Wasn't there documents that were to be released 50 yrs after?
I once lived next to a retired bodyguard that supossely was involved in guarding the President during the bay of pigs back in 1961/He was quite emphatic about one brabch being vocal about not liking what was happening, and not wanting "us" to be there
I understand sports conspericies , talk show hosts need and love it, increases ratings, same with politics
my team lost
Read 11/22/63 by Steven King best book about the assasinaion
97% of the documents have been released, the last group was in December, 2022. My own favorite books are History Will Prove Us Right, by Howard Willens and Case Closed by Gerald Posner. Especially the last chapters in the Willens book where he examines and totally debunks many of the conspiracy theories.
We hate to think that a young, charismatic and popular President could have been erased by a solitary loser like Oswald, but the evidence overwhelmingly points to that conclusion. Turf battles and coverups having to do with why Oswald was not more carefully watched, or even locked up, fuel the conspiracy theories and don't reflect well on the agencies involved. But one of the most witnessed, and even filmed, murders in history and nearly 60 years later only one coherent narrative has emerged.
A very nice read John...I've been officiating High School Football for 40 years and I've heard all the hoots and screams from fans and parents alike and I say to them come out and help us get better as you appear to have all the rules and game situations down cold and you'd better a natural fit....just say'in
2 entities that you most certainly do not want to tick off, are the CIA and the Chicago mob.
No air support at The Bay of Pigs. Andy Bobby going after mob guys who were partners with his old man running scotch, etc. over the Canadian border during Prohibition.
But Oswald tried to kill a federal judge before he shot at Kennedy. So perhaps he did act alone.
After decades, I think this speculation should disappear. But I doubt this will happen.
Stone's movie was so over the top it may have hit the Moon if astronauts did not.
At least "my" Celtics gave it a try. The Bruins folded like a cardboard suitcase.
I certainly don't think there's any pre-planned conspiracy before a game by officials or leagues, but anyone who doesn't think a referee or umpire's call can be influenced by a coach or manager during a game is naive. They're human...and can be intimidated or have favorites. It's part of sports.
Agree...however, that intimidation is much less effective the higher the level you go. There have been a few examples at the MLB level where just the opposite happens - the attempted intimidation can backfire. Particularly true with a handful of Major League umpires when they were part of Richie Phillips' union and were far too arrogant for their own good. Almost all of that is gone today...almost.
You put your finger on it, John. As did Scott. Some people would rather believe that their team or political figure lost, not because they were inferior to the other team or political opponent, but that someone with power, life a ref, wanted the other side to win. One of the main needs that humans have it feeling safe, and life being predictable, but there is a great deal of uncertainty in life.
But, although I am politically liberal and love talking about politics, I think that we should be dealing with sports, not politics.
Really good stuff, thank you for a fascinating read.
I participated in a number of Major League Umpire schools where Dale Scott was an instructor. Great guy, lots of fun and fine teacher. He's absolutely right in his answer to your question -why he thinks sports fans (and the public) enjoy bringing this kind of conspiracy stuff up. He's correct. However (there's always a "however" or "but"), let me add some reality that unfortunately adds credence to these theories: Arizona State point shaving vs. Oregon State in 1994 was the tipoff that alerted authorities and began the investigation that unearthed a huge point shaving scandal. There have been at least 20 other college basketball point shaving scandals since the 1950s. O.K., that's college, we're talking about the Celtics and Heat, not college. O.K., in 2007, Tim Donaghy, NBA referee, pleaded guilty to charges of betting on games he refereed in 2005-6 and 2006-7 seasons. This included his betting on games where his actions changed outcomes...including the NBA playoffs. Oh, more? How about Tim Peel, a longtime NHL referee caught on a hot mic saying he "...it wasn't much but I wanted to call a f*****g penalty on Nashville early"? Why? Who knows, but the NHL wasn't amused, and the guy was canned immediately. I could go on. Horse racing is notoriously shady - look what just happened to Bob Baffert, the winningest trainer in the sport recently. Baseball itself is not pure in this regard - Pete Rose is exhibit A.
So, my point is this - yeah, fans and the public can go completely overboard on the conspiracy theories - it happens a lot. However, the athletes and officials have provided plenty of sordid factual examples that make fans' collective imaginations run wild...it's not all bong pipes and hallucinations by the fans and public.
-Point shaving scandals, to my knowledge, involved players not officials except in Donaghy’s case.
