense tremendously. The Jets were confident, with Namath full of swagger. They were bitter, with cornerback Sample upset over his time with the Colts. Namath broke the rhythm of the Colts defense, something the NFL teams had not done. Jets right tackle Dave Herman did a great job on Bubba Smith, and the Jets controlled the clock over thirty-six minutes in the game.
Shula would prove in later Super Bowls that perhaps he wasn’t the greatest big-game coach. His Dolphins lost Super Bowl VI by a score of 24-3 (with Shula’s team getting outscored 14-0 in the second half). His Dolphins also lost Super Bowl XVII by a score of 27-17, despite leading 17-10 at halftime, and lost Super Bowl XIX by a score of 38-16.
Could Don Shula have made halftime adjustments in the Super Bowl? History suggests not. In the six biggest games of his career—the six Super Bowls he coached—his teams scored 7, 0, 0, 7, 0, and 0 points in the second halves. The only fourth quarter points his teams ever scored in the six Super Bowls he coached came with a meaningless Unitas touchdown pass, which was scored with the Colts down 16-0 and less than four minutes remaining in the game. The only other time a Shula-coached Super Bowl team