Two, in particular, interested me. He started by announcing the list I am about to comment on, his 10 All-Time Top Fixed single sporting events. Series and seasons will get their own list, and I'll comment on that as well.
It'll also motivate me -- eventually!! -- to give my own list.
But this is Brian Tuohy's list of the top ten all-time fixed single sporting events for, as he refers to it, any "business purpose":
#10: The Phantom Punch Fight: Ali-Liston II, May 25, 1965.
Probably on a short list of boxing matches most boxing observers would state as fixed, no one is still certain if Sonny Liston actually was hit with a punch in the first round of the heavyweight title rematch, or whether he took another dive on the behest of the Mob or whatever.
#9: Jeter Says Goodbye With A Scripted Game-Winner: September 25, 2014.
OH COME ON... And that's exactly what I said to it on this blog...
And, unlike many MANY old posts, the video still works!!!
#8: The National Religion Era and the War on Terror Marry: Super Bowl XXXVI, February 3, 2002.
One of the three major events in 2002 which turned me into convinced that most major sporting events are rigged.
I posted these as three of my first ten blog posts on this blog. This one, the first of the Tom Brady Six, was my seventh post on the blog -- and says more than I care to type here.
When I get around to posting my list of this, this will be far higher than #8.
#7: The Homophobe Gets His To Prevent Mayweather From Losing: Pacquiao-Taylor I, June 9, 2012.
A fight so fixed, the sanctioning body had to convene a panel to tell you it was fixed by stating Pacquiao had easily won.
Here are:
- My initial comments on learning of the fix.
- My own personal viewing and scorecard of the fight.
- And the official scorecards.
#6: Brian calls this the worst-called game in the history of baseball: NLCS Game 5, October 12, 1997.
1975-2000, Baseball America voted this the third worst-called game of the era. Brian Tuohy does not know #1 or #2. And I don't think the magazine ever published online the list, so I don't know either.
It was the impetus on which Florida won it's first World Series.
#5: Kobe Says Goodbye, Also With A Rigged Ballhog-Fest: April 13, 2016
Kobe drops 60 in his last game, and Tuohy notes Kobe's fans drop over $2,000,000 for Kobe merchandise in the last day of his playing career!!
#4: Dale Jr. Wins One For The Gipper: The Pepsi 400, July 7, 2001.
Five months after his father was tragically killed on the same track, NECKCAR came back for the summer race at Daytona, and it seemed all too coincidental when Dale Earnhardt Jr. won it.
#3: The Merger Is Validated: Super Bowl III, January 12, 1969.
Now even many of the players said the game was rigged.
No surprise. Two Packer victories in the first two Super Bowls would've made a very tough sell for the NFL to absorb the AFL, forming the league you know of today.
So they arrange Broadway Joe Namath to win one to basically put the AFL on even keel. There's a reason for The Guarantee. Namath was involved with the Mob, and they told him what was up, through common business interests in his restaurant in New York.
#2: The Greatest Tragedy in Sports, Game 6, 2002 NBA Western Conference Finals: May 31, 2002.
The end of the Sacramento Kings as a going concern. NFLRanking's video list now gives 54 minutes of service to the most-rigged game in the history of the NBA. (Yes, even more than Ballhog's offensive foul to lead to Bittersweet Symphony, because at least there was the illusion Utah could win.)
The third of the three expository events which led me to believe all games which could be meaningfully rigged are. These are my comments from my ninth blog post on the blog, which go into the NBA in general, but eventually get to the 2002 Western Finals.
So what does Brian Tuohy believe, above all of these, is the greatest fixed single sporting event in his knowledge of the history of sports??
#1: The Post-Katrina March Begins: Monday Night Football, September 25, 2006.
You know the story with the blocked punt and the first game back in the Superdome after a year out and all that stuff. Brian even admits it's an odd choice (and it wouldn't make my Top Ten).
But what it DOES DO is it represents a common NFL meme of the National Religion Era. And it goes to the likes of what us video-game fans remember from Final Fantasy X: Sin (the main villain of the game) can destroy everything in your town... "But at least we still have blitz..." (Blitzball, the main sport in Spira.)
And that's exactly on display here. Maybe it's not there for the one specific game, but for the meme it launched.
So that's his Top Ten. Probably means I should start on mine...
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