-The Donaghy scandal was a huge black eye to all officials in all sports. To extrapolate that into conspiracies that it’s happening consistently in professional or college sports is disingenuous. Of course that’s how most conspiracies work, it happened once so now it’s prevalent.
The issue John and I discussed wasn’t that officials get blamed for a team’s loss, that’s been happening since the first official made a ruling. The problem as I see it, with social media and technology, it’s become a cottage industry to always blame someone/something and never acknowledge what many times is obvious...their team was beat.
It’s an extension of what’s happening in society today. I’m not getting political, but denying any responsibility and having a negative situation always someone else’s fault, or an organized conspiracy against them, is rampant everywhere.
Even when presented with evidence to the contrary.
That then explodes on social media to where a wrong, or perceived wrong call, is obviously a league wide organized effort to put the screws to a certain team or player...aka a conspiracy.
-One last thing, a pet peeve of mine.
Fans remember calls & rulings, correct the vast amount of time but occasionally not, against their team.
Rarely do they remember calls & rulings that went their way. Or they justify breaks because they were “owed it.”
They also have a tendency to forget about missed free throws, turnovers, errors, poor player or coach decisions, dropped balls, horrendous throws or passes, etc that had much more to do with the outcome than a actual or perceived missed call.
-Like I stated, officials know what they’re signing up for.
It’s the acceleration and normalization that any questionable decision by an official is proof there’s collusion between officials and/or the league. It’s not reality, and harmful to the sports industry as a whole.
Glad I didn't "extrapolate the Donaghy case into conspiracies that are happening consistently...", because as you said, that would be "disingenuous"...glad I dodged that little IED.
I agree with almost everything you said...almost. Particularly your point about society having a tendency today to deny personal responsibility. It's always someone else's fault. That's a trajectory change in this country that's not healthy.
My point, however - which maybe I didn't make as well as I should have - was that it only takes a handful of actual and factual examples for people to point to in an attempt to buttress their conspiracies. People are still talking about the Black Sox of 1919, for crying out loud. Rose's cheating was decades ago - it still keeps him out of the Hall of Fame. The Donaghy case was recent. Tim Peel's (NHL referee - an official) hot mic incident was 2009 - is fairly recent, certainly not ancient history. It doesn't take many, Dale, for people to believe what they'll believe. Not just fans, either - a lot of sportswriters and sports broadcasters, as well as the athletes and coaches themselves, are also participating in the grassy knoll thinking.
I was simply making the point that the few - actually very few - proven incidents turn into indelibly etched cheating tragedies that create memories like elephants and absolutely do contribute to conspiracy thinking. It's too bad, but it's true.
Video replay, while interrupting the flow of these games, goes a long way in eliminating game changing calls (for whatever reason) that could affect either team.
I would like to read the results of interviews with refs about whether they feel home venues have impact? Does anyone have the statistics on the number of fouls called on Arizona in Tucson when Lute Olson was coach, vs when the Cats were on the road? I seem to remember some pretty maddening foul differentials between UA and visitors in Tucson.
JFK wanted to dismantle the CIA, and he was killed to prevent that. JFK fired Dulles as CIA Chief following Bay of Pigs event. Also fired by JFK was CIA #2, Charles Cabell, who hated JFK. Charles brother, Earle Cabell, was mayor of Dallas at time. Earle responsible for no secret service in the Limo, behind Jackie & JFK. The Federal courthouse in Dallas now named after him. LBJ capstone was assigning Dulles as member of the Warren Commission, to investigate JFK murder.
It was likely the CIA. They are expert in "regime change" and knew that a dependable Democrat , LBJ, would be in charge after JFK. We know a lot more about the deceits of the CIA after the Russia Hoax and the coverup of the Biden family crimes.
Biden family crimes? How about your boy little donny trump? What are the alleged Biden crimes? We need some proof from you GOP party circus clowns when you say for sure the 2020 election was fixed. Keep voting for trump, and since your Beaver baseball has tanked, you might as well move to Florida. Take Wayne Tinkle with you before he signs another contract to lead the mens basketball team to the promised land. I predict two and done for Beaver baseball this week-end. Yeh Brian, you are right; Beavers wanted to lose two at the Pac-12 baseball tourney last week. They wanted to save their pitching so they could lose two more this week-end. OSU pee you, what ya gonna do when your over-hyped football team comes back to reality this year? Watch out for PSU Vikings coming to huge Reser this September! Huskies in Corvallis will stomp on your bandits with no trouble. See you in Autzen in November 2023 if your Beavers can make the bus trip to Eugene. Keep praying for a miracle Brian, with your boy trump going down in flames daily, and I hear the clock ticking. Proud to say I am ridin' with Biden through 2028. Maybe you GOP party circus clowns should switch to Ron Desanctimonius, who is so smart as to take on Disney in his state of Florida. He forgot that Disney was ready to build a small one billion dollar project that would have created lots of jobs. I know why many Beavers do not like the Disney corporation; bucky Beaver is not there, but Donald Duck is! GO DUCKS and DUMP TRUMP 2024.
