Some sports stories simply seem too good to be true. Why have the New England Patriots been so successful in Super Bowls while the New York Jets (to borrow a phrase from sportswriter Jon Bois) just let football happen to them? According to some, it's because the games of the NFL were never real to begin with: Every season, start to finish, is supposedly "scripted" with a predetermined outcome.
The theory that professional sports are scripted is not new. Wrestling even has its own term, kayfabe, for the blend of athleticism and performance. But a purported TV news report from Jan. 18, 2024, according to a photo widely shared on social media, garnered widespread attention for potentially spoiling the matchup of the upcoming 2024 Super Bowl.
According to the photo post, Super Bowl 58 will pit the Baltimore Ravens against the San Francisco 49ers, with performances from Reba McEntire, Post Malone and Usher.
BREAKING: The #Ravens will play the #49ers in the SUPER BOWL, per the script that news stations received.
???
(Via @Noke_57) pic.twitter.com/KDZQP8T6Ej
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) January 21, 2024
Proponents of this claim cited the fact that the report listed the correct date for the game (Feb. 11, 2024) and the fact that all three artists were indeed scheduled to perform at the game, with McEntire and Post Malone singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "America the Beautiful," respectively, while Usher will perform the halftime show.
Some posts tried to back up the alleged news report by citing an interesting pattern in the Super Bowl logos themselves. Beginning with the 2022 Super Bowl, the NFL has used a colored logo for the game. In the two games played so far using that style of logo, the colors of the logo happened to match those of the teams playing, despite the fact that in every case the logo is unveiled long before the Super Bowl matchup is set. The Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams matched the 2022 Super Bowl logo's orange and yellow, while the red and green of the 2023 Super Bowl logo matched the colors of the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. For the 2024 Super Bowl, the logo supposedly featured purple (the main color of the Ravens) and red (the main color of the 49ers):
BREAKING: THE SCRIPT IS STILL IN PLAY. #Ravens, #49ers: Super Bowl is HAPPENING. pic.twitter.com/CbFUf7iWsl
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) January 21, 2024
We had limited success using reverse-image Google searches to attempt to identify the original source of the image. There were posts from Jan. 19, but none from Jan. 18, or earlier. Other outlets exploring the claim, like SFGate, had trouble identifying the origin of the image, too. That article listed a post on the Philadelphia Eagles subreddit as the earliest public example, and Snopes could not find anything earlier than that post, either.
However, we were able to confirm tha the photo was real and not edited through another method. The logo of the station in the photographs is from a Canadian TV station, CTV Vancouver Island. A representative from CTV explained the mishap via email:
"This incorrect information appeared on local news station CTV Vancouver Island, as part of a news feed provided by local radio station CFAX 1070AM. It was the result of human error, and was quickly corrected. The mistake was also addressed on the CFAX morning show."
We also reached out to the NFL, but we have found no verifiable evidence that any NFL game had ever been scripted.
It bears pointing out that the two teams featured in the above post both hold the No. 1 seed in their respective divisions, with the Ravens finishing the regular season at 13-4 and the Niners at 12-5. Holding the No. 1 seed in the conference gives those teams a first-round bye in the playoffs, an advantage that could be interpreted as giving those teams the best chance to advance to the Super Bowl. Further, most football fans would likely be willing to admit that the Ravens and the 49ers just look like the best teams in their respective conferences.
We speculate, but were unable to confirm, that someone at CTV may have simply chosen the two No. 1 seeds as placeholders and had forgotten to edit the title before it was aired.