30 Sporting Events People Are Convinced Were Rigged

Cheaters never win. Unless…
30 Sporting Events People Are Convinced Were Rigged

Despite the anger-tinged words of an elementary school gym teacher after a dodgeball game gone awry, the old adage of “winners never cheat and cheaters never win” is a bunch of bullshit. 

But it’s not just bad actors like Lance Armstrong and Sammy Sosa who are guilty of scheming and scamming their way to an undeserved W. Conspiratorial sports fans on Reddit have their own theories about games that weren’t above board, proving that you don’t need to be an umpire or referee to see the possibly shady circumstances behind some of sports’ biggest moments. 

Whether it was the 1985 NBA draft or Jake Paul’s questionable win over Mike Tyson, here are the sporting events that people saw and didn’t believe…

Зу ago MLB endorsed and benefited from steroid use after the 1994 strike to bring back the fans. This lead to the explosion in home runs and records that stood for decades were broken over and over. When the truth came out, the Hall of Fame commissioner threw the players under the bus. - 344 Award Share ...
dalv321 Зу ago Qatar hosting the World Cup. Complete BS 512 Award Share ... Much_Committee_9355 Зу ago But there is no convincing that's straight up facts that they bought off the delegation that chose it 96 Award Share ... + 3 more replies
SauceMaster145 Зу ago 1997 Survivor Series. Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels - 378 Award Share ...
TemptCiderFan Зу ago Logan Paul vs Floyd Mayweather. | would bet money that behind the scenes, part of the contract was that Mayweather let Paul go the distance. There are clinches by Paul during that fight where Mayweather is basically holding him up and keeping him from collapsing. It was as real as a WWE fight. 532 Award Share ...
alexschubs Зу ago 1985 NBA Draft. Patrick Ewing to the Knicks. The NBA did a lot of crazy shit to make sure that happened. 232 Award Share ... LeonardGhostal Зу ago LeBron to Cleveland too. 101 Award Share ...
MaxAmperage Зу ago 1999 - Evander Holyfield vs Lennox Lewis Holyfield never recovered after Lewis dominated him in the early rounds, but for some reason... *cough* PROMOTING A REMATCH *cough* ...one judge gave the decision to Holyfield, the second to Lewis, and the third called a draw. Even though Lewis was the clear winner, the match was a draw. I watched it on Pay Per View. The whole crowd was booing. Announcers Jim Lampley and George Foreman were calling bullshit. Everybody knew the decision was wrong. | still say the judges were swayed/payed off to call it a draw so that promoters
Suspicious_Shapey Зу ago My horseriding competition in 2006. One of the riders fell (usually that means disqualification) but she was allowed to go on and even got 1st prize. Later | found out she was the daughter of the main sponsor. 77 Award Share ...
DarkYa-Nick777 Зу ago Football's (soccer) 2002 World Cup in Japan/South Korea. 103 Award Share ... ConstableBlimeyChips Зу ago They weren't rigged per se. But FIFA instituted this weird fucking policy of allowing referees from smaller nations to officiate matches in the knockout phase. So Korea got refs from Ecuador and Egypt for the round of 16 and quarter finals respectively. And let's just say that while the home team always has an advantage in the World Cup, Korea really had the advantage in those matches. As a quick side note: whenever I see people talk about Korea's run in 2002,
sanchower Зу ago 2002 NBA Western Conference Finals. The league wanted the Lakers in the finals, and blatantly screwed over the Kings to make it happen. 113 Award Share ... MidnightOwl01 Зу ago As big a mess as that whole thing was, the image I cannot get out of my head is Kobe Bryant trying to get open on an inbound pass, and blatantly elbowing Mike Bibby in the head, and Bibby being called for the foul. So many things like that were so obvious that its like the refs gave up on trying to keep up the appearance that
chicagotim1 Зу ago Definitely not 'totally convinced but definitely skeptical. 2006 NBA Finals Miami Heat vs Dallas Mavericks Miami's players had roughly twice as many foul calls go in their favor despite being considered the less physical team. The kicker is that the crew refereeing the games was later found guilty of fixing other matches the following year. 76 Award Share ... + 6 more replies
blanketz Зу ago 2019 NFC Championship. The NFL wanted the Rams/Patriots matchup so the Saints got screwed. It warms the cockles of my heart thinking about what a boring fucking superbowl that was. 145 Award Share ...
VictorBlimpmuscle . Зу ago The 1919 World Series aka the Black Sox Scandal 33 Award Share ... + 3 more replies
Herr_Poopypants Зу ago Going a bit different with a NASCAR race. But the 2001 Pepsi 400 I feel was totally rigged/set up. My theory: 2001 was the year Dale Earnhardt (arguably the most popular driver at the time) died while racing at the Daytona 500, I find it quite odd the the very next race held at the Daytona speedway (in the same year) was won by his son. | think it was a collective effort to make sure he won for the feel good story 24 Award Share ...
