biggest scandal in all of sports

[andylawcc]

how about Qatar 2020 world cup? too soon?

 

[inachu]

Nancy Karigan getting her ice skating legs beat up all black and blue.

 

[smackababy]

My vote goes for the 1972 Olympics men's basketball final game where the Russians stole the game from the US. To this day the US team refuses to accept their silver medals.

We were robbed!

While that was pretty bad (and they did that bullshit time out scam TWICE IIRC), the biggest "scandal" is pretty much everything Sep Blatter has done while FIFA president. FIFA is likely the most corrupt organization in the world. Qatar literally bought enough votes to host a world cup in 2022, and after evidence pointing out such came to light, Blatter was like "don't worry, Qatar, nothing will change the WC bids!".

 

[Phoenix86]

East German Olympic Anything.

Let's be real here, it's the olympics.

 

[LikeLinus]

The Black Sox, hands down. It was huge when it happened and is still talked about almost 100 years later. It had a movie based on its, none of those others have.

 

[BUTCH1]

Too much variety in those options. Not sure Sandusky fits because it didn't really affect sports.

Armstrong's was a pretty big deal, and he repeatedly denied it. Same with steroids in baseball.

I am biased towards football, and the Patriots one gets me. For me, they punishment they have received (although by no means small) is still not enough to deter ANY team from doing exactly that to win the big game. If I am the Patriots, I keep doing it because... who cares. They're not taking our trophies away. That would hurt the sport too much. So keep finding ways to circumvent the rules and win the big game, at least you can say you have all of these trophies.

As a Pat's fan I will not defend what Brady did but here you are saying that 1/2Lb of PSI (and we don't even know for sure it happened in that game) was the reason they won? I assume you watched the game, 45-7 speaks for itself, the Colts simply had no answer for Blount who (once again) ravaged the Colt defense. Also note the now corrected balls were in place for the entire 2nd half and the bludgeoning continued as the Colts allowed 28 UNANSWERED points They also played in a SB where the balls were guarded better than Ft. Knox and they won that game as well with Brady having perhaps the best 4th Qtr ever in ANY SB to overcome a 10 point deficit.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

the obviously correct answer is the 1919 black sox, followed by anything to do with fifa, ioc, or azerbijani boxing.

nothing on the op's list is even on the radar. bro, do you even sports?

 

[GagHalfrunt]

There is no bigger possible scandal in sports than fixing results. Nothing else is close. Until somebody manages to fix a Super Bowl or an entire World Cup the Black Sox will remain #1.

 

[pcgeek11]

None of those.

This: The Black Sox Scandal took place during the play of the 1919 World Series. The Chicago White Sox lost the series to the Cincinnati Reds, and eight White Sox players were later accused of intentionally losing games in exchange for money from gamblers. The players were acquitted in court, but nevertheless, they were all banned for life from baseball.

 

[Captante]

While I agree the Sandusky/Penn State debacle is by far the worst sports-related scandal ever, I'm not sure it qualifies purely as a sports-scandal.

Also while throwing the WS is bigger then any single players steroid related cheating, I feel the damage to baseball (and all sports) overall was much greater from steroid use.

Nancy Kerrigan getting her ice skating legs beat up all black and blue.

FTFY 😉


And that was pretty bad ... plus she still won the silver medal while that skank Harding didn't win a thing.

Very little doubt Kerrigan would have taken the gold if she wasn't injured.

 

[HendrixFan]

Too much variety in those options. Not sure Sandusky fits because it didn't really affect sports.

To me the reason the Sandusky thing is the biggest scandal (as opposed to something similar like OJ) was the involvement and participation of the institution involved. Penn State allowed it to continue, even in it's own physical confines, and did everything they could to cover it up.

OJ was sports related but was no longer involved in the sport, Hernandez was still playing but the Patriots had no involvement in any of it.

The effects of the Sandusky scandal may not have been huge on the field, but the negative result to recruiting and possible sanctions would have made some impact. The concern over the impact it would have on the field is what drove the participants in the cover up to help hide what he was doing, and by obvious extension, help support his actions. The sickening decision made by many people in high places at Penn State to put the results on the field in front of children being raped makes it by far the biggest scandal.

 

[Safeway]

PEDs in cycling and baseball were both very big deals. The baseball players testified before Congress that they were clean, that the sport was clean, etc. Lance Armstrong testified to the entire world that he was clean, and ruined the lives of those contrary to his facade of lies.

I've going to say that Lance wins out, but I'm heavily biased.

 

[sportage]

Well I'm going to piss everyone off with my answer.
How bout the guys that beat the hell out of their wife after the BIG GAME?

 

[pcgeek11]

Could you be more vague?

 

[Jodell88]

How high up does this rank?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_murders

 

[angminas]

Goes something like this:

Murder (Orenthal, Aaronthal)

Assault (Greg Hardy, Jerry Sandusky, Ty Cobb, Ndamukong Suh)

Major dishonest cheating (Barry Bonds, Lance Armstrong, Pete Rose, Black Sox)

Nudge nudge, wink wink cheating (Gaylord Perry, Deflategate, Spygate, 2004 Broncos)

Being a dick (Bill Romanowski, Dick Butkus, Richie Incognito, Ray Rice)

Being a bitch (Deion Sanders, Terrell Owens, Ryan Leaf, Johnny Manziel)

 

[IronWing]

The Patriots' cheating is just the worst, horrible.

not really but any opportunity to set Pats fans to pissing and moaning should be taken.