Interference (74 page)

9
.  Responsible for arranging the loan was Kansas City Teamsters official Roy Williams, who was owned by the Civellas. Williams later became general president of the union. Also, six years before the pension fund loan, both Nick and Carl Civella, along with Motel Grezebrenacy of Kansas City, were listed in the original 1960 Las Vegas “Black Book,” a distinction for those who are forbidden to enter a Nevada casino. Other charter members include John Battaglia, Tom Dragna, Bobby Garcia, and Joe Sica of Los Angeles; Marshall Caifano, Sam Giancana, and Murray Humphreys of Chicago; and Mike Coppola of Miami and New York.

10
.  Coincidently, in the midst of the NFL investigation of Dawson and Robinson, the league suspended six game officials in December 1968 for the remainder of the season after they made a serious mistake that cost the Los Angeles Rams a down during the final seconds of their game against the Chicago Bears. The Bears won, 17-16. The error occurred while the game clock was running down and after a Rams lineman was cited for holding during a first-down play that resulted in an incomplete pass. The Rams were penalized ten yards. At the time of the penalty, the Rams were on the Bears thirty-two yard line.

When play resumed, the Rams should have had the ball first down and twenty-five on the forty-seven. Instead, the referee said it was second down and twenty-five. Rams quarterback Roman Gabriel then threw three more incomplete passes. Out of downs, according to the officials, the ball was turned over to the Bears with five seconds left in the game. The 10-2-1 Rams immediately lost the divisional championship to the 12-1 Baltimore Colts, whom the Rams played the following week in what would have been the decisive game.

The suspended officials were referee Norm Schachter, umpire Joe Connell, head linesman Burl Toler, line judge Jack Fette, back judge Adrian Burk, and field judge George Ellis. Toler received the blame for the mistake. However, all game officials are equally responsible for keeping track of the downs in a game.

There was no evidence of any wrongdoing among the officiating crew, which was considered among the best in the league.

11
.  The polygraph examinations were conducted by former FBI special agent Tom McShane. The fact that Dawson had taken the test was not revealed until January 1970.

12
.  One of the biggest problems faced by NFL Security is impersonations, people impersonating NFL players. “They were often involved in fraud and passing bad checks,” Danahy says. “Every year when the training camps were being conducted, we would get a rash of impersonators in the areas of the training camps. Some guy who looked and smelled like a football player would walk into a local bar with a couple of friends who would drop the word that he was Joe Schmoe, the new prized draftee of the local team. The next thing, he'd be writing a check to buy his friends a few drinks and whatever. Then two or three days later, we'd start getting calls from the owners of the bars, who were complaining that our ballplayers' checks had bounced. Of course, the ballplayers had been nowhere near the places. It was the impersonators.”

CHAPTER 21

1
.  The illegal device was a so-called spike mike, a microphone that contains a special crystal which, when slightly compressed, produces an electrical signal. In this particular case, the spike mike was placed on an eleven-inch rod drilled from the next-door row house and through the common wall between the two houses. The crystal was compressed against an air duct in the wall, which immediately turned into a huge receiver that monitored everything discussed in that room.

2
.  “Man-to-man” betting is straight up—with no 11-10 skim for the person booking the bet.

3
.  Handicappers, like Mort Olshan, who owns
The Gold Sheet
, have a different job than Martin does but do use his numbers. Olshan told me, “Bobby and I are really adversaries in this business. He puts up the line to attract public betting, and then I try to find the soft spots in his line.” Personally, Martin and Olshan are close friends, according to both men.

4
.  There had been trouble for Werblin over his handling of quarterback Joe Namath. When Namath walked out of practice, Ewbank fined him—but Werblin paid Namath's fine, saying, “Joe is a star. What applies to others doesn't necessarily apply to him.” During the 1967 exhibition season, Namath was discovered to have been out all night on New York's Upper East Side. When Jets head coach Weeb Ewbank ordered that he be fined again, Werblin replied, “I do not believe any player should be fined for such a thing. But Weeb runs the club.”

Later, during the 1967 regular season, the night before a game between
the Jets and the Denver Broncos, Werblin kept Namath out partying until 7:00 A.M. During the game later that day, Namath threw four interceptions and blew the Jets' chance for their first divisional championship. The Broncos won, 33-24.

