can anyone prove that a sports franchise has ever purposely lost games to have a higher draft pick?

[Breezy]

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/bucs/2020/05/15/saints-sean-payton-bucs-tanked-to-draft-jameis-winston/

[Wes21]

48 minutes ago, Jesse said:

Isn’t that the reason the NBA has the draft lottery to prevent teams from intentionally tanking?

Yep.  And they even tweaked the formula for the lottery because the 76ers were abusing it.

[GOAT]

25 minutes ago, Breezy said:

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/bucs/2020/05/15/saints-sean-payton-bucs-tanked-to-draft-jameis-winston/

pfffft okay sean payton

[GOAT]

27 minutes ago, Varking said:

Trading your best players isn’t trying to win now. It’s trying to win in the future. What is tanking?

I feel like I'm never going to get you to understand how losing on purpose is not a real thing in the NFL.

[ForJimmy]

Doesn’t really happen in the NFL. The closest thing is trading away their top players to gain draft capital like the Dolphins did. They still won several games with a weak roster and were playing to win every game. They even put Fitzmagic in to try to get wins. Imagine intentionally losing games aka throwing away a season to draft a player that doesn’t work out...

People bring up CMC. He obviously isn’t fully healed, but is healthy enough to play if we were in the playoff hunt. We aren’t going to risk another injury on him once we were eliminated. However the coaches and players are still going to prepare and do what it takes to win.

[Varking]

6 minutes ago, GOAT said:

I feel like I'm never going to get you to understand how losing on purpose is not a real thing in the NFL.

It’s a thing organizations do. Not players. Don’t be dense. 

[pantherj]

When the Saints or any other team sits their starters they are intentionally losing a game, and the result might be a higher draft pick.

[GOAT]

1 minute ago, Varking said:

It’s a thing organizations do. Not players. Don’t be dense. 

you've given me one example of a team trading away picks to acquire draft capital as proof of an NFL organization tanking.

do better.

[Varking]

4 minutes ago, GOAT said:

you've given me one example of a team trading away picks to acquire draft capital as proof of an NFL organization tanking.

do better.

You’ve given me no proof that no team has ever not tried to tank. Do better. 

[GOAT]

Just now, Varking said:

You’ve given me no proof that no team has ever tried to rank. Do better. 

[pantherj]

You can't convince players to intentionally play poorly because the tape on them is their resume. The best you can do as a coach is sitting the starters, which might as well be a forfeit of the game. 

[Varking]

Just now, pantherj said:

You can't convince players to intentionally play poorly because the tape on them is their resume. The best you can do as a coach is sitting the starters, which might as well be a forfeit of the game. 

Which Tampa did to get Winston. 

[GOAT]

alright let's hear some other theories, not really getting the kind of info I'm looking for.

[Varking]

You never explained how it wasn’t tanking for Winston