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The officiating in the conference championship round of the NFL playoffs was far from ideal. A series of questionable calls had fans puzzled and annoyed. Some even accused the NFL of “being rigged.”
Last week, Arian Foster was on Barstool Sports’ “Macrodosing” podcast, and as a part of a comedy bit, he said the league sends out scripts at the start of every season. He then joked that practices aren’t actual football practices, and they’re more similar to acting practice with everyone focusing on mastering their part of the script. Of course, most people had fun with the bit and made jokes and memes about it. Others took it completely out of context and didn’t understand he was joking.
These two events taking place in such a congested timeline gave plenty of ammunition to anyone who is looking for a reason to believe that sports, or the NFL specifically, is rigged. Last week, an edited image made the rounds on social media and plenty of conspiracy theory believing people are looking to cash in as a result.
Leaked Super Bowl result circulates
On February 4th, a Twitter user by the name of “@FearKyrie” tweeted an image of a box score from Pro-Football Reference that showed the Philadelphia Eagles beating the Kansas City Chiefs by a score of 37-34 in the Super Bowl on February 12th, 2023. The Twitter account has since been suspended, but that didn’t stop the image from becoming a viral sensation on social media.
As the image made it’s way through Twitter, Tik Tok, Instagram and Facebook, there were plenty of people out there who believe that the league now operates via a “script” or that the league is rigged in some other way. This picture certainly piqued their interest.
Of course, the image was edited. Someone probably used a previous box score off Pro-Football-Reference.com and used it as a template to make some changes. Their skills were good enough to make it believable. Even fact-checking website Snopes had to release a fact-check on the image. They concluded that the claim of a leaked score was false, obviously.
Bettors try to take advantage
The two most popular prop bets at BetMGM feature Travis Kelce. The third most popular prop bet is on the coin toss landing on tails. The fourth most popular prop? An Eagles 37-Chiefs 34 exact final score prop. That prop pays out at 80-to-1. It opened at 250-to-1, but obviously oddsmakers have adjusted due to the sheer risk they face if the game somehow lands on that score.
Of course, if you actually believe the image is a real leak, there’s plenty of other ways to cash in when you take a better look at the image.
First and foremost, might as well bet the mortgage on Eagles -1.5. The game is easily flying over the total of 50.5 in the leak as well, so add that to my betting card for my whole life savings. In fact, parlay the two.
Kansas City is clearly scoring first, as they have a 10-0 lead after the first quarter in the leak. I’m adding Kansas City to score first at -110 to my card. Kansas City first team to ten points pays out at +100. Kansas City is +100 to lead after the first quarter. They are +375 to score over 7.5 points in the first quarter. So much free money is piling up.
We know the Eagles will mount a comeback, so this would also be a good time to get in some live bets on the Eagles at inflated odds. Take them on the moneyline and with the points. Both will win. Kansas City has a 24-13 lead at halftime, so make sure to take Chiefs first half and the first half over as well. At halftime, ignore the performances and commercials and instead spend the time calling your friends and family, securing any cash you can to make some more live bets on Philadelphia.
Alright, we’re being ridiculous, right? Apparently not. On the biggest betting day of the year, this is the fourth most popular bet. I’m rooting for it to hit though. That will give us some easy early content for the start of the football offseason.
