With the wide variety of ways in which the game can be controlled, detecting a fix would be a very difficult. The people who should be the public’s eyes and ears, the sports reporters, are merely just another cog in the NFL's propaganda machine.

On a local level, the sports reporter is nothing but a cheerleader. He has to be. Should he begin to ask the "tough" questions, he will quickly find himself on the outside of the locker room looking in. Without the cooperation of the team, a local reporter will find it impossible to get close to the team, much less fill his column or broadcast.

On the national level, it is even worse. "All play-by-play TV and radio announcers are approved by not only the club management but by [the Commissioner] himself." [21] So whose interests are they more likely to represent, the fan or their employer? And when a sticky situation arises within the League, or if the League has an issue it needs pushed (need for new stadiums, higher ticket prices, etc.), it often relies on its phalanx of announcers to sway public opinion. As ex-NFL star Bernie Parrish put it, "The words we hear coming from our television sets don't seem to have the same meaning as they used to, whether they are coming from the White House or the NFL hucksters. The images we see are what the paid packagers want us to see. In the case of pro football, the packages are designed and decorated behind the closed doors of the Commissioner's office, and there is no consumer protection for the public." [22]

Television has changed the way football is played. It is because of TV that the two-minute warning exists (to allow for a commercial break when interest in the game has peaked). Former president of ABC Sports Roone Arledge (the man behind Monday Night Football) once said, "Most of what TV does wrong is done to generate more dollars for [NFL] owners. If we cram 18 commercials into a football game it's because the owners and the Leagues are so damned greedy in what they ask for rights." [23]

In 1965, when CBS paid over $14 million for the rights to the NFL games, "they acted as if they had bought the sport, including the people who played it." [24] Perhaps they did. Former NFL player Tim Green wrote, "If you think that the players in an NFL game aren't only aware, but affected by the television cameras and microphones, you're wrong . . . Players often know when the cameras are on them whether they cam see the little red lights or not, and they play to them as if they were on a Hollywood movie set." [25]

So, is the NFL closer to what some feared the defunct XFL would become? A scripted soap opera much like professional wrestling? It could very well be. If it is, it is not necessarily illegal for them to do so. There is nothing printed on your ticket indicating that the game you see will be played by certain rules. There is no attempt at defrauding you, because the ticket you purchase is for amusement purposes only. And what they give you is a form of entertainment. If you take it to be real (as some do pro wrestling) who is at fault? Just because it seems real doesn't mean it truly is. There is nothing anywhere that states the NFL and the networks couldn't script the season to get the maximum amount of fan appeal they desire. Does that mean every single game is fixed? No. But could they spot a potential story line in a team and play it for all it's worth? Certainly.

In 1971, former NFL star Bernie Parrish wrote, "With $139 million at stake for the owners, $84 million for the television networks, and up to $66 billion for organized crime's bookmaking syndicates, and with what I learned as a player, no one will ever convince me that numerous NFL games aren't fixed." [26] Now, thirty years later, with the dollar figures 10 times what they were then, one would have to be naïve to believe that the NFL would leave everything – its name, its money, its very existence -- up to chance.

Endnotes:

[1] Bernie Parrish. They Call It A Game (New York: Dial Press, Inc., 1971). p. 128.

[2] Bubba Smith and Hal DeWindt. Kill Bubba, Kill! (Wallaby, 1983). p. 130.

[3] Jon Morgan. Glory for Sale: Fans, Dollars, and the New NFL (Bancroft Press, 1997). p. 310.

[4] Jon Morgan. Ibid. p. 92.

[5] Jon Morgan. Ibid. p. 182.

[6] Bernie Parrish. Ibid. pg. xiv.

[7] Jon Morgan. Ibid. pg. ii.

[8] Dan Moldea. Interference: How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1989). p. 91.

[9] Dan Moldea. Ibid. p. 28.

[10] Dan Moldea. Ibid. p. 126.

[11] Dan Moldea. Ibid. p. 35.

[12] Tim Green. The Dark Side of the Game (New York: Warner Books, 1996). p. 59.

[13] Tim Green. Ibid. p. 76.

[14] Robert Huizenga, M.D. You're Okay, It's Just a Bruise (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994). p. 325.

[15] Robert Huizenga. Ibid. p. 209.

[16] Dan Moldea. Ibid. p. 33.

[17] Robert Huizenga. Ibid. p. 325.

[18] Bernie Parrish. Ibid. p. 219.

[19] Tim Green. Ibid. p. 49.

[20] Jeff Benedict and Don Yaeger. Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL (New York: Warner Books, 1998). p. 137.

[21] Bernie Parrish. p. 109.

[22] Jeff Benedict and Don Yaeger. Ibid. pp. 130-131.

[23] Jeff Benedict and Don Yaeger. Ibid. p. 126.

[24] Jeff Benedict and Don Yaeger. Ibid. p. 122.

[25] Tim Green. Ibid. p. 136.