Skip Bayless Claims 2001-2002 Season New England-Oakland Playoff Game Was Fixed by NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue

By: dwil

The following conversation took place this morning during the second down portion of 1st and 10, a group of debate segments aired daily on the ESPN morning show, First Take. Jay Crawford (JC) is the moderator. The debaters are former Oakland Raiders fullback Jon Ritchie (JR) and segment regular Skip Bayless (SB):

JC: Skip, is basketball the easiest game to fix?

SB: Basketball is easily, the easiest game to fix. Now let me turn the tables and ask John [Ritchie, former NFL fullback], former NFL player, did you ever participate in a pro football game in which you suspected that the outcome has somehow been manipulated?

JR: (Laughs and looks at moderator Jay Crawford…)

JC: That’s tricky territory. It’s a loaded question but answer as honestly as you can.

JR: I, uh,  absolutely felt as though,uh, we were eliminated from the playoffs not because of our own doing but because a call went the other way. The call was properly made, uh, my offensive huddle was

JC: Made on the field….

JR: We were on the field ready to play andsat there for what seemed like minute after minute – what is the hold up here? Why don’t we just go win the game? We’re gonna run the clock out. And, uh, for what ever reason -

SB: The game was over.

JR: (Nods head, yes) The review was lasting and lasting and lasting. It came back and it was incredu- we were incredulous, amazed at the fact that they [the New England Patriots] were getting the ball back. It seemed impossible. And then of course, we always felt in Oakland as though everyone was kind of up in arms against us; the folks at league headquarters.

JC: Why? Was it the white horse against the dark horse kind of thing with Tom Brady?

JR: We thought maybe there some, well — yes some of that. But there was a bias against the Raiders and there were some who felt like hey this was 2001. We just had this national catastrophe in 9/11 and it’s a great thing to have a red, white, and blue team — you know there – it got that extreme.

JC: Do you believe – I mean those are conspiracy theories…

JR: …other than the referees who were being truthful and honest – do I believe that?

JC: Do you believe those — do you believe that in their hearts they made the call that they felt was right?

JR: Ahhh ——— the referees?

JC: Yeah.

JR: I believe they knew that we should have won that game. I believe that someone else dictated that that call go the other way.

JC: Wow.

SB: Okay lemme back him up. I was at that game in the press box I was working in the Bay Area at the time. And you can dismiss this as classic Raider Al Davis paranoia but Al later told me that he had it on good authority that the league commissioner, then commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, actually participated via phone from New York during the replay review which did go on suspiciously long. I don’t remember what the exact —– it was like four or five minutes. It was excessively long to the point I was dumbfounded by call. I think you [Ritchie and the Raiders] got absolutely robbed. And league officials spent the next week lecturing reporters about how the rule book said something that I don’t think it said at all. They tried to rewrite the tuck rule by saying that once you tuck (brings arm forward in a throwing motion to tucking the ball), I’m sorry, once you pump and bring the ball back to the set position you can’t fumble. That’s not what I think that the rule book says.

JC: Wow!

JR: Yeah.

SB: The rule book says that if you start to throw and you think twice about it and you try to bring the ball back down and you lose control of the ball  it’s not a fumble it’s just an incomplete pass. That’s the tuck rule. Tom Brady had finished tucking. He has successfully thought twice, brought the ball back down cause he almost threw it cause he went back to set position. He had finished — and it was a fumble! It was a strip fumble. The game is o-ver. There is no question the game is going to be over if it’s called.

JC: And NFL history rewritten.

SB: You got that right.

JC: Wow! All right. That’s it for a very heavy second down.

Earlier in the morning Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic of the Mike and Mike in the Morning radio-television simulcast were chastising listeners and viewers who averred that they felt NFL and NBA games were fixed. The host pair went on about players making millions of dollar and people go to prison for game fixing, so why would anyone do such a thing – athletes or game officials. One e-mailer told Golic “stop being a jerk” an went on to say he was naive for thinking that games weren’t fixed. Golic became irate and challenged the e-mailer or anyone to explain how games could be fixed. Greenberg joined in with Golic to berate the person who e-mailed the pair. Greenberg said that, in explanation the e-mailer will say it’s “them” who fix games, that the e-mailer would fail to provide an explanation containing substantive information, that: “You know what he’ll say! He’ll say it’s THEM!” That’s what he’ll do!”

I wrote the pair an e-mail concisely explaining how NBA and MLB games are fixed. I part it read:

Game totals are more easily manipulated than are point spreads. In the NBA when referees call fouls, points are scored while the clock stops. To make a game go over the combined point total for a game as given by Las Vegas a referee need only call an inordinate amount of fouls forcing the clock to stop and for free throws to be shot and made. Conversely, if fewer than normal fouls are called, the clock will run and fewer points are scored.

In MLB a too tight strike zone favors hitters and will cause more runs to be scored. an expanded strike zone favors pitchers and fewer runs will be scored.

The logic here is so simple that it is nearly beautiful in its simplicity. You [Greenberg and Golic] will probably not read this e-mail because it makes too much sense and easily refutes your claims that games are, indeed, not fixed.

Little did the pair know that a little more than one hour later a former football player and former reporter would claim an NFL playoff game was fixed and tell in detail how it was fixed.

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1 Comment

  1. I have to disagree w/ Mr. Jon Ritchie. I do not believe the Pats won because of the red, white & blue cause. I still believe that the NFL is out to screw Al & his teams for the L.A. move. I was pleasantly surprised to see the Raiders make it to the Superbowl in `03, but not surprised to see them beaten. There will be no redemption until Al is worm food, w/ no disrespect to Al.

    Comment by Brad on December 8, 2009

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