Masuk Free Press

The Super Bowl is an American classic, dating all the way back to 1967 in a combination of the two best teams in the NFL. The winner of the game is deemed the world champions, and teams every year strive for that title. This year, the 60th Super Bowl will be played by champions of the AFC, the New England Patriots; and the champions of the NFC, the Seattle Seahawks. This is a rematch of Super Bowl XLIX (49). However, some fans speculate that the NFL has some sort of influence on what goes on during the season. This could either be by influencing the officiating or other facets of the game. There many rumours and theories that fans throw out there, and some are more believable than you think. 

There are so many different ways that fans conjecture that the league is scripted. Whether it be the famous color logo theory, where the colors of the Super Bowl logo predict the teams in the game, or theories about unfair officiating to give  certain teams advantages, fans really go anywhere to prove that the league is scripted. 

“The Super Bowl is scripted because the Patriots had a cupcake schedule, and Bo Nix’s ankle was ‘broken’ so they could rematch against the Seahawks,” said sophomore Brian Hourigan.

As you can see, there are many avenues to drive down. However, the NFL does a poor job of defeating the theories because at the end of the day, their goal is to make money. Forcing the games most popular stars into the big game is a smart move – but it is near impossible to get athletes who are paid to win, to intentionally lose. Obviously, the only way to get teams to lose is to have unfair officiating that benefits one team and harms another’s chances of winning. Some examples that fans point to are the New Orleans Saints versus Los Angeles Rams in the 2019 NFC Championship, and the Dallas Cowboys versus Green Bay Packers in the 2015 NFC Divisional Round. 

“[The NFL] also conveniently had other superstar quarterbacks miss the playoffs,” said Hourigan.

Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and Lamar Jackson all missed the playoffs in 2025. They all incurred injuries at some point during the season, allowing for new players to have the opportunity to win. Parity is something that the NFL has needed, because the Kansas City Chiefs have been in the mix since the turn of the decade. On the other hand, for the NFL to play puppet master and intentionally influence the season, everything about it would need to be perfect.

“I don’t think [the NFL] is scripted,” said junior Kauan De Sant’anna, “scripting something like that would be impossible because there’s so many moving parts and it’s been around for such a long time.”

The NFL has played into its script-writing allegations, with a commercial in 2023 that aired before the season stating, “you can’t make this stuff up.” Also, they created an instagram post in August of 2025 that was meant to be a teaser for the upcoming season. Players from all 32 NFL teams are seen in the photo, standing in front of the Super Bowl stadium. At the front of the group, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold and New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye are conveniently positioned in the front of the crowd of players, symbolizing that they would be the last two standing.

“They knew what they were doing with the instagram post,” said sophomore Quinn Cottrell. 

Whether intentional or not, the NFL has not done a very good job with silencing the critics, as year after year it seems that there is something new that sounds like the NFL is a planned event. 

Conspiracies are fun to think about and talk about friends, both concerning football and others about aliens and other worldly events. While some believe them strongly, and others think they’re ridiculous, they add another layer of fun to the game. 

Nevertheless, if the NFL is really scripted, or just a victim of constant coincidence, fans love to speculate in either direction. The never-changing theories about one-sided officiating, marketing the game’s best stars and patterns that predict the future will never cease. On the other hand, the complexity of a sport like football makes for an impossible task in planning it out. However, the NFL can’t seem to avoid random fan-generated hypotheses every year. Independent of what each fan thinks, these theories give fans more reason to stay invested in the Super Bowl every year.