35 - Scripted Seasons: Is Sports Just Entertainment?

 On this episode, the boys are down a man but not short on opinions as they dive headfirst into one of the biggest debates in sports—are games actually rigged? From shady referee calls and billion-dollar league incentives to players betting on themselves and suspicious Super Bowl performances, nothing is off-limits. 

The conversation spirals through everything from the NFL’s “product-first” mindset to NBA scandals, gambling culture, and whether money has quietly taken control of the outcomes we watch every week. They break down the blurred line between real competition and entertainment, compare it to scripted leagues like WWE, and even question if fans are basically part of a sports cult at this point. 

Of course, it wouldn’t be Stale Bread without some wild tangents—fake movie plots, ridiculous takes, and completely unhinged closing remarks included. 

If you’ve ever watched a game and thought, “there’s no way that just happened,” this one’s for you. 

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Transcript

Mike (00:00.344)
Billups was running a ring, I think, like illegal gambling, but this player was legally betting on a fan duel or something, but on himself and the NFL said, no, no, you can't do that. We control the games. who the heck was that? can't remember his name. Ridley. Calvin Ridley. Yes. Tom Clancy. Yes. Some of all fears.

plant seed

Mike (00:40.398)
So the thing we gotta, we gotta do, by the way, welcome to stale bread podcast bitches. we're a man down tonight.

You doing it?

You

Keller is hurting and we feel for him. some stuff going on, but we miss you buddy. Can't wait for you to come back pal because we have a nice little test for you to see if you get back on the show. I'm not gonna tell you exactly what it is, but it will be the ultimate breaking Keller when he comes back.

You know what else a brake killer? A strap. On.

Mike (01:22.99)
What? Huh?

You said, break your killer.

All right, that that dumb fucking comment. We have taken Rico's power so that we can use it against him. We have harnessed it against his will and we going to use his power against.

is brought to you by Rico.

Rico (01:41.199)
I want bread nation to know breadhead nation. I had no way I didn't sanction this

hovering over the button now. So you say what we don't want to hear, you're going to get it.

They gotta go in my head guys.

You're a bitch ass.

Yeah.

Jeremy (02:03.583)
Yeah.

I'm confused when I was at the same time.

Anyway, I think he knows the threat.

way

Jeremy (02:11.658)
Alright, well Keller's down, but I don't think he'll miss out too much on this conversation, because we're going to be talking about sports, and if they are rigged.

definitely think the NFL is rigged. I think there's a way that the referees have taken control of the game and they're in cahoots with the NFL, not the players, but the refs.

When we say sports, we talking about the typical you've got a ball in your hand or are we talking like WWE? Because I mean, that's like a male soap opera.

It is.

That's entertainment though.

Mike (02:49.632)
It's still athletic. You cannot deny they are athletes, 100%. Because ain't no way nobody's doing your RKOs and pedigrees and stuff without going to the gym and working out with Triple H and all that.

I'll agree with that, but it's entertainment on the side, I don't think WWE, unless WWE, for me, WWE couldn't be rigged. I mean, it is rigged if it's scripted, but I don't think it's like.

It's scripted. As a wrestling fan, yes, it's scripted. The outcomes are known to the wrestlers, to the production team, blah, blah, blah. Yes. But as a 42-year-old male who still watches it and enjoys it, it's still entertaining just like any other sport is. It's just like you said, Jeremy, it is the male soap opera.

It's the cream of the crop! yeah! Yeah!

wrestling, I just, it's like that, wrestling couldn't be rigged though. I don't think wrestling would be rigged. Football? Yes, football. I think 75 % of it, well, yeah, 75, 3 3 4ths of it is rigged and that's because the players get such a high- That much? I think so, yeah. I don't think, I think, now don't get me wrong, they are athletes. Yes, they can. I think their athletic prowess-

Rico (04:25.952)
It impacts the game, but I feel like the money speaks volumes. And you think about.

Hold on though. Do you really think hundreds of players can all keep a secret like that though? Or do you think it's more just star players or people who are actually able to change the change the outcome of the game like the quarterback?

think it's okay. So you're thinking about the NFL, specifically. Okay, the NFL is a brotherhood. Anything's a brother, but this is a brotherhood of people that get millions of dollars. And we're talking about the third string player is banking more than you could think of. And he doesn't even play. So is it possible to get hundreds of players making this type of money that does not want to leave that lifestyle?