‘Dark Camelot’ by NY Times’ Seymour Hersh, stated that JFK and RFK had decided to ask Governor Symington of Maryland to be Kennedy’s VP. But Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn from Texas and LBJ had meeting alone with JFK at his LA hotel right before/during convention. After this meeting LBJ came out as the VP nominee. RFK heard of the change and was very upset, strong dislike for LBJ. Hersh puts forward that Sam Rayburn/ LBJ had FBI files on JFK, maybe from FBI Director Hoover who was apparently LBJ’s next door neighbor in Washington DC. Files on JFK womanizing and an affair with a Dutch woman during WW2 who was probably a German spy. This is forwarded as why which got JFK kicked out of Navy intel and into PT boats. RFK treated LBJ poorly until JFK’s assassination. Bobby got his too later in ‘68 but that’s another conspiratorial discussion
The Kennedy assassination is as relevant today as the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand was when we were kids. It scarred our parents and gave them a universal piece of small talk that endures to this day. "Where were you when you heard?" Ask anyone over the age of 70, and they can tell you where they were and the color of their shoelaces. 2/3 of Congress can tell you all about it. But to anyone 35 or under, it's yet another topic old people love to drone on about. Watching the towers fall on 9/11 in first grade and spending the next decade performing regular active-shooter drills instead of thinking about recess tends to focus the mind elsewhere.
As for the event itself, it has a lot more in common with Jan 6 than anything else. There's an excellent book out there called 'Dallas 1963' by Bill Minutaglio, Steven L. Davis that goes into pretty good detail about the political fever swamp that was Dallas that year. Just as they did in the days and weeks after Jan 6, the right-wingers in media and political office ran away as quickly as they could from the very thing they stoked.
Oswald did it. He acted "alone" but certainly had a bunch of encouragement. Same as James Earl Ray. Same as Timothy McVeigh. Same as Eric Rudolph. Same as Scott Roeder. And on. And on. And on.
To add flavor to the anti-JFK sentiment in Dallas circa 1963, there were 5,000 “Wanted for Treason” flyers distributed in Dallas 1-day prior to his murder:
My common-sense take: Lee Harvey Oswald did not and could not have acted alone; Freemasons did not sink the Titanic; NASA did not fake the moon landing; Aliens are real but are not living among us - yet; Pac-12 officials or refs from other leagues, college or pro, are not plotting for/against ANY team, unless they are in debt to or fearing for their life because of gambling. On this last point, I think the proliferation and normalization of gambling on sports and everything else is a troubling development. But, I could be wrong. I was once.
well said, Dale - blasting professional and college officials certainly doesn't help with the shortage of youth officials in Oregon and across the nation. I've even seen social media disparage high school and middle school officials!
Remember, there are no bad or good calls - just correct and incorrect. :)
May 30, 2023·edited May 30, 2023Liked by John Canzano
I sure hope you weren't in the replay booth for Yvenson Bernard's "fumble." (I know you were not on the field, that was Larry Farina.) Not a stellar moment in Pac-10 officiating. And I think Mike Riley believed that was a "bad" call.
May 30, 2023·edited May 30, 2023Liked by John Canzano
Another interesting column. Thanks for writing it.
I’m almost always thinking about conspiracies any time my team loses. But the historical record, unfortunately, usually tells a different story. And that means I must bite the old bullet and accept the unsavory truth. My team just lost.
The Kennedy theories is something that will probably never die.
Wasn't there documents that were to be released 50 yrs after?
I once lived next to a retired bodyguard that supossely was involved in guarding the President during the bay of pigs back in 1961/He was quite emphatic about one brabch being vocal about not liking what was happening, and not wanting "us" to be there
I understand sports conspericies , talk show hosts need and love it, increases ratings, same with politics
my team lost
Read 11/22/63 by Steven King best book about the assasinaion
97% of the documents have been released, the last group was in December, 2022. My own favorite books are History Will Prove Us Right, by Howard Willens and Case Closed by Gerald Posner. Especially the last chapters in the Willens book where he examines and totally debunks many of the conspiracy theories.
