TV news station sparks NFL ‘script’ conspiracies with Super Bowl leak

Maybe it was just a typo, but a TV station in Canada tantalized conspiracy theorists who believe the NFL has a Super Bowl “script.”

For years, the NFL has been accused of rigging its product, a conspiracy that was hilariously fueled by former running back Arian Foster. Even the NFL recently leaned into the idea that it hands every team a script before the season, creating a “table read” hype video last summer. The NFL, of course, did it as a joke, mocking the idea that the league is rigged.

Try telling that to the conspiracy theorists.

But on the off chance the script is real, and it got in the hands of CTV News Vancouver Island, the Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions probably don’t need to show up to their conference championship games this weekend. Last Thursday morning, as the network’s chyron scrolled through the top news stories, it casually implied the Super Bowl LVIII matchup in Las Vegas was already set.

“Reba McEntire, Usher, and Post Malone are slated to perform at San Francisco 49ers & Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl match-up on February 11,” the chyron read.

Well, well, well, what have we here? A Canadian news station knows the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens are going to be playing in the Super Bowl before either team even played a playoff game? Naturally, the Ravens and 49ers both won their Divisional Round playoff games on Saturday, keeping the conspiracy alive.

Maybe the news broadcast just used the 49ers and Ravens as a placeholder since they were the two top seeds in each conference, but again, try telling that to the conspiracy theorists. Still, there’s one thing that just doesn’t make sense about this conspiracy: Why would the NFL go through all the trouble of rigging a season and opt to have it end without Taylor Swift in attendance for the Super Bowl?

[CTV News Vancouver Island]