7 Sports Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out to Be True

Break out the beloved tin-foil hat, my friends, because we're venturing down the conspiracy road.

The history of professional sports is littered with raised eyebrows and good ol' skepticism. That doesn't necessarily mean a player or team was straight-up cheating, though we have two recent, memorable examples in the New England Patriots and Houston Astros.

Yes, this funny business has extended to ownership within a particular sport—or even the league itself.

The intent here is not to lambaste a player, team, league, etc. Nevertheless, these are several memorable examples of an unproven curiosity that ended up being revealed as truth.

First, a fun one.

During the opening game of the 2008 NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics had a terrible scare. Superstar wing Paul Pierce crumpled to the ground in pain, and he was lifted onto a wheelchair. The medical staff took Pierce to the locker room as the Garden fell quiet.

Soon enough, however, he returned sporting a knee brace. Pierce ended up playing the rest of the series and winning MVP honors.

Then, the rumor emerged: Did he actually need a bathroom break?

Years later, Pierce acknowledged that was the case. Now, granted, he has since walked it back. Either way, it's still fun to believe The Truth revealed the whole truth in addition to a sprained MCL.

In the 1980s, Major League Baseball experienced one of the biggest black eyes in the sport's history.

Free agents hit the open market and understandably expected a hefty payday. However, the high-dollar deals simply stopped being offered—and both agents and players got suspicious.

"Something's up," the late Tom Reich, who's remembered as a powerful agent, told one of his players in late 1985.

"What was up was the start of baseball's collusion era, which began in that winter of 1985-86 and continued in earnest through the next two offseasons," the Society for American Baseball Research wrote in 2007. "It was an attempt by baseball owners to slow a dramatic rise in player salaries and to ratchet down their teams' liabilities for long-term contracts that were not panning out."

Players filed grievances, and arbitrators ruled in 1990 that MLB owners would pay $280 million for the collusion.

This is the good stuff! The best part of any conspiracy is destroying evidence, which is exactly what the NFL did here.

Look, something happened. The extent of the transgression is still debated heavily by fans of the Patriots, a team that underwent an investigation for illegally taping the practices and defensive signals of opponents.

I'll pause here for you to verbalize any frustrations.

According to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Pats coach Bill Belichick admitted to the taping—now remembered as Spygate. Goodell relayed that Belichick said he believed the taping was legal.

"He said that's always been his interpretation since he's been the head coach," Goodell said. "We are going to agree to disagree on the facts."

There were rumors the Patriots had taped opponent practices before Spygate broke in 2007, rumblings that "reached a fever pitch in 2006," according to ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham.

But, hey, that's what we know. Whatever the tapes showed, it was improper. Debate away on how much it mattered.

For many decades, Major League Baseball dealt with whispers of steroid use. Whether it was a small problem or a rampant issue, however, was something of great debate.

Turns out, it was the latter.

In hindsight, we remember the "Steroid Era" that extends as far back as the mid-1980s and into the mid-2000s.

Numerous star players—from Mike Schmidt and Goose Gossage to Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire—all admitted to using amphetamines or steroids. Several other famous players were either implicated or tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, including Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, Nelson Cruz and more.

The aftermath of the Steroid Era is that numerous stars, such as Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro, have not been voted in the Hall of Fame.

Everybody steals signs. Heck, I coach high school softball, and I've heard opposing players call out pitches correctly and incorrectly to their teammate in the batter's box. This is neither rare nor illegal.

The problem with the Astros' scandal, though, is they used technology and not simply their eyes.

"For a long time, high-ranking executives with other teams have voiced their concerns about the Astros, in particular, as well as other teams, both to Major League Baseball and to reporters," The Athletic wrote in 2019 when unveiling Houston's illegal system from the 2017 season.

Following an investigation, we learned the Astros—in home games—used a camera in center field to decode a catcher's signs. Once cracked, someone would bang a trash can to signify a breaking ball.

The knowledge tainted the team's World Series triumph, even as Houston clinched the 2017 Fall Classic on the road. The advantage the Astros gained in home games has not been forgotten by many fans.

At various points in MLB history, players and fans alike have noticed some subtle changes in the baseball itself. In particular, people began to notice when home run rates climbed.

The suspicion proved true in the late 2010s and early 2020s.

Among others who voiced criticism, star pitcher Justin Verlander unloaded his frustration before the 2019 All-Star Game. He called the balls a "f--king joke" and accused MLB—which had recently bought Rawlings, the product's official manufacturer—of juicing the balls.

Later on, research suggested that MLB used three different balls in 2022 despite the league rejecting the findings.

Aaron Judge set an American League record with 62 homers that season, which only fueled the conspiracy theories.

Every league has points of emphasis for a particular season, but those focuses are supposed to remain static.

During the 2023-24 NBA campaign, though, educated eyes began to pick up a trend. While on the Bill Simmons Podcast, for example, Ryen Russillo said he noticed that officials were allowing more physical defense. Russillo was simply one of many who started to wonder aloud.

You know where this is headed.

After the NBA initially denied that a new directive had been pushed out around the All-Star break, commissioner Adam Silver admitted it. "There was a bit of an adjustment made along the way," he said.