We hate to think that a young, charismatic and popular President could have been erased by a solitary loser like Oswald, but the evidence overwhelmingly points to that conclusion. Turf battles and coverups having to do with why Oswald was not more carefully watched, or even locked up, fuel the conspiracy theories and don't reflect well on the agencies involved. But one of the most witnessed, and even filmed, murders in history and nearly 60 years later only one coherent narrative has emerged.
FYI, I was just 20 yrs old, working in a dept. store in Westfield Ma. the day it happened
I was 3 weeks old when JFK was killed. My parents thought the world was ending.
I was in my junior year at Belmont Hill School, Belmont, Mass.
1 of our teachers was a roommate of Jack's and 2 others were in the same house (dormitory) at Harvard.
I drove across the country in the summer of 1964 with Massachusetts plates on the car. A number of folks in Dallas apologized for Kennedy's death.
That book is amazing! So incredibly good.
A very nice read John...I've been officiating High School Football for 40 years and I've heard all the hoots and screams from fans and parents alike and I say to them come out and help us get better as you appear to have all the rules and game situations down cold and you'd better a natural fit....just say'in
2 entities that you most certainly do not want to tick off, are the CIA and the Chicago mob.
No air support at The Bay of Pigs. Andy Bobby going after mob guys who were partners with his old man running scotch, etc. over the Canadian border during Prohibition.
But Oswald tried to kill a federal judge before he shot at Kennedy. So perhaps he did act alone.
After decades, I think this speculation should disappear. But I doubt this will happen.
Stone's movie was so over the top it may have hit the Moon if astronauts did not.
At least "my" Celtics gave it a try. The Bruins folded like a cardboard suitcase.
Thanks for another great take, John.
A book to add to a reading list on this topic: “HandsomeJohnny Rosselli”. The book touches on the assignation/murder of JFK in a convincing fashion.
I certainly don't think there's any pre-planned conspiracy before a game by officials or leagues, but anyone who doesn't think a referee or umpire's call can be influenced by a coach or manager during a game is naive. They're human...and can be intimidated or have favorites. It's part of sports.
Agree...however, that intimidation is much less effective the higher the level you go. There have been a few examples at the MLB level where just the opposite happens - the attempted intimidation can backfire. Particularly true with a handful of Major League umpires when they were part of Richie Phillips' union and were far too arrogant for their own good. Almost all of that is gone today...almost.
Organized crime worldwide influence professional sports with bribes. That is a fact. Kennedy was killed by more than one shooter. That is a fact.
You put your finger on it, John. As did Scott. Some people would rather believe that their team or political figure lost, not because they were inferior to the other team or political opponent, but that someone with power, life a ref, wanted the other side to win. One of the main needs that humans have it feeling safe, and life being predictable, but there is a great deal of uncertainty in life.
But, although I am politically liberal and love talking about politics, I think that we should be dealing with sports, not politics.
Really good stuff, thank you for a fascinating read.
I participated in a number of Major League Umpire schools where Dale Scott was an instructor. Great guy, lots of fun and fine teacher. He's absolutely right in his answer to your question -why he thinks sports fans (and the public) enjoy bringing this kind of conspiracy stuff up. He's correct. However (there's always a "however" or "but"), let me add some reality that unfortunately adds credence to these theories: Arizona State point shaving vs. Oregon State in 1994 was the tipoff that alerted authorities and began the investigation that unearthed a huge point shaving scandal. There have been at least 20 other college basketball point shaving scandals since the 1950s. O.K., that's college, we're talking about the Celtics and Heat, not college. O.K., in 2007, Tim Donaghy, NBA referee, pleaded guilty to charges of betting on games he refereed in 2005-6 and 2006-7 seasons. This included his betting on games where his actions changed outcomes...including the NBA playoffs. Oh, more? How about Tim Peel, a longtime NHL referee caught on a hot mic saying he "...it wasn't much but I wanted to call a f*****g penalty on Nashville early"? Why? Who knows, but the NHL wasn't amused, and the guy was canned immediately. I could go on. Horse racing is notoriously shady - look what just happened to Bob Baffert, the winningest trainer in the sport recently. Baseball itself is not pure in this regard - Pete Rose is exhibit A.
So, my point is this - yeah, fans and the public can go completely overboard on the conspiracy theories - it happens a lot. However, the athletes and officials have provided plenty of sordid factual examples that make fans' collective imaginations run wild...it's not all bong pipes and hallucinations by the fans and public.
