Documented conspiracies in sports have a long history, and are at least as old as the Black Sox scandal of 1919. Nevertheless, when charges of collusion among players, referees, coaches or owners are leveled, these are often immediately dismissed as “conspiracy theories.” In this paper we employ sport as a model for the discursive work performed by the epithet “conspiracy theory.” Through a content analysis of print media we demonstrate that, as is the case in politics, the labelling of critics of power in sport as “conspiracy theorists” serves to deflect criticisms of illegal or unethical behavior.