Let's yeah, let's use that one.

Rico (05:17.336)
to keep a secret? Yes, I think so. You're talking about millions and millions of dollars passing through all their hands and all you gotta do is keep a secret. Think about the 2015 Carolina Panthers for that Super Bowl. Mike, they did that with Cam Newton, two running backs, not a no, number one nobody. And you see how they went to the Super Bowl and got dismantled?

SWAMPED!

Everybody from the beginning of that game said something was wrong and I have a guy at work who is a Die Hard Carolina Panther fan and he talks about that all the time. He said they got paid off. I believe.

You think they threw the game?

Yes, they blew for a beautiful season. They threw the game. Just look where Cam Newton is now. Most of these guys, you don't hear from them, but Cam Newton. So I mean, he's Cam Newton, but that team is dismantled. Nobody stayed. No. Yes. So I think they are. It's a secret. Maybe, 60 % of

Mike (06:30.798)
agree with throwing games and that, you know, that there's been conversations across multiple sports for that, including, you know, NBA, Major League Baseball as well, know, purposely losing games for, for reasons. I mean, it's, it's happened to the NFL as well. Purposely losing games to get better seating and stuff in that, in that,

That viewpoint you could call it rigged.

Yeah, tanking is.

Yeah, tanking and you know.

And you can't tell me there aren't some referees out there with fan duel accounts.

Mike (07:10.458)
Well, so that's that's a whole other subject because there have been players that have been caught betting on games and things like that. Massive finds. Who is the NFL player that got caught not too long ago, Rico?

Was it the NFL player? I thought it was the NBA player. thought it was Chauncey Billups got arrested.

Chauncey billups just got busted. Yeah, not too not too long ago

I'm not sure if that was that or for gambling. He was gambling.

It was definitely an NFL player. Bilmes was running a ring, think, like illegal gambling, but this player was legally betting on a fan duel or something, but on himself and the NFL said, no, no, you can't do that. We control the games. Wow. Who the heck was that? I can't remember his name. Calvin Ridley. Yes. Tom Clancy. Yes.

Jeremy (08:04.322)
Tom Clancy

Mike (08:10.165)
some of all fears.

The fact that you can do, and see, here's the thing. If the refs play an integral part in all of it. for sure. It's even worse because they do, it hurts your team. Like it doesn't hurt the player, it hurts the team. And I think that's where it's going. It's getting worse.

Well, the, the NFL in particular has realized that they have a product now, not just a collective of teams. They have a product, billions upon billions. And they have, they have to have excitement. They have to guarantee games are close and stuff like that. So people will watch. It's like, is it really that close of a game or whatnot?

is it?

Rico (09:06.252)
I think the fans want to know about, like, I think it's all connected if you ask me. The tickets, the merch sales, all going to paying the coaches and paying these high ass contracts that also fund the stadiums. also it's just a big cycle. I was like, billion dollar empires. Like look at the Cowboys, nine billion dollars.

the enterprise and you can afford to pay these players. And don't forget the tax that, my God, the taxes that come out of each player's contract is, I think it all has something to do with rigging and, and or throwing of games.

that mean with the level of insanity that you get with some of these fans and just the industry as a whole? Is it kind of a cult? Are you guys cultists?

In a way. Yeah. I, when I, I had kind of like a revelation in, you know, the late 20 teens. Yeah, I know. Right. Read them. They don't scare the living shit out of you. I had, had a revelation in like, I want to say like 2017, 2018 that I put a lot of time, money and effort and

This whole book of those-

Rico (10:21.015)
always

Mike (10:34.67)
just general bullshit into watching and listening and playing sports. And I realized at that time it was taking away from everything else in my lives, my creativity and my socialization. Now granted, sports is kind of a social thing with friends and family.

I still go over to my parents' house on the weekends and what's on the television. Is it going to be a golf tournament? It's going to be a NASCAR race. It's going to be, if it's during football season, it's going to be a football game. That's generally what we're going to be watching. Like during March Madness, we're going to be watching basketball on Sundays. And that's what we do. We're a sports family. You know, we played sports our whole lives. So, but.

