The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time - Elliott Kalb [34]
Tuohy: To me, if you strip away the legend and the nearly forty years worth of gloss painted over the Jets “miracle” win in Super Bowl III and look at the game objectively—what it meant to the league and what happened on the field—you cannot come away thinking the game was played on the level. Too much was at stake to merely “hope for the best.” Too much money has been made by the NFL over the years as a direct result of that game.
EK: The public was already hooked on the NFL big-time by January of 1969. Super Bowl II was a blowout, yet CBS attracted more than fifty-one million viewers, garnering [a 36.8 share of the market, and a 68 share unclear]. Despite the Colts being overwhelming favorites the next year, NBC attracted a 70 share—meaning seven of ten television sets that were in use that day were tuned in to the football game. To me, the game could have been 98-0 and the league—merger and all—would have still prospered. I do not believe the game was fixed. It was an important game in the history of the league, and it came when the Jets and Namath represented the counter-culture. Shula didn’t fix the game (although he made terrible coaching decisions; Rosenbloom didn’t fix the game (although he may have bet on the game, and associated with a variety of unsavory characters); and the Colts players certainly didn’t fix the game. Morrall was moral, as were the rest of the participants, as they battled through Super Bowl III.
CONCLUSION:
#7
Isiah Thomas left off the 1992 Olympic Dream Team
Was there a conspiracy to keep Hall of Fame guard Isiah Thomas off of the 1992 U.S. Olympic basketball team, known throughout the world as “the Dream Team”? Enough evidence exists to support such a conspiracy. For this kind of glaring omission to occur, however, a man must have powerful enemies with enough influence to sway others. Let’s examine the situation closely.
Isiah Thomas is one of those people, like his college coach Bob Knight, for whom there is no middle ground. He has plenty of admirers, and an equal number of critics. Isiah was seen as the culprit—the main instigator—in freezing out a young rookie named Michael Jordan in Jordan’s first NBA All-Star Game (in 1985). Thomas, who grew up in Chicago, was drafted by the Bulls’ rival, the Detroit Pistons, and by 1985 he was being jeered even in his hometown city, taking a backseat to Chicago’s much-beloved hot-shot rookie.
Thomas always played like he had a chip on his shoulder, and he was a lightning rod for controversy. Although the mercurial and wacky Dennis Rodman, after the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals between the Pistons and Boston Celtics, said, “Larry Bird would be considered just another player if he were black,” it was Thomas that got ripped for the remark. That’s because, when asked as the team leader about the quote, Isiah didn’t go far enough in distancing himself or minimizing the statement.
His entire professional career has been filled with incredible highs and lows, sometimes experienced simultaneously. The pinnacle of Thomas’ career as a player came in June of 1990, when his Detroit team defeated the Portland Trailblazers to win their second consecutive NBA Championship. In the Finals, Isiah was, as they say, “Jordanesque.” In Game One, Isiah scored thirty-three points, including sixteen in the fourth quarter alone to lead his team to a come-from-behind victory. In Game Four, he scored thirty points in the second half (including twenty-two in the third quarter). In the final game, with the score tied at ninety, Thomas passed up a potential game-winning shot. Instead, he passed the ball to Vinnie Johnson on the wing. Johnson, dubbed “The Microwave” because he heated up in a hurry, froze defender Jerome Kersey and hit a series-clinching jumper in the final second. Isiah averaged 27.6 points per game in the series, and made eleven of sixteen three-point shots.
Less than forty-eight hours later, local FBI officials