Are professional sports games "rigged"?

[milestogo]

18 votes, 2 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	No, its all about the players and their skills
	9 (50%)
	Yes, its money-making entertainment in a capitalist society
	6 (33%)
	OTHER
	3 (17%)
	2 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[brooklynite]

1. What basis do you have for raising this question?

[zaj]

2. Wrestling is scripted...

But everything else that I'm aware of is not. The ru es are tuned to favor offense now in basketball and football. But that's not rigged.

[MiniMe]

14. I think Professional Wrestling is

I don't think amatuer wrestling is

[zaj]

15. True

[NurseJackie]

3. Which one/s did you have in mind?

What are your specific concerns?

[uponit7771]

4. No, but a 1 to 10 penalty ration in nearly 1 quarter of a game makes it ***LOOK*** like they're ...

... rigged.

The officiating was horrid last night, it was very lopsided

[DeminPennswoods]

7. Betting no one at NFL HQ was unhappy with the result!

43 yr old qb thought to be washed up, no longer wanted by team he lead to 6 titles, leads new team to NFL championship on their home field. Doesn't get much better than that, does it?

[uponit7771]

10. +1, it makes for a good story but the first half of the game had a huge * by it, the second half....

.... was a show of why the offensive line is just as important as a 3432367645 million dollar quarterback

[ornotna]

9. That happens

When the playing is lopsided. The Bucs D dominated the Chiefs.

[uponit7771]

13. No it doesn't, the playing can be lopsided and the officiating be fair. Last night the officiating

... in the first half was overtly not fair at all all, including the ratio ... that doesn't happen in professional sports.

The PI penalties were gob smacking, its like the refs didn't understand the rules for PI during an uncatchable pass cause they called it wrong multiple times.

[Mike 03]

5. Generally, I don't think so

There have been isolated scandals. Some that come to mind:

Referees in international soccer
Tennis and badminton doubles teams deliberately losing (caught due to betting patterns)
Allegations in boxing

The question is so broad.

[Chainfire]

6. Yep, the scoreboards are all rigged.

Just last night, I am pretty sure that was a "fake" Tom Brady throwing the football. He refused to produce his birth certificate. Everybody knows it is statistically impossible for KC to lose that badly. OAN is running a six hour documentary as absolute proof that the Super Bowl was a fraud.

The fans should have stormed the field and attacked the refs to change the results!

[brewens]

8. I wouldn't be surprised if mob types owned an official or two for a time over the years,

but not usually. If they had one it could be pretty subtle. If you just asked them to maybe throw flags to stop two drives during games would be enough to make a killing against the spread over a season.

[theneworiginal]

18. NBA refs got caught.

They would call bogus fouls early in the period and it would force star players to get benched or the other team would get extra free throws. Since it was not done at crunch time, it was not as noticeable, but it had a huge effect on the outcome anyway. Basketball games rely on officiating way too much. Bettors knew it and paid refs to fix games.

[soothsayer]

11. Well it's classified as "sports entertainment" along wit pro wrestling and roller derby

FWIW

[milestogo]

12. Playoff games - I've always had the sense that the networks want there to be as many games

as possible. They want the NBA playoffs and the World Series to take as long as possible. And often that's what happens.

[BGBD]

16. No

But there are players who get calls their way much more often. Brady has benefitted from friendly calls for years.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

17. Another

Another was Greg Maddux. It was ridiculous the strike calls he got on the outside part of the plate.