Conspiracy Theories

I will admit, I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist. Many people believe the moon landing was staged or that JFK's assassination was an inside job, but I'm not one of them. I do, however, think that our sports outcomes are not always as spontaneous as we might think they are. These days, no sport is immune from scrutiny, and with the vast amount of technology we have available to us we can overanalyze every single play, comment, and decision until we start to believe it was all prearranged. Couple that with the appeal of social media, and conspiracy theories in the world of sport are bound to emerge.

I will also admit that I think the outcome of the NASCAR race in Richmond, and subsequently, the "Chase" was manipulated by Clint Bowyer and others. NASCAR evidently felt the same way, as they assigned some significant penalties Monday. But I also think this is nothing new when it comes to motorsports.

When Scott Dixon viewed the replay of his actions on pit lane in Sonoma, his immediate reaction was to think that the pit crew member impeded his path intentionally. Likewise, he felt Will Power may have purposefully swerved in front of him on a restart at Baltimore, causing him to crash and affecting his championship chances. Townsend Bell addressed the issue of "gamesmanship" on NBC Sports Network prior to the Baltimore race, alleging that pit crew members do indeed try to make it difficult for others to have clean stops. So NASCAR, you are not alone in your conspiracy theories.

Formula One practically invented "team orders." Not being more than a casual observer of F-1, I was surprised when I watched the movie Senna at how political the sport is. It astonishes me that crew chiefs, owners, and drivers would put themselves at such risk in a dangerous activity just to help a teammate secure a win or a championship. Is it worth it? What would have happened, for example, had Power's pit crew member been seriously injured? Or if Clint Bowyer had slammed into the wall at over 100mph? Are racing teams really trying to win at all costs? Do we need to be reminded just how dangerous racing truly is?

We should expect some conspiring in motorsports, which has teammates like many other sports. Teammates look out for one another, support one another, and in the case of racing, they share data, resources, and staff. If you really want to get rid of possible race manipulation, then you should only allow single-car operations. But even that may not fix the problem, because if you are to believe some of the crazies after the Indy 500, Dario Franchitti crashed on purpose so that his friend, not his teammate, would win the race (personally, I think that's the most ridiculous of all conspiracy theories).

Furthermore, if you want know if races are being manipulated, look to the sponsors. Is it merely coincidence that Ryan Hunter-Reay has put his car into DHL Victory Circle at Milwaukee the past two years? (I don't really believe this was prearranged but it's just one example of a coincidence.)  Money talks, we all know that. And sponsors like winners. So do fans.

Fans will probably be suspicious of anything Will Power does in the remaining races. He has admitted that his charge now is to help Helio win a championship, and we know Penske wants that badly. We have learned from the Richmond NASCAR race that teams can be creative in how they help their drivers win. So for better or worse, every move Power makes will be scrutinized--on television, radio, and social media. That's just the world we live in now.

Perhaps we are so suspicious of sports outcomes because they have been manipulated before. The 1919 Chicago Black Sox scandal is arguably the most famous of all fixed events, when eight baseball players took bribes from gamblers and agreed to lose games. Unfortunately for these players, they were promised a payoff but never actually received it. Nevertheless, they were eventually banned from professional baseball (for an excellent summary of this scandal, read Eight Men Out by Eliot Asinof, or see the as-excellent movie). In a more recent case, NBA referee Tim Donaghy admitted officials played favorites when making calls, so much so that he was able to bet which teams would win based on who the referees were. These cases cast doubts that all games, players, and officials are on the up-and-up.

Television coverage also manipulates outcomes. "TV timeouts" can break up momentum, or give hurting players a little more rest before re-entering a game. And then there's the one I am beginning to believe more and more, that if a team is getting blown out, something must be done to make the game closer because otherwise ratings will suffer. So are we, the fans, just the innocent bystanders in one big, sports conspiracy? Who knows? Would we stop watching even if we were?

IndyCar and NASCAR have received a good deal of criticism over the past few weeks, but both entities took swift action to try and reduce intentional, unethical manipulation of race outcomes. Meanwhile, the NFL has announced they will try to crack down on teams that intentionally fake injuries, and the NBA penalized numerous players for "flopping" last season. So evidently conspiracy and collusion will not be tolerated in sports. Are these just words to calm down fan outcries? I'll leave that for the conspiracy theorists.