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Wednesday, February 8, 2006
Sports world craves, fears gambling
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Two days after the biggest betting event of the year - the Super Bowl, duh - it was learned that Wayne Gretzky’s assistant coach faces charges for bankrolling a gambling ring believed to have ties to the Mob. This case has the potential to be the most damaging sports scandal since the Black Sox, and it serves to underscore the thin line the American sporting world seeks to walk.
On the one hand, the sporting world harrumphs that gambling on games is unconscionable. At the same time, the sporting world winks as betting lines are published in nearly every newspaper (this one included) and an estimated half-billion dollars is wagered on the Super Bowl through online (and offshore-based) sites and in Las Vegas. And that doesn’t count the illegal action being handled by your friendly neighborhood bookie.
The sporting world - this includes colleges and high schools as well as the professional realm - wants to assure us that everything is above-board, but common sense and a knowledge of human nature tells us that not everything could possibly be. There’s too much money being thrown about, too many games being played. Surely somewhere one or two of them is being fixed. The sporting world has gotten incredibly lucky in that its links to gambling have come to light so seldom.
We’ve read of the Black Sox, who threw the 1919 World Series. We remember Pete Rose, who finally admitted he’d bet on baseball. We know NFL stars Paul Hornung and Alex Karras were suspended for the 1963 season after placing bets on pro football. We might even remember the basketball point-shaving tempests at Kentucky (late ’40s to early ’50s) and Boston College (late ’70s). But that, as far as gambling scandals go, is roughly the extent of public knowledge. Are we so naïve as to believe that no other funny business was ever done?
If so, Tuesday’s news delivered an icy slap of reality. Rick Tocchet, a respected former NHL ruffian, was accused of financing a multimillion-dollar bookmaking ring, which, given that he’s also a Phoenix Coyotes assistant coach, makes him quite the multi-tasker. The Coyotes are coached by Wayne Gretzky, the most revered figure in his sport. Gretzky is married to the former actress Janet Jones, who is reported to have placed bets with Tocchet’s operation. How that’s for a combo platter - stars, sleaze and sex appeal?
No current NHL player has been accused of betting on hockey, though it’s alleged that a handful of them bet on something. (More than 1,000 bets totaling $1.7 million were uncovered by the New Jersey State Police’s felicitously named Operation Slapshot.) No sport can afford to appear as if it’s condoning any sort of illegal gambling. Why? Because if we can’t trust the results of games, pretty soon we’ll stop buying tickets.
That’s the party line, anyway. The reality is somewhat more complicated. Would the Super Bowl be the most-watched event of every year if not for “friendly” wagering? Would the NCAA tournament have such broad-based appeal without the existence of office pools? (Ask Rick Neuheisel, fired as the Washington football coach after winning $12,000, about the lure of such pools.) If the sporting world deigned to look hard into its relationship with gambling, would the sporting world still exist?
There are those who believe Michael Jordan’s first retirement was actually an accommodation with the NBA, which had grown uneasy about reports of the great man’s love of gambling. There are those who believe that’s how the sporting world chooses to mask its unholy alliance - by sweeping everything under an expensive rug. But once in a great while, outside authorities take it upon themselves to do a little digging. Operation Slapshot could wind up throwing dirt on all of sports, not just the NHL. Operation Slapshot could make an unholy mess.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Thrashers / NHL
One happy ending
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Talk about a storybook beginning, middle and end to a football season. No, this isn’t about those Jerome Bettis chapters, which were nice. Maybe you heard that the Pittsburgh Steelers running back ended his Hall of Fame career on a winning note with his homecoming to Detroit.
This is about those Hines Ward chapters, which kept getting better and better. I mean, after holding out for parts of training camp, he became a significant force during the regular season and a primary one throughout the Steelers’ playoff run to a world championship.
Then, to punctuate matters, Ward did more than enough at wide receiver against the Seattle Seahawks to earn most valuable players honors in the Super Bowl.
Here’s the part of that storybook that I like the most: The final chapter. We’re talking about a guy who has this captivating smile nearly every second of his life. We’re also talking about a guy who has owned a tattoo of a smiling Mickey Mouse on his right bicep since his days at Forest Park High School.
In other words, Ward was the definitive person to do the “I’m going to Disney World� commercial that comes with becoming the Super Bowl MVP. I mean, it was Mickey on his biceps meeting Mickey in the flesh. And Ward even included that other storybook guy be proclaiming, “And I’m taking the Bus (Bettis), too.�
Perfect. Just perfect.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Quick Hit, Terence Moore