-Point shaving scandals, to my knowledge, involved players not officials except in Donaghy’s case.
-The Donaghy scandal was a huge black eye to all officials in all sports. To extrapolate that into conspiracies that it’s happening consistently in professional or college sports is disingenuous. Of course that’s how most conspiracies work, it happened once so now it’s prevalent.
The issue John and I discussed wasn’t that officials get blamed for a team’s loss, that’s been happening since the first official made a ruling. The problem as I see it, with social media and technology, it’s become a cottage industry to always blame someone/something and never acknowledge what many times is obvious...their team was beat.
It’s an extension of what’s happening in society today. I’m not getting political, but denying any responsibility and having a negative situation always someone else’s fault, or an organized conspiracy against them, is rampant everywhere.
Even when presented with evidence to the contrary.
That then explodes on social media to where a wrong, or perceived wrong call, is obviously a league wide organized effort to put the screws to a certain team or player...aka a conspiracy.
-One last thing, a pet peeve of mine.
Fans remember calls & rulings, correct the vast amount of time but occasionally not, against their team.
Rarely do they remember calls & rulings that went their way. Or they justify breaks because they were “owed it.”
They also have a tendency to forget about missed free throws, turnovers, errors, poor player or coach decisions, dropped balls, horrendous throws or passes, etc that had much more to do with the outcome than a actual or perceived missed call.
-Like I stated, officials know what they’re signing up for.
It’s the acceleration and normalization that any questionable decision by an official is proof there’s collusion between officials and/or the league. It’s not reality, and harmful to the sports industry as a whole.
Glad I didn't "extrapolate the Donaghy case into conspiracies that are happening consistently...", because as you said, that would be "disingenuous"...glad I dodged that little IED.
I agree with almost everything you said...almost. Particularly your point about society having a tendency today to deny personal responsibility. It's always someone else's fault. That's a trajectory change in this country that's not healthy.
My point, however - which maybe I didn't make as well as I should have - was that it only takes a handful of actual and factual examples for people to point to in an attempt to buttress their conspiracies. People are still talking about the Black Sox of 1919, for crying out loud. Rose's cheating was decades ago - it still keeps him out of the Hall of Fame. The Donaghy case was recent. Tim Peel's (NHL referee - an official) hot mic incident was 2009 - is fairly recent, certainly not ancient history. It doesn't take many, Dale, for people to believe what they'll believe. Not just fans, either - a lot of sportswriters and sports broadcasters, as well as the athletes and coaches themselves, are also participating in the grassy knoll thinking.
I was simply making the point that the few - actually very few - proven incidents turn into indelibly etched cheating tragedies that create memories like elephants and absolutely do contribute to conspiracy thinking. It's too bad, but it's true.
Video replay, while interrupting the flow of these games, goes a long way in eliminating game changing calls (for whatever reason) that could affect either team.
Yes, it helps tremendously.
Well said.
I would like to read the results of interviews with refs about whether they feel home venues have impact? Does anyone have the statistics on the number of fouls called on Arizona in Tucson when Lute Olson was coach, vs when the Cats were on the road? I seem to remember some pretty maddening foul differentials between UA and visitors in Tucson.
JFK wanted to dismantle the CIA, and he was killed to prevent that. JFK fired Dulles as CIA Chief following Bay of Pigs event. Also fired by JFK was CIA #2, Charles Cabell, who hated JFK. Charles brother, Earle Cabell, was mayor of Dallas at time. Earle responsible for no secret service in the Limo, behind Jackie & JFK. The Federal courthouse in Dallas now named after him. LBJ capstone was assigning Dulles as member of the Warren Commission, to investigate JFK murder.
https://www.quora.com/Did-JFK-make-a-grave-error-when-he-fired-Allen-Dulles-Did-JFK-ever-really-have-complete-control-of-the-US-government-with-Dulles-as-an-enemy
It was likely the CIA. They are expert in "regime change" and knew that a dependable Democrat , LBJ, would be in charge after JFK. We know a lot more about the deceits of the CIA after the Russia Hoax and the coverup of the Biden family crimes.