It does get to a point where it does become cultish, Jeremy. It becomes, you become a fan of these teams. mean, look, look behind me, you know, I'm on in the video for those who can't see I have a New Jersey Devils flag.

That's a New Jersey Devil flag? Yeah, man. I thought that was Casey. God damn it.

it now.

Jeremy (11:48.704)
I it's a cult that has been corporatized, if you will. I think a lot of this, I mean, there's always been a connection between throwing games and rigging games and betting. mean, why else? That's the best motivation is the money. So I started kind of digging into that. I know as far as America goes, one of the things I noticed is that in the 30s,

the peak of the mob controlling games, especially in New York. Boxing was becoming, you know, even more and more of a bigger thing. So the mobs would actually start influencing these fights. And there was actually a boxer. I want to say it was the late forties to early sixties was his career. His name was Jack Murdoch and he was he was a brawler. You know, he was I'm going to outlast you.

beat the shit out of me, but I'm going to be the last man standing. He was good. But one of his, one of his things was he was very promising. So the mob got ahold of them, you know, boxing didn't pay as well as people thought, especially at that level. And he had a, he had a blind son that he had to take care of. So, you know, mean, times were hard financially. So, you know, he got in it with the mob. started throwing fights and it just.

It started to take a toll on his pride and one day, this is an actual documented case. His son was viewing one of his shows and he just had enough as a man. He was told to throw the fight and he won. And later that night he got fucking murdered. It's a real dirty industry and I think that has evolved over time. But the good news is his son actually...

used that as inspiration and studied, went to school to be a lawyer, know, really took onto the justice system and also defeated people at night as daredevil. So.

Jeremy (14:00.846)
Well, you said some of all fears and I thought Ben Affleck, so.

You mean better, better flick.

You know what's weird is Daredevil uses sonar. So he should have been called Batman.

I didn't realize he was blind.

and Veneflec played both of them. I have absolutely no point.

Mike (14:20.142)
Uhhh...

Mike (14:24.014)
knew you were going somewhere with that. I'm like, okay, this sounds like the plot line to Pulp Fiction. What's going on here?

You

If you think about it, there's a couple of movies that has that's one of those plotlines and Harlem Knights definitely has it where they say they're going to bet on the boxer to win. And then word gets out to the police that they're to the mob that they're not. So they thought they was going to put, they was putting money on their guy. And then it was just a whole mess. So boxing.

being one of those things. I guess in UFC fights now, MMA fights, you can bet on those. But I feel like those are like one-on-one, bet on those. That's a friendly bet in my case.

recent one with Tyson and Jake Paul.

Mike (15:17.582)
Yeah, that was definitely fixed.

I saw that motherfucker training. Ain't no way.

In a way, I won't ever recognize that as a fight.

I

Nah, it was on Netflix. I mean, fu-

Rico (15:33.87)
That's the case WWE's on Netflix, so what do you say then? Huh?

WWE scripted. It's not real. Just like my dad's love.

And Keller being here right now, it's not real.

Okay.

Rico (15:47.74)
That was my bad.

Well, you could go, you could take it back to, gosh, what was his name? Tim Donaghy, who was the NBA referee who was throwing games. Remember that?

Yeah, that motherfucker. Yes, this dude has caused a lot of grief and pain amongst a lot of families.

mid-2000s, Tim Donahue was a referee in the NBA and he was like a veteran referee, like respected. And he was taking cash from people gambling on games and he was calling, calling fouls and things and

You know, different situations and the NBA, you know, kind of figured it out and they designated him as a rogue referee and he spent time in prison. So NBA was like, Nope, we will not have that. But yet it just seems seems to be even more and more influenced by, like I said, by money, Jeremy, you know, there's betting websites now that are putting commercials up.

Mike (17:05.822)
in the middle of games during football, during basketball, fan duel, draft Kings, all these betting sites are now major sponsors of these leagues and commercials. So it's like, it's right there in front of our face. And are they really saying that we're not expecting forced outcomes?

Anything with bets you have to expect the force outcome. I was just at the magic game last night and great turnout by the way, but you can see it, you know, as much as I'm a big basketball guy, I like to play basketball rather than watch it. But you can see they, there's a lot of them wasn't really playing. Like they, it's like one guy shooting like three threes. Okay.

