The 5 Biggest NFL Conspiracy Theories of All Time By Joseph Slisz March 25, 2014 1:27 am 
From the day that the game of football was created, conspiracy theorists have always tried to explain crazy outcomes that no one could have ever predicted. Whether it was from one of the game's first Super Bowls, Super Bowl 3, when Joe Namath made his famous guarantee leading to the AFL's New York Jets' stunning victory over the NFL's Baltimore Colts, all the way to today, where the Denver Broncos were blown out by the Seattle Seahawks "on purpose", to keep Peyton Manning from potentially going out on top so they can continue to be dominate for years to come. So without further ado, the top five NFL conspiracy theories of all-time.5. Brett Favre takes a dive to allow Michael Strahan to break the sack record In the final game of the 2001 NFL season, Michael Strahan was one sack away from breaking former New York Jets Mark Gastineau's sack record of 22 sacks set in 1984. On the record breaking play against the Green Bay Packers, Michael Strahan broke free of Green Bay Packers right tackle Mark Tauscher, and had a free run at quarterback Brett Favre. However, before Strahan got there, Brett Favre slid down and Michael Strahan jumped on an already down Favre for an easy sack, setting the new NFL record with 22.5 sacks. After the play, there was a ceremony to congratulate Michael Strahan and during this ceremony, many New York Giants players were seen patting Brett Favre on the helmet, almost to say 'thanks'. Many fans were outraged, creating this conspiracy theory. However, while this conspiracy theory takes No. 5 on our list, many players do let players they respect, who are close to a record, get that record because they have such respect for them and feel as if that player deserves it. Also, the game wasn't over at that point so who's to say Michael Strahan wouldn't have gotten another sack?4. The Seattle Seahawks give the Dallas Cowboys a slick ball in the 2006 NFL Playoffs In the 2006 NFL playoffs, the Dallas Cowboys were on the one yard line in the final seconds of the game. Down 21-20, Martin Gramatica, kicker for the Dallas Cowboys, had an extra-point like chip shot to advance his team. However, during the play, quarterback and holder, Tony Romo, dropped the ball on the hold, attempting to pick the ball up and try and run for the end zone, only to be stopped short by the Seattle Seahawks, giving Seattle the win. However, much was thought of the ball on the final play, called the "shiny K ball" that was inserted into the game by Seattle "on purpose" because the ball was extra slick which would give Tony Romo a hard time holding the ball. A few years after the game, center L.P. Ladoucer, who was the last person to hold the football before Tony Romo dropped it had this to say, "Looking back, it was obvious they switched the ball, back then, teams did that at away games. I think they did the same thing in Buffalo the year after. They had some really shiny footballs. After they did the K ball rule, you weren’t allowed to brush them as much. Now you’re able to brush them a lot better. I think they allowed five minutes back then, and they never got to ball No. 3 or 4. Now they can. It was shiny. At the same time, we’re professionals and we’re supposed to put the ball down, snap it right and do all that stuff." Regardless of whether Tony Romo dropped the ball or the Seattle Seahawks did plant an extra slippery ball in the game, no one could have predicted the outcome to this game.3. Super Bowl 47: The Blackout In Super Bowl 47, the Baltimore Ravens squared up against the San Francisco 49ers in a battle of the Harbaughs, the first time brother head coach's faced off in a Super Bowl. However, in the beginning of the second half, just after Baltimore Ravens kick returner Jacoby Jones took a 108-yard kick returner to the end zone giving the Ravens a comanding 28-6 lead making the game look like a blowout, the light's went out in the Superdome, leading to a 34-minute game delay. When the game finally resumed, the momentum clearly shifted to the 49ers side when the San Francisco 49ers scored 17 unanswered points to come back and make the Super Bowl a game again. While the Baltimore Ravens did end up winning 34-31, many people were outraged, saying NFL commissioner Roger Goodell ordered the power-outage to prevent ratings from declining in the second half of the game.One of the people who supported this theory was Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs, after the game in an interview with ESPN's Lisa Salters saying, "I was like Vegas, parlor tricks, you know what I mean? I was like ahh, Roger Goodell, he never stops, he always has something up his sleeve. He just couldn’t let us have this one in a landside huh?” Come to think of it, it was pretty bizzarre how the power magically went out in the most important game of the year when the NFL is is a billion dollar company, but regardless, this one takes No. 3 on our list for this reason.2. New England Patriots' Spygate Scandal In the beginning of the 2007 NFL season, the New England Patriots were accussed of video taping the New York Jets' defensive signals to give the New England Patriots an unfair advantage. However, after the tape was recovered by the NFL confirming this allegation to be true, the New England Patriots came out and said that the videotaping of the Jets' signals was the only incident that had happened with that. While you may be thinking 'Ok whatever', the conspiracy theory comes in when several teams went on record in years prior, accussing the New England Patriots of doing just this with several teams' signals, dating back all the way to 2000, the year before the Patriots won three Super Bowl's in four years. While the only tape recovered by the NFL was the New York Jets tape, the New England Patriots were accussed of cheating and draft picks were taken away from them. However, if other tapes were recovered, Super Bowls were planned on being stripped from the Patriots, making a situation that the NFL would take years to recover from. After hearing about this, people started to wonder, what happened to the other tapes? That's where the conspiracy part comes in. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was said to have destroyed the rest of the tapes that weren't yet recovered by the NFL from the New England Patriots, to prevent this situation from getting out of hand. While this can't be proven correct, many firmly believe that this was the case.1. The Oakland Raiders were Prevented from Trading for John Elway in the 1983 NFL Draft In the 1983 NFL Draft, which many regard as the greatest NFL draft of all time and the draft that saved the NFL which featured hall of fame quarterbacks such as Jim Kelly, Dan Marino, and the topic of this conspiracy, John Elway, Los Angeles Raiders owner Al Davis accussed the NFL of conspiring against his team and preventing them from trading for quarterback John Elway. Coming out of Stanford, quarterback John Elway was considered the greatest quarterback prospect to ever live. However, with the Baltimore Colts holding the number one pick, Elway refused to play for them because they were rumored to be moving to Indianapolis and John Elway wanted no part in that. To make sure he didn't wind up in Baltimore, John Elway said he would choose baseball over football and go play for the New York Yankees if Baltimore drafted him No. 1 overall. During the draft, the Baltimore Colts did indeed select John Elway with the first overall pick with the intention to trade him. The Baltimore Colts had a large asking price of a multiple picks, including one of them being in the top five selections. While many teams were trying to trade with the Colts, the Raiders owner, Al Davis, really wanted John Elway due to his athleticism and his ability to throw the deep ball. Al Davis had a trade set up to get the draft picks needed to fulfill the Baltimore Colts asking price when they were about to trade hall of fame offensive lineman Howie Long in order to get a spot in the top five picks to be used as part of the deal. However, the deal fell through at the last second, which prevented the Los Angeles Raiders from trading for quarterback John Elway. Afterwards, Al Davis accussed the NFL commissioner Pete Roselle for conspiring against the Raiders and preventing the trade. This came about because, at the time, Al Davis and the Los Angeles Raiders were in a law suit against the NFL and nobody who worked for the NFL, including commissioner Pete Roselle, wanted to see the Los Angeles Raiders trade for arguably the best quarterback of all time.While conspiracy theories have always been around and will always be around, many of the theories will be crazy aquisitions by people either upset with an outcome or just looking to start something. However, every once in a while, like the case with Al Davis in the 1983 NFL Draft, those crazy acquisitions might actually be spot on. http://www.footballnation.com/content/the-5-biggest-nfl-conspiracy-theories-all-time/28918/