Biden family crimes? How about your boy little donny trump? What are the alleged Biden crimes? We need some proof from you GOP party circus clowns when you say for sure the 2020 election was fixed. Keep voting for trump, and since your Beaver baseball has tanked, you might as well move to Florida. Take Wayne Tinkle with you before he signs another contract to lead the mens basketball team to the promised land. I predict two and done for Beaver baseball this week-end. Yeh Brian, you are right; Beavers wanted to lose two at the Pac-12 baseball tourney last week. They wanted to save their pitching so they could lose two more this week-end. OSU pee you, what ya gonna do when your over-hyped football team comes back to reality this year? Watch out for PSU Vikings coming to huge Reser this September! Huskies in Corvallis will stomp on your bandits with no trouble. See you in Autzen in November 2023 if your Beavers can make the bus trip to Eugene. Keep praying for a miracle Brian, with your boy trump going down in flames daily, and I hear the clock ticking. Proud to say I am ridin' with Biden through 2028. Maybe you GOP party circus clowns should switch to Ron Desanctimonius, who is so smart as to take on Disney in his state of Florida. He forgot that Disney was ready to build a small one billion dollar project that would have created lots of jobs. I know why many Beavers do not like the Disney corporation; bucky Beaver is not there, but Donald Duck is! GO DUCKS and DUMP TRUMP 2024.
Maybe everyone who supports and enables a criminal should also go to prison. Aiding and abetting is itself a crime.
‘Dark Camelot’ by NY Times’ Seymour Hersh, stated that JFK and RFK had decided to ask Governor Symington of Maryland to be Kennedy’s VP. But Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn from Texas and LBJ had meeting alone with JFK at his LA hotel right before/during convention. After this meeting LBJ came out as the VP nominee. RFK heard of the change and was very upset, strong dislike for LBJ. Hersh puts forward that Sam Rayburn/ LBJ had FBI files on JFK, maybe from FBI Director Hoover who was apparently LBJ’s next door neighbor in Washington DC. Files on JFK womanizing and an affair with a Dutch woman during WW2 who was probably a German spy. This is forwarded as why which got JFK kicked out of Navy intel and into PT boats. RFK treated LBJ poorly until JFK’s assassination. Bobby got his too later in ‘68 but that’s another conspiratorial discussion
So many unanswered questions about JFK's assassination. I remember that day very well. I was 13, old enough to think about it and try to find context.
The Kennedy assassination is as relevant today as the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand was when we were kids. It scarred our parents and gave them a universal piece of small talk that endures to this day. "Where were you when you heard?" Ask anyone over the age of 70, and they can tell you where they were and the color of their shoelaces. 2/3 of Congress can tell you all about it. But to anyone 35 or under, it's yet another topic old people love to drone on about. Watching the towers fall on 9/11 in first grade and spending the next decade performing regular active-shooter drills instead of thinking about recess tends to focus the mind elsewhere.
As for the event itself, it has a lot more in common with Jan 6 than anything else. There's an excellent book out there called 'Dallas 1963' by Bill Minutaglio, Steven L. Davis that goes into pretty good detail about the political fever swamp that was Dallas that year. Just as they did in the days and weeks after Jan 6, the right-wingers in media and political office ran away as quickly as they could from the very thing they stoked.
Oswald did it. He acted "alone" but certainly had a bunch of encouragement. Same as James Earl Ray. Same as Timothy McVeigh. Same as Eric Rudolph. Same as Scott Roeder. And on. And on. And on.
You do realize these types of events are not solely on the right, there are plenty on the left as well
To add flavor to the anti-JFK sentiment in Dallas circa 1963, there were 5,000 “Wanted for Treason” flyers distributed in Dallas 1-day prior to his murder:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wanted_for_treason.jpg
It was LBJ's men...nobody had more to gain!
My common-sense take: Lee Harvey Oswald did not and could not have acted alone; Freemasons did not sink the Titanic; NASA did not fake the moon landing; Aliens are real but are not living among us - yet; Pac-12 officials or refs from other leagues, college or pro, are not plotting for/against ANY team, unless they are in debt to or fearing for their life because of gambling. On this last point, I think the proliferation and normalization of gambling on sports and everything else is a troubling development. But, I could be wrong. I was once.
well said, Dale - blasting professional and college officials certainly doesn't help with the shortage of youth officials in Oregon and across the nation. I've even seen social media disparage high school and middle school officials!
Remember, there are no bad or good calls - just correct and incorrect. :)
I sure hope you weren't in the replay booth for Yvenson Bernard's "fumble." (I know you were not on the field, that was Larry Farina.) Not a stellar moment in Pac-10 officiating. And I think Mike Riley believed that was a "bad" call.
Another interesting column. Thanks for writing it.
I’m almost always thinking about conspiracies any time my team loses. But the historical record, unfortunately, usually tells a different story. And that means I must bite the old bullet and accept the unsavory truth. My team just lost.