I would key in on that guy. They weren't. And you know, they would get there late or they wasn't, you know, you can see it in, you know, if you want to win, I feel like you see the effort. There were, there's times where you don't see the effort. You know, there's times where the audience, there's the, my friend's wife was like really into it. I get the rebound, da da da da. And I'm like, yo, you could tell with two minutes left in the goddamn quarter, they're not going to pull this off.

And right there, heart rock comes on. You can bet on the last two minutes of the game. like, yo, that's motivation. That's what I think it comes from. Don't get me wrong. I've made money from these parlays that I have placed across. I've seen somebody win $100,000 on a parlay. It pays, but then again, nearly everybody can win.

If it's influenced, how do you stay above it? How do you stay in front of it? My fault.

Jeremy (19:05.816)
Well, let's say it is some major industry where everything's scripted and everything's rigged. Do you have a moral problem with it? If so, what do you think it would be? Elaborate, God damn it.

Um, yeah, takes away from the talent, you know, from the, from the guys that are actually there, you know, showing off their, their natural born abilities and things. could go back to major league baseball when during the steroid era where that wasn't the case. You could call that rigged. Um, a lot of, you know, a lot of players.

And lot of fans will tell you, you still got to hit the ball. I'm like, yeah, but when you make contact, it's going a fricking mile. So yeah, I do. I do have a moral, moral problem with that because it's not sport. know, sport has, you know, been around since, you know, the beginning of man, you know, whether it's hunting or, running, et cetera, you know, for, for whatever, but

going back to the ancient Roman games, the ancient Greek games of the Olympics before the modern era. That was the purest sport of all. And it wasn't for anything. It was just to showcase talent and ability. And that's capitalism for you, guess. Good old money. Yeah. Let's do something and make money with it.

On the Stale Bread Podcast.

Rico (20:46.638)
I mean, morally speaking, don't personally have a big problem. I have a problem with it when you introduce it too early, like college. Before college, before they was introduced to this NIL deals and stuff, that was the thing to watch. People were watching. And then they was even saying it was better than pros because it was the love of the game.

even before you get to the NFL, you're spoiled rotten. There was a, there's.

Name, image, and likeness for those of you who don't know what NIL means.

means college can pay you to show your name, your image, and your likeness on commercials and sponsorships, things like that. Because yeah, you may not make it to the pros, but you're going to get paid in college now, which is crazy to me.

Exactly. You you used to pray for a scholarship. That was the big thing. If you get a scholarship and you push that, can get drafted. Nobody even cares about getting drafted anymore. People stay there eight years just to get the money. You know what I'm saying? And there's a dude who, I think he back up for the Dolphins now. took a $6 million pay cut to get drafted, to sit on the bench.

Rico (22:16.524)
which was wild to me, I would have stayed in college for that, but he took a $6 million pay, he was getting paid $9 million in college. He took a $6 million pay cut to be a backup quarterback on the bench for the Dolphins.

That's why tuition's so fucking expensive.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, geez. I don't even think they're really doing much. The stories I've heard, they can pay a quarter million a month. Travis Hunter, $50,000 a month. He's like, that wasn't enough. $50,000 a month.

You

Jeremy (22:49.134)
That's enough for me.

Jeremy (22:53.58)
I just train and go to school?

Jeremy, you're not a sports fan. What's your opinion on rigging it? You don't have the luxury of being a watcher and a fan.

mean, ultimately, I think it's incredibly fucking wrong unless I've bet something. So that's my honest take.

You don't know what to bet on, you don't.

It's horrible. Unless I have money on the line, then shit. Just let it happen. It'll be all right. No. Like you were saying, Mike, it does. Some of these people train their entire fucking lives from childhood. I still don't know what I want to be. And I'm an adult, but I want to be a player when they're three years old and they work for it. And then they get up there and.

Jeremy (23:50.864)
the ref makes a shitty call because he got paid off so he can pay off his mortgage and his fucking abortions with his prostitutes and shit. mean, what the fuck? It's, it is not right. mean, if, if there's an underlying message that yes, it is scripted, that's one thing, but I also don't think anyone could necessarily be gambling on that.

think the outcomes of the game is more or less how you control it. can tell a certain team that you like, say the Patriots are supposed to win and they can make it look like they really tried and they can win by two points. And that's giving the fans a good game while still getting the results.

