The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time - Elliott Kalb [49]
Here are some incredible facts about this game: The score was 14-14 going into the fourth quarter, despite the Giants being depleted. Hapes, normally the backup fullback, was ruled out while cops investigated the attempted fix. The number one fullback, Bill Paschal, was out with a broken jaw. Halfback Frank Reagan was rushed to the hospital at halftime with a fractured nose. Another halfback, George Franck, also got sent to the hospital with a banged-up shoulder. And Frank Filchock played the final three quarters with a broken nose. The bottom line on Filchock’s performance was that he kept a severely depleted team in the game until the fourth quarter.
In researching this story, the one thing that still puzzles me is the point spread being set at ten points. I found a UPI story advancing the game that was published on Saturday, December 14, 1946, and that article mentioned that the Bears were ten-point favorites. Testimony in March of 1947 would prove that Paris knew the Bears would have to win by more than ten points as soon as the game on December 8 was over! Does anyone else find it peculiar that the Giants—playing at home and playing a team it had beaten soundly early in the season—would be ten-point underdogs?
All I can say is that I have to use my 1946 eyes again. The Bears had a mystique about them. After all, they were the “Monsters of the Midway,” and this victory marked their fifth NFL Championship. In discussing the Bears being favored by double-digits on the road in the 1946 Championship Game with historian and author Jeff Davis, we agree that the spread was due to the mystique of the Bears. Clearly, the betting public overwhelmingly sided with Chicago.
MY OPINION
How much did the league know at the time they made the decision to bar Hapes from the game and let Filchock play? Did they know about the $500 that the players took from Paris? This had to be a tough call for the new commissioner. Do you go on with the Championship Game as scheduled, despite the known attempt to fix the game? Do you allow the quarterback, who was denying everything, to play in the game? The game went on as scheduled, and even if the game hadn’t been taken off the boards by the bookies, the final score was a push against the point spread. How convenient.
I believe the game was tarnished. The players didn’t even have lawyers with them when the decision was made. The quarterback made a decision to perjure himself and deny being offered a bribe. Why? What was going through Filchock’s mind? At some point, he might have thought that his teammate, the backup fullback, had confessed to being offered money to fix the game. Wouldn’t the authorities assume that he was offered the same deal or better? Wouldn’t he assume that Paris might sing like a bird for police at some point? What was the quarterback doing not confessing the night before the game? Did he have a reason, or co-conspirators, that made it imperative for him to play in the Championship Game?
We’ll never know.
CONCLUSION:
#11
Was there a secret agreement between Pete Rose and Bart Giamatti?
As the all-time leader in hits, games, and at bats, Pete Rose is without a doubt one of the greatest Major League Baseball players in history. He once hit in a National League record forty-four straight games. He had five hits in a game no less than ten times, and finished his career with 4,256 hits, breaking Ty Cobb’s record of 4,192.
Rose was also at one point the highest paid player