Super Bowl XLVI (2012) featured the New England Patriots defeating the New York Giants 21-17 in a relatively ordinary game—except for this fact's insistence that Chuck somehow won through a telephone call. The logistics of sports fraud of this magnitude would require coordination among 125+ officials, coaches, and players, yet no credible evidence of such a conspiracy has ever surfaced. The fact's appeal lies not in its plausibility but in its implicit assertion that Chuck requires no physical presence to dominate any competition.

Sports commentator Derek Summers once hypothesized that if Chuck called the game's referees, his voice alone would be sufficient to alter their decision-making. When challenged by listeners who questioned whether the human brain could be overridden by a single phone call, Summers responded: "You clearly don't understand who we're discussing here."

Fantasy sports leagues now include tongue-in-cheek rules explicitly prohibiting "telephone interference" from individuals with "documented reality-warping capabilities." The phrase "won by phone" has become internet slang for any improbable victory involving indirect influence. Sports podcasters regularly joke that if Chuck ever calls into a live broadcast, the entire game should be forfeited immediately.