Top 5 Carolina Panthers squads

[readjack]

This is the Brian Tuohy view of sports: that EVERYTHING is rigged. I bought his first book and it's way too broad.

Brian doesn't believe that every game or event is rigged. He looks for certain storylines that leagues like to push (like Tebow in 2011), and he believes that the league will help out those storylines as much as possible.

He is following in the footsteps of Dan Moldea (author of the book Interference). Dan once said that there were eight fixed games in 1979 (I think that two of them involved the Eagles, but that's me).

I've got Interference on my shelf, and I included it in this short video on three great books about sports gambling:

https://www.tiktok.com/@readjack6/video ... 7892225311

I'll respectfully disagree with your view on Tuohy. He's talked about believing the sports are predominantly fixed. Look at the quote on his home page:

https://www.thefixisin.net/

CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF ASKING THE QUESTION:
"ARE PROFESSIONAL SPORTS FIXED?"
Would you leave a multi-billion dollar industry up to chance?

Now compare that to Interference. Right away in the prologue, Moldea explains specifically what he's exploring: how sports betting impacts sports. It's much more open-minded. He notes that the NFL confirms only two attempts to fix games, and he says there have been more attempts. But that's the key word: "attempts." He also describes why that's difficult, and where the limitations are. As he notes in the prologue: "As all gamblers know, bookmakers are not too concerned with which team wins or loses a particular game. They are concerned only with balancing their books, hoping that an equal amount of money is wagered on both teams in any given contest."

He adds: "Today, NFL games are rarely, if ever, fixed."

I think that's also key: "fixed" vs. "rigged." Brian Tuohy's most pervasive viewpoint (and why I only bought one of his books and stopped checking in with his Twitter, etc.), is that leagues are attempting to rig games and even seasons, all the way to the championship. Dan Moldea is arguing something much more narrow and more logistical: that gamblers attempt to influence games. His thesis, on page 25:

"What this book does is outline the patterns of association that have been tolerated by the NFL while the league and the federal government were claiming to take a hard line against organized crime and its influence on professional sports. In fact, the NFL has too often been lax in the enforcement of its own rules, and law-enforcement agencies have permitted the NFL to get away with it. This sweetheart relationship has greatly contributed to the myth about the integrity of the NFL."

Moldea then opens chapter 1 with a quote from Len Dawson: "It would be a dangerous thing to fix a game."

Continued in chapter 1, a bookie: "There were a lot of fixed games during the 1950s, but there's nothing like that anymore. ... Oddsmakers want honest football. We don't want anything dishonest. It interferes with our handicapping if the games are fixed. I can't get a true picture of the value of the teams."

There's another quote in here somewhere that I can't find right now, where I think a player talks about the almost impossible logistics of getting paid to fix a game, and how he couldn't figure out when he would collect the money.

And then this is key — Moldea speaking, page 31: "It is naive to think that the only litmus test of honest NFL football is whether or not its games are fixed. It is not. There are far more important considerations in making this determination." And he goes on to explain the value of inside information for gamblers.

Tuohy is a great researcher. Moldea is a great researcher. The difference between them, in my view, is what they do with what they find. Tuohy seems to have an emotional axe to grind against all of sports, and hence sports fans. A lot of his work includes chastising fans for caring about sports. He has a worldview and applies most of what he finds to that view.

Moldea doesn't care if we are sports fans. As he notes in the prologue, he's a crime reporter. His interest is in reporting on the criminal element in professional sports and explaining the various actors involved.

[Brian wolf]

Great posts everyone ... rigged, fixed, point shaving ... anything and everything is possible with NFL games, especially if you look at the history of how the games are officiated. Even recently, the NFL was considering replacement officials, if there was some type of strike at the end of May, as there was no collective bargaining agreement in place. How much do referees make per game as of 2026? Try under 28,000 per game. Even if oddsmakers, the fans, the betting public didnt believe that coaches or players participated in point shaving or the fixing of games, it doesnt mean the referees/officials couldnt be tempted, especially since they have never been considered full-time employees.

I can agree with the assessments of Brian Tuohy, but also am a fan of his website and agree that he has alot of persuasive arguments that can get lost in his pessimism and paranoia but he is right about what 7D brought up--the NFL's interest in backing/promoting storylines and their absolute need for high television ratings by any means necessary.

[Ten Minute Ticker]

I’ll have to check out Interference. Sounds interesting.

[readjack]

It's excellent.

If you're looking for something that is page-for-page as detailed but much shorter, I recommend this:

https://www.amazon.com/Cheating-Spread- ... 0252078756