The coup de grace was when Werblin signed Namath to a second three-year contract—without notifying his partners. Werblin was then given the “You buy us out or we buy you out” ultimatum. Werblin reportedly couldn't get the money together and sold his interest.

After leaving the Jets, Werblin became involved in horse racing and bought a yearling named Silent Screen for $39,000. In its third start, it won the $366,000 Arlington-Washington Futurity, which was sponsored by Marjorie Everett. From that win alone, Werblin won over $200,000. Werblin told reporter John Crittenden: “In football your inventory can cause you trouble overnight. Players can have a fight with their wives or girlfriends. They can stay out late drinking. They can feud with each other. They can pop off and make controversial headlines. Silent Screen, he gets to bed early, gets up early, drinks water, keeps his mouth shut, and does his work. Of course, I'm only kidding.”

Iselin died in December 1976, and Hess bought his interest in the team. In 1984, Hess became the sole owner of the Jets.

5
.  Bubba Smith of Michigan State had been the first college player selected in the first joint NFL-AFL draft in March 1967.

6
.  Bubba Smith and Hal DeWindt,
Kill, Bubba, Kill!
(New York: Wallaby, 1983), p. 130.

7
.  After a seven-year, 71-23-4 record with Baltimore, Shula left the Colts after the 1969 season. He was replaced by Don McCafferty. Shula had been courted by Joe Robbie and the Miami Dolphins, who offered him 10 percent of the team. Although Robbie signed Shula, the Dolphins' owner violated NFL rules in doing so, causing a personal dispute with Carroll Rosenbloom. Rozelle intervened and fined Robbie his team's 1971 first-round draft pick, giving it to the Colts as compensation under the Rozelle Rule. After a 3-10-1 season in 1969 under fired head coach George Wilson, who was formerly with the Detroit Lions, Shula led Miami to a 10-4 record and a spot in the play-offs. However, Rosenbloom culminated the 1970 season with the Colts defeating the Dallas Cowboys, 16-13, in Super Bowl V in January 1971.

8
.  Bernie Parrish,
They Call It a Game
(New York: Dial Press, Inc., 1971), p. 190.

9
.  Also, Colts quarterback Earl Morrall had played sensationally during the 1968 season and had been named the NFL's Most Valuable Player. In the 1969 Super Bowl, he completed only six passes in seventeen attempts for seventy-one yards and had three interceptions. He was replaced by Johnny Unitas in the third quarter of the game.

10
.  Joe Namath with Dick Schaap,
I Can't Wait Until Tomorrow … 'Cause I Get Better Looking Every Day
(New York: Random House, Inc., 1969), p. 54.

11
.  Lou Sahadi,
The Long Pass
(New York: World Publishing Co., 1969), p. 16.

12
.  Namath,
Can't Wait
, p. 65.

13
.  Lou Michaels and Frank Namath, Joe's brother, had been roommates at the University of Kentucky.

14
.  Michaels played for the Los Angeles Rams from 1958 to 1960, the
Pittsburgh Steelers from 1961 to 1963, the Colts from 1964 to 1969, and he finished his distinguished career with the Green Bay Packers at the end of the 1971 season. As of 1988, he ranked fourteenth on the all-time list for career field goals, making 187 in 341 attempts. Also, during his thirteen-year career, he made 386 of 402 extra-point attempts, which is fifteenth on the all-time list. He is also seventeenth on the all-time scoring list with 955 points.

CHAPTER 22

1
.  Joe Namath with Dick Schaap, I
Can't Wait Until Tomorrow … 'Cause I Get Better Looking Every Day
(New York: Random House, Inc., 1969), p. 13.

2
.  Ray Abruzzese had played his college football with Namath at Alabama where they were close friends. He was a defensive back with the Buffalo Bills from 1962 to 1964.

3
.  Carmine Trumanti was later convicted of narcotics trafficking and sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

4
.  The night before his meeting with Rozelle, Namath attended the opening of a restaurant owned by another member of the Jets, Gerry Philbin, a defensive end and later a member of the All-Time AFL Team. While celebrating with Philbin, Namath told several of his teammates that he was planning to quit football the following day.

5
.  Namath,
Can't Wait
, p. 15.

