A WILD PREDICTION about the SPORTS WORLD

by the Agony of Da Feet Tuesday, Feb. 05, 2002 at 4:52 AM

My little wild prediction...

I predict that some people will start suggesting in next few days that the Super Bowl was deliberately fixed for the Patriots to win--all as part of the propaganda for America's New Terror War.

And I am not talking about leftist or Indymedia type of people, who have already been (half-Jokingly) suggesting this idea on the Newswire.

I am talking about maintream people who will float this as a rumor. This in turn will cause the mainstream (sports) media outlets like ESPN or CNN/SI to pick up the story and dismiss it as wild conspiracy theory.

I make this prediction first because the Patriots were something like 14 points underdogs, and not only staged one of the greatest upsets in Super Bowl history (as one CNN achor put it) but also did so in a dramatic "Hollywood-style" ending.

Moreover, something kind of similar to this scenario has already happened. After race car drive Dale Earnhardt was killed in a car crash last year, his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. later won the first race subsequently staged at the same race course his father was killed at.

This caused many fans--and even other race car drivers--to suggest that the race was fixed for Dale Jr. to win, for sentimental reasons.

The mainstream media picked up on this story, and of course were indignant at such a insinuation. Nothing was ever proven however.

Another analogous similar example is Cal Ripken Jr. homering in his last All-Star game appearance last year. Some people suggested that the pitcher deliberately "grooved one" to Cal in order to let him hit a homerun. Indeed, the pitcher made a postgame joke that he "gave Cal a retirement present" with that pitch--thus further fueling conspiracy theorizing. And again the Media was indignant and quick to discredit the story.

I could be dead wrong. On the other hand, I could be right... Just wait and see..

Original: A WILD PREDICTION about the SPORTS WORLD