Aboard the mothership, we have some serious conspiracy theorists, headed by our two fearless leaders, Scott Crosby and that other kid. Some will call them “too woke,” but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having your head in the clouds. America was built solely around two things: sports and conspiracy theories. In an effort to better understand the brain of Scott Crosby and this great Nation that we live in, I decided to blog about my top 5 favorite sports conspiracies and asked the team to vote on which ones they thought were real and which were fake.
5. Jordan Flu Game
The 1997 NBA finals are tied at 2-2. The Bulls are taking on the Jazz in a crucial Game 5 and, lo and behold, Michael Jordan has the flu. Will he play? How effective will he be? Well, the answer is that Jordan dropped a ridiculous 38 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and recorded 3 steals en route to a 90-88 win over the Utah Jazz, all while “almost passing out.” There are conflicting reports from Jordan camp, as his personal trainer told ESPN in a 2013 interview that he wasn’t suffering from the flu but rather from food poisoning the night before.
Here’s the thing about Michael Jordan: He liked to party, and he had a gambling addiction. Because the Jordan camp was unclear with its story, the natural conclusion from members of the media and conspiracy theorists was to ignore Jordan’s personal history and decide that he definitely wasn’t just super hungover from the night before, right?
Those who believe Jordan had the flu: Scott, Tucker, Jeff
Those who believe Jordan was hungover: Ryan, Alex, Austin
4. The Bloody Sock
Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS was highly anticipated. The question that lay before the Nation was whether the Boston Red Sox’s dream comeback against a stacked Yankees team would be a reality, or whether it would simply be a cute story with the same ending that Red Sox fans had endured for the last 86 baseball seasons. Another pressing question on the mind of Red Sox fans was the health of 6x All-Star Curt Schilling, who was slated to start Game 6 of the series but had been sidelined earlier in the season with a ruptured achilles tendon. In the middle of the game, his achilles injury flared up again, leaving his sock soaked in blood for all the world to see.
Curt Schilling is a very controversial man--whether it’s because of what he tweets or the reality behind his bloody sock in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS. A lot of members of the media, including Felger and Mazz’s Tony Massarotti, believe that the “bloody sock” has been grossly overplayed by Red Sox management and media. Frankly, that’s pretty tough to dispute at this point. The Boston Red Sox have the budget for band-aids in their dugout, so it’s pretty ridiculous that they couldn’t slap one of those bad boys on the guy’s ankle. Some people, mainly New Yorkers, have taken the wokeness of Schillings historic performances a little too far, as it’s a popular conspiracy that he really just put ketchup in his sock and that he wasn’t hurt at all. How stupid would you have to be to believe that someone put a packet of ketchup in his sock and then got an entire operation of probably 100 Red Sox personnel to lie completely?
Those who believe Schilling was actually hurt: Austin, Tucker, Ryan, Scott, Jeff, Alex
Those who believe the bloody sock was somehow faked: N/A
3. Babe Ruth's “Called Shot”
Aside: Recently, in private conversations, Scott Crosby has compared Babe Ruth, 7x World Series Champion, to 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who has started 7 total NFL games.
In the fifth inning of Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, Babe Ruth, arguably the most iconic figure in the history of sports, stepped to the plate with nobody on and the ballgame knotted up at 4 runs apiece. Before notching his final World Series home run, Ruth pointed to the bleachers in center field, gesturing where he planned on hitting one into the stands. And on the very next pitch, he did, blasting a curveball 440 feet to center field, allegedly exactly where he had pointed his bat. Or did he?
In my opinion, this conspiracy theory proves just how powerful spoken word can be. As it turns out, a large majority of Americans believe in this conspiracy theory, and it is almost unanimously accepted as fact in and around baseball circles, even though it’s nothing more than a myth run out of hand. In reality, Ruth never did point to centerfield and call his shot, as he admitted later in his life during a conversation with the pitcher he hit it off, saying that it “made a hell of a story, didn't it?” Even still, the story remains as one of the greatest testaments to the greatness of Babe Ruth.
Those who believe Babe called his shot: Austin, Scott, Tucker, Alex
Those who believe it’s just a legend: Ryan, Jeff
2. NBA Tanking
Some of these conspiracies have merit, while others clearly don’t (see the Brady Conspiracy below). As long as you aren’t a weirdo Green-Teamer, I’d imagine you’ve pretty much accepted that NBA teams tank, and you’re pretty much okay with it. In a sport where all of the talent truly is at the top of the draft and a single all-world talent is all you need to be a contender, you would be doing your fans a disservice by not tanking. In an NBA rebuild, if you’re not tanking, you’re not trying.
Take the 2014 Boston Celtics for example. That team was horrible and had no chance of making the playoffs, so they actively sought to lose games and competed with six or seven other teams to see just how bad they could get. Unfortunately for the aforementioned Green-Teamers, the Celtics were only bad enough to land the sixth pick in the draft and wound up with Marcus Smart instead of Andrew Wiggins or Joel Embiid.
Those who Believe NBA teams tank: Ryan, Austin, Scott, Tucker, Alex
Those who believe NBA teams never tank: Jeff
1. The Brady Conspiracy
The newest conspiracy on our list is bizarrely also the most widely accepted, especially among members of the T&L team. It’s based entirely around the idea that Tom Brady was threatened by the presence of Jimmy Garoppolo, who had played a brilliant six quarters of football one year before his trade. That’s right--the quarterback who had won 5 Super Bowls and 3 MVPs and was widely considered to be the greatest quarterback of all-time was threatened by Jimmy Garoppolo. Oh, and the coach in question once resigned from a head coaching position with the Jets a couple days after taking the job because they wouldn’t give him complete sway over player personnel. So it makes total sense that he was happily strong-armed into trading a player without any real pushback, and then he signed up to coach the next year. Definitely.
More to come on the Brady conspiracy in a later blog.
Those who believe Brady forced out Jimmy Garoppolo: Tucker, Scott
Those who aren’t stupid: Ryan, Alex, Jeff, Austin
We here at T&L apologize for our poor voter turnout.
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