6
. 
Ibid
., pp. 31-32.

7
.  During a 1981 deposition for Rancho La Costa's 1981 libel suit against
Penthouse
, Meyer Lansky twice took the Fifth Amendment when asked about his alleged relationship with Namath.

8
.  Because of Wolman's troubled financial condition, which resulted from a disastrous construction project in Chicago, the NFL had considered taking over the administration of the franchise in October 1968. Upon the advice of the NFL, Wolman hired Bert Rose, the former general manager of the Minnesota Vikings, as an adviser. Wolman had also built the Spectrum arena in Philadelphia and owned Connie Mack Stadium and the Yellow Cab Company of Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey. Wolman had bought the Eagles for $5.5 million in December 1963.

9
.  Tose sold K. S. Canning to Walter Kidde and Company in 1969 for over two hundred thousand shares of Kidde stock, worth nearly $8 million.

10
.  David Harris,
The League: The Rise and Decline of the NFL
(Toronto: Bantam Books, 1986), p. 118.

CHAPTER 23

1
.  The Chiefs games taken off the boards in 1969 were the September 14 game against the San Diego Chargers, which the Chiefs won, 27-9; the September 21 game against the Boston Patriots, which the Chiefs won, 31-0; the September 28 game against the Cincinnati Bengals, which the Chiefs lost, 24-19; and the October 5 game against the Denver Broncos, which the Chiefs
won, 26-13. After the Denver game, the Chiefs remained on the boards for the rest of the season.

2
.  The IRS used the “pen register,” a device that is attached to a telephone line and then maintains a record of each number dialed.

3
.  I asked Don Dawson whether he had any knowledge about the inability of the IRS to receive wiretap authorization. Dawson replied, “I had called [attorney and Redskins president] Ed Williams up, and Ed said, ‘I'll get to John Mitchell and see what the story is.' Williams told me that Mitchell said, ‘It's too hot to handle. I can't touch it, Eddie.' And it was too hot to handle because there were players involved, and nobody wanted to mess with the NFL.”

Also, at the time of the investigation, legislation authorizing an intense crackdown on organized crime's involvement in professional and college sports by the IRS was also stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

4
.  When the gambling investigation became public, Joe Namath—who had been forced by the NFL to sell Bachelors III just the previous year—was named as being among those players involved with Don Dawson. However, Namath denied knowing Dawson.

Supporting Namath, a top IRS official involved in the investigation told me that “Namath was never a target of the investigation. We had no idea where the media came up with his name. We had nothing on him at all.”

Another Jets player named in news reports was tight end Pete Lammons.

Dawson told me that he didn't know either Namath or Lammons. However, Dawson added, “Joe bet pretty good.” He claims that he knew a bookmaker in Miami with whom Namath did business.

5
.  Nick Civella was convicted for running an interstate sports-bookmaking operation in 1970.

6
.  Len Dawson's father died in November 1969, the day before a game between Kansas City and the New York Jets. Dawson played in that game and won it for his dad, 34-16. Dawson told me that after the game, he flew home to Alliance, Ohio, for the funeral. Don Dawson called him at his parents' home.

7
.  Stram had been an assistant coach at Purdue, his own alma mater, for part of the time that Dawson had played his college ball there; the two men had developed a close friendship as well as a player/coach relationship.

8
.  Marty Ralbovsky,
Super Bowl: Of Men, Myths and Moments
(New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1972), p. 113.

9
.  In lieu of taking the game off the boards, the oddsmakers simply allowed the line to skyrocket. Initially, Minnesota was considered a three-point favorite. When Len Dawson was named as a possible target of the grand-jury investigation, the line jumped to nine and then to thirteen by kickoff. The ten-point variance in the spread indicated that gamblers believed that Kansas City would be slaughtered in anticipation of Dawson's collapse under the extreme pressure he was under.

10
.  Just the previous week, Detroit Tigers pitching star Denny McLain had been hauled before a federal grand jury in Detroit investigating his relationship with a Michigan bookmaker since 1967. He was also implicated with Detroit Mafia figures Tony and Vito Giacalone, both of whom figured prominently in the 1963 Detroit Lions betting scandal. McLain, who was suspended
by baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, was later indicted and convicted of racketeering and narcotics trafficking.