SMORKIN_LABBIT Зу ago The 2005 NHL Draft was rigged so the Pittsburgh Penguins could draft Sidney Crosby to save the franchise. They were threatening to move to Kansas city out of Pittsburgh. The NHL 100% wanted Pittsburgh to succeed as it was for long periods a popular franchise in the mid-west market that they wanted to expand on. Getting the super star saved the team and rapidly a new arena deal was in place. 21 Award Share ... + 2 more replies
theguy4785 Зу ago I'm not big into sports but how in gods name do the Flacons blow a 28-3 lead against the Patriots in a super bowl?! 35 Award Share ... billybobskcor Зу ago Lemme tell you the story of the Georgia sports curse... 29 Award Share ...
reluctantfrench Зу ago 2001 Eastern Conference Finals - NBA screwed Bucks 2002 Western Conference Finals - NBA screwed Kings 2018 NFC Championship Game - NFL screwed Saints Also they rigged the 1985 NBA draft to get Ewing on the Knicks as well as the 2003 NBA draft to get Lebron on the Cavs. 17 Award Share ...
Зу ago The 2013 Daytona 500 qualifying session. NASCAR fudged numbers to get Danica Patrick the pole for the race. - 17 Award Share ... VTCHannibal Зу ago A lot of nascar races are questionable. Its been a while since Ive followed the sport so | forget exactly which examples, but one I remember the best is the 2001 Pepsi 400 at Daytona. For those not familiar, this was Nascars first return to Daytona aftet the death of Dale Sr. Jr would dominate that race, leading 116/160 laps which is crazy for that type of racing. The thing about
000-000-000yea Зу ago 2020 AFC Finals: They wanted Mahomes vs Brady, and they let KC get away with holding down the WR's. Of course in the super bowl that was no beuno and KC got their ass kicked. 15 Award Share ...
groovy604 Зу ago The Superbowl in the mid 2000's where the Steelers were cheating. III never forget the sight of the guy down on the ground on the one yard line, pushing the ball over the line directly infront of the camera and they said it was good. | stopped.watching football after that nonsense. Then the Fifa scandal, Gary Bettman being a biased prick, Olympic scandals.. IMO all sports are rigged because they are cash cows. - 14 Award Share ...
Зу ago Michigan Vs Ohio State 2016, No. 2 Vs No. 3, And the refs hand the game to OSU. 12 Award Share ... + 3 more replies
lastcallface Зу ago The NBA totally rigged the 2 Lakers Kings series in early 2000s. They wanted the superstars, Kobe and Shaq, in the final, and LA was a bigger market than Sacremento And I say that as a Lakers fan. 6 Award Share ...
Зу ago Any Mayweather VS Insert not champion level boxer fight 5 Award Share ...
NotYujiroTakahashi Зу ago Jake Paul VS Tyron Woodley. Tyron could've finished off Jake but instead ran away from Jake the entire fight. Also Paul VS Askren was definitely staged. - 4 Award Share ...
Much_Committee_9355 Зу ago Brazil X France 2006 World Cup Quarter Finals, never seen such an low effort by an team as talented 3 Award Share ...
SniffleBot Зу ago What about the 1978 semifinal between Argentina and Peru? Peru had been the upstart of that tournament, and on paper looked like it could take down mighty Argentina. But they played their worst game and missed two penalties (?), allowing Argentina to advance to the final and beat the Netherlands for its first ever World Cup. Then, two weeks later, a huge shipment of Argentinian wheat and other food aid is delivered to Peru. No coincidence there ... 3 Award Share ...
Chiraiderhawk Зу ago I'm a Raider fan and will go to my grave saying the Tuck Rule game in January, 2002 was rigged. The NFL wanted the Pats in the Super Bowl that year because of 09/11. There was a rule but it was not properly applied when Brady fumbled. 3 Award Share ...
Jim105 Зу ago Mike Tyson VS Peter McNeeley in 1995. I know so many people that paid for the full pay-per-view special. 2 Award Share ... BloodAngel85 Зу ago Was that the fight that lasted all of 5 minutes that was hyped up for months? 3 Award Share ...
Yeetmaister420 Зу ago Dinamo Zagrab VS Olympic Lyon in the 2011-2012 Champions League. Lyon was way behind Ajax and needed a 7-1 away win in order to get through to the next round. The match ended 7-1 after a 1-1 first half and one of the players winked at the opposition players during one of the goals. UEFA didn't think it was wrong on any level and the result stood, despite everyone knowing what truly happened. 2 Award Share ...
WashingtonDiecast Зу ago The season finale is of every NASCAR season since 2017. 2017- Martin Truex Jr, racing for a small team, dominates and wins. 2018- Joey Logan's wins the damn war 2019- Kyle Busch wins after tussles with Aric Almirola and Garrett Smithley in the playoffs 2020-NASCAR's face of the future Chase Elliott drives through the entire field to win. Convinces fans the playoff system is good after the Harvick fiasco at Martinsville 2021- Kyle Larson wins in his return to nascar. I also think that since heading to Phoenix Raceway for the championship NASCAR has given extra horsepower to the championship
JohnnyBrillcream Зу ago 1972 Olympic Basketball Final. 42 Award Share ... ProjectShadow316 Зу ago IIRC, wasn't there some bullshit call on the inbound where someone on the defense had to back up, which allowed the inbounds pass to go the full length of the court? If that's the same game, to this day, no one from the US has received their silver medal because they absolutely refuse to. 17 Award Share ...

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