Yeah. And it keeps them locked in and it brings those people that may be a fresh start to the sport or to the team locked in. Like, man, I'm a, I'm a big Orlando magic fan now. Cause they won that game last night that I went to for the first time, man, that was awesome.

So my question is if the outcome is already predicted or already known, but it's a good game, is it justified?

I'm talking about like triple overtime nail biter, but you are like, they already knew who was going to win.

Jeremy (25:26.862)
I'm going to interject. You've got the entertainment side of this and then you've got the sportsman side of it. That's, what I'm starting to depict here is you've got, I really want to watch the show. want it to be entertaining. Even though, you know, the show is the Superbowl, for example, and I really truly want to know who the best team and the best players are. So I think it's a little double-sided there. Sorry, Mike, that question was for you.

You

I didn't really hear the question. Like, what's the question? No, no. Were you making a question, Jeremy? Or am I going off of Rico's question? If it's known and it's entertaining, is it still good? Yeah. I watch a lot of old sports stuff. I watch stuff on YouTube. And one of the things I watched last night was the ending of

Was it my question?

Mike (26:27.65)
the Duke North Carolina basketball game at Cameron indoor in 1995. One of the greatest games ever played, I think in basketball Duke wound up losing in double overtime to North Carolina by two, I think they wound up being, but it was one of Dick Vitale's greatest called games ever. And the pure excitement and the pure

athleticism of the game proved to me that there's no way it could have been rigged. And that's where the pure sport comes out. I love pure sport and you, you, you could tell Rico, you know, when a pure sport game is going on, guys are just fricking done on the basketball court. They're done on the field and you're looking for these heroes to, to get the

the winning score, the winning touchdown, whatever, the winning basket. You know when that's being exhausted and you know when stuff is, is bullshit as well. So yes, I am morally conflicted if it's an exciting game because of a possible

flag that wasn't thrown in an NFL game or a flag that was thrown to keep the game going, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, that's, you know, there's, there's the asterisk. There's always the asterisk. Like Barry, Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire's home run records. know, when, when Mark McGuire hit, uh, 60, 63, 63, 62, I can't remember, um, home runs in a single season.

that had an asterisk necessarily because of steroids. Same thing with Barry Bonds when he hit it, when he hit all his home runs to beat Hank Aaron. In my mind, Hank Aaron still holds that record.

Rico (28:33.687)
so we're talking about records. So what do you think about being out of bios? Everybody's been talking about it. I think we should touch on it.

I, I, he, he wants, he shot how many, what? 46 free throws. I think, I think points are points at the end of the day. 80, 83 points is a crazy amount of points to score in one game, whether it's by free throws, by layups, by three pointers, by dunks, whatever. 83 points is 83 points. I do think it will still get that asterisk though.

46, yeah.

Rico (29:10.336)
Yeah, yeah, definitely.

that because of that. That was the thing that stood out to me first thing that I saw when I looked at the stats line.

It's 4 to 6 free throws.

46 free throws. I'm like, that's a lot of free throws.

I think, think, congrats to him.

Mike (29:28.82)
Absolutely. I'm not denying his record at all.

If you look at it, because he, there's also Astrick next to Wilt, because nobody, like, alive saw the game. nobody really, I mean, yes, you could say he was playing against plumbers or whatever like that, but I guess, you know what saying? Like that's always, to me, if you didn't see it, you didn't see it. I saw Kobe's 81 and they were down at halftime. It was a competitive game. Do I believe they...

scripted Kobe to get 81. I don't believe so. It was just how they came back. They was down at halftime. This is one of the games I sat through and watched. well, like once again, that Astrick is important. I will put an Astrick by this one because it was the Wizards. He had 70 at halftime.

Yeah, but you know, Will got a hundred against the Knicks in 1962. It really wasn't that long ago. know, yeah, was Kennedy was president and things like that. But, you know, my parents were alive for that. It wasn't like it was, you know, 1800s. So I don't know. I don't know about putting an asterisk next to that, but.

I mean, okay, so if we don't do that out of bios is definitely he's number two, but I definitely put an asterisk next to it just because the 46 free throws was like a whopping number for me. Like I even think Shaq shot that many in his career.

