The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time - Elliott Kalb [96]
Trump was further correct that leagues needed first-class stars to succeed. Fans will tune in to new leagues with exciting rules for curiosity, but they will stay only with top competition.
Rozelle was right in that the USFL didn’t have deep enough pockets to sustain itself, and should have built up its franchises with solid spring seasons. He was probably also correct in saying that the two men who testified against the NFL, Davis and Cosell, had personal reasons for doing so.
The USFL didn’t have a bunch of Trumps to trump the NFL. What television network was going to bankroll a league with just a few good teams and a handful of superstars? The USFL strategy, in football terms, was to throw a deep pass on third-and-long and hope for a flag. Well, they managed to draw the flag, but it wasn’t a spot foul that would result in the long gain that was needed.
MY OPINION
It was once possible for upstart leagues to compete directly with the NFL (the American Football League), the NBA (the American Basketball Association), and the NHL (the World Hockey Association), but by the mid-1980s, that time had passed. The NFL was big by the 1960s, but it was more powerful than all but a handful of superpower nations by the 1980s. Of course they monopolized pro football, and tried to limit their competition. But did they do so illegally, or was it simply a case in which the NFL was so big that it didn’t need to resort to anything underhanded and didn’t need to make threats to networks? The mere thought of a television network operating without the NFL was enough to keep everyone in line.
The NFL won this case, in every way. It became the sports league more powerful than probably all the others put together. The NFL deserves to take bows in becoming so powerful. They took steps to generate revenue sharing long before other leagues. The NFL also took active steps twenty years ago in the areas of steroids and substance abuse. New NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is making a point of coming down hard on the league’s knuckleheads, who repeatedly get in trouble with the law. And in a sport that has more wagering on it than any other, it has stayed clear of any scandals involving referees.
CONCLUSION:
#23
Shoeless Joe Jackson kept out of Baseball Hall of Fame
In the early 1900s, baseball had no commissioner. According to an article on the official site of Major League Baseball titled, “The Commissionership: A Historical Perspective,” there was, instead of a single commissioner, a National Commission, a three-man body (the two league presidents and an owner) endowed with supervisory control of professional baseball. This commission was granted the power to interpret the terms and rules of baseball, as well as the ability to enact and enforce fines and suspensions. One of the three men on the committee from 1903-1920 was Cincinnati Reds owner August Herrman. This was like having a Fantasy League owner also serve as commissioner, as one of the commissioners had a vested interest in one of the teams he was making rulings on. Following the 1919 World Series, in which eight members of the White Sox allegedly took bribes from gamblers to intentionally lose, the National League proposed to eliminate the National Commission and replace it with one leader. On January 12, 1921, the position of baseball commissioner was created with the ratification of the new Major League Agreement. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was elected as the game’s first commissioner. He banned all eight White Sox players, including the legendary “Shoeless” Joe Jackson.
Jackson, whose career was cut short at the age of thirty, was one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. Born in 1889, he never learned to read or write, having been put to work sweeping