No one has ever imagined this scenario, because it's truly a nightmare scenario.  The referees (or umpires in baseball) are *above* the sport.  They call and control the game.  They have always the bad guys and can never do anything correctly (in the eyes of fans).  When they screw up - like the NFL refs did too frequently during the 2005 playoffs, people scream to the heavens.  The Steelers/Colts game might not have been so exciting had Troy Polamalu's would-be interception have stood, but the call was made to overturn it.  Drama ensued - but not even lunatic Steeler fans claimed that the ref had the fix in.  They just said he was beyond incompetent to call a football game.  There are rants and raves, but I don't think that I've ever heard anyone - even lunatic talk radio hosts - go so far as to suggest that a referee deliberately threw a game.  That a ref, for reason or reasons unknown, changed the outcome of a game by making a call, or deliberately making a non-call.  There have been some rather egregious games called by umpires, too - Eric Gregg comes to mind.  He was behind the plate when the Marlins got into the World Series with Livan Hernandez on the mound.  Gregg's strike zone that night was about a foot wider than the plate in total.  But Gregg has long had a reputation as being a pitcher's umpire - meaning he gives them the call.  Umpires in baseball are not supposed to have different strike zones - theoretically they are all the same - and yet, they do.  But again: never once have they been accused of doing it deliberately.  Even hockey, with their two on-ice refs, have had their fair share of questioned calls.  But since no one bets on hockey...

The saddest part of  this Tim Donaghy mess - assuming, of course, that proof is found that he bet on games he called, and that the evidence suggests he threw games to fix it for betting - is that the NBA, the NFL, Major League Baseball and the NHL will all now have to immediately review every single one of their refereeing staff.  Unions be damned - the league has to review each ref's personal lives, including financial ones if it comes to that.  Gambling discussions will become mandatory for all refs - even the replay ones.  It's sad that all of the major sports leagues will have to change how they handle their refs to help ensure themselves, the players and most importantly the fans that the games are being played by the players with a reasonable assurance of accuracy and integrity in the calls made.  Look, refs and umps are going to screw up.  If your favorite baseball player can make an error, if Tom Brady can throw an interception, if LaDanian Tomlinson can fumble the football and if Dwayne Wade can miss a dunk, then the possibility of error always exists - in both players and refs.  You have to accept that as part of the game.  Now, however, there will be a darker side to this.  An evil side. 

The NBA may be in the worst position of them all.  All of the major sports leagues complain about referees and their calls.  But the NBA has had dark rumors of the fix being in swirling around it for years.  People lightly (and in some humor) have mentioned them for years.  What now, though?  One man does not mean the entire system is also under indictment, but honestly, conspiracy theorists (the sports kind) will look at this as some kind of proof that the NBA is not an honest sports league.  They will point at this and now every questionable call, every game decided by refs - like or not, it'll be in the back of people's minds that now, perhaps, the fix was in.  That's the saddest part of all.  People won't forgot this soon.  Hell, in baseball, the greatest sports-betting scandal of all time happened in 1919, and yet the Black Sox scandal doesn't die.  You think this Donaghy scandal will die?  It's damned unlikely, especially (most especially) if it's proven in a court of law, and Donaghy is convicted of the charges going to be brought against him.  And god help the NBA if those "low-level mob contacts" turn into something far more insidious.

The sports leagues will recover.  The NFL will act first - while Roger Godell is currently dealing with his own miscreant poster-child - he's paid attention.  I'm sure he's paid attention.  The NFL central offices are certainly already having meetings over this, and have probably already scheduled meetings with the head men in the referee staff.  They will be the first to introduce defensive measures, because they have to.  The sport is too popular, makes too much money and has too much gambling associated with it for them to allow ANY leak like this to occur.  NFL refs won't like it and will probably fight it to some degree, but the might of the NFL will come through.  Don't be surprised if whatever the NFL does - maybe annual financial reviews, or requirements that tax returns be submitted to the league - is mimicked in all major sports.  Don't be surprised if the NFL comes off looking like a furious 800-pound gorilla - because it has to.  It absolutely has to. 

And for that...we can thank Tim Donaghy.  Thanks, you jackass.