Mike (31:09.07)
I'll give you the stat line for Wilts game. So he had a hundred points. had 23 in the first quarter, 18 in the second, 28 in the third, 38 and 31 in the fourth. To equal a straight 100. His field goal percentage, he was 36 of 63. He was just under 50%. He took 63 shots. Yeah. And he was 28 of 32 from the free throw line.

He still shot 32 free throws.

Yeah, so that's like, in that regard, is out of bio shot 46, he did 13, I think Kobe did 24.

He only shot he shot 14 more yeah and Kobe you're right Kobe had 24 so we even wilt shot more than Kobe fuck you

Sorry guys

Mike (32:03.822)
I don't think you can rig that. don't, you know, the NBA, as you know, calls a lot more fouls nowadays. Yeah. I mean, you you, you, look at it a referee wrong. They give you a technical.

And one of the Thunder players tried to block the freaking ball with his shoe. It was one of the funniest shit I saw on court. And I was like, wait, is that his shoe? He took his shoe off and tried to hit the ball. It was like too funny. He got a take for that, but that was deserving.

What's his name?

Rico (32:43.822)
But yeah, I agree with you. You look at the ref wrong, you say something wrong to the ref, the ref hear you say something about somebody else mama, you're the tech. And it's the craziest shit ever. I never understood them techs. You cannot be playing in the game and get a tech.

Who was it for the Celtics? Jason Tatum, couple years ago, bounced the ball wrong to a referee. Remember that one? Bounced the ball to the referee, kind of rolled his eyes and they teched him up. I was like, you gotta be shitting me.

It's almost as worse as the football players not letting them play, you know what saying? The no fun league, who came up with that? Yeah, the NFL. The sports is like, I don't really see nothing bad on soccer though. I guess I don't watch enough of it, but.

the No Fun League? Yeah.

Mike (33:29.442)
The NFL.

Mike (33:39.638)
Well, soccer, think, does it right now because they perfected video review quick and it's accurate. And they have a whole video review body watching every single second and moment. Have you ever listened to those VAR reviews in a soccer match? When they're talking, it's a thing of beauty. It really, they know.

It's

Mike (34:07.426)
They know what's wrong before the referee even sees it, be perfectly honest. But yeah, when the World Cup comes up, they're going to be using that VAR. You need to see that because they have some pretty cool technology.

Do they all share the same cup?

Yes.

Got any closing remarks on on spokes? goddamn spokes things.

I don't know, but I think that it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Rico (34:40.77)
Definitely.

Do we have a dark corner take on any of this?

I was just going to say, think that should lead us into the dark corner, the darkest corner.

Rico (35:00.782)
This one's gonna be a...

freestyle shorts because I have nothing relating to sports, but I do feel like I should speak on the sports. Like the rent is all the money that you pay these players. I think a portion of it should go somewhere else besides taxes. Like there's this player who gets paid a hundred million dollars and he didn't play like four games. Imagine the money.

that we are spending on watching millionaires play a game. It is crazy to me. Like these guys, after they ice up, they're in their million dollar home. It's crazy. The contracts need to come down because you're paying, they're only doing it for the money. Nobody's doing it for like, I love playing football or I love playing basketball. I want to get a super max contract. It's the new thing. And us average people who love watching the sport.

It's not enjoyable anymore, you know what saying?

No. Not at all.

Mike (36:08.43)
I agree.

I do.

Hit it.

Well, Jeremy, I think I think we got a solid argument in for sports betting and fixing on this one. Why don't you take it, take us out by.

Keller, we miss you buddy. We're sorry that your sickle cell anemia has taken its toll and you're having this blood transfusion. But, at least you don't have AIDS anymore.

Rico (36:44.47)
Hey, Skyler.

To get you through these rough times, here's one of my favorite nursery rhymes. Jack and Jill went up the hill so Jack could lick Jill's candy. Jack got a shock and a mouthful of cock because Jill's real name was Randy.

Peace motherfuckers!

Mike (37:15.222)
Holy mack-

you

you

Rico (37:31.822)
you

Mike (37:38.99)
Still Bread podcast is Daniel Keller, Jeremy Pope and Michael Kaliznik recorded live at SMG Studios, Division of SMG Communications. Executive producers, Michael Kaliznik and Tony Skippersen Clark.