Interference (43 page)

Davidson needed a favor and asked Hauser to help—not knowing that Hauser had been flipped by the government. Hauser responded by bringing the two undercover agents to the meeting, and they asked Davidson to introduce them to Marcello. They explained that they needed the underworld boss in order to obtain major insurance contracts in Louisiana.

In addition to wiring Hauser, an electronics surveillance device had been placed in the ceiling above Marcello's desk. During the conversations, according to federal agents, Murchison's name was picked up numerous times on tape because Davidson had served as a go-between for the NFL team owner and Marcello. Murchison and Marcello were involved in negotiations for the sale of a portion of Marcello's estate, Churchill Farms.

In the midst of Hauser's tapings of Marcello—in which he made a thinly veiled admission that he had arranged the 1963 murder of President John Kennedy—Murchison's name was brought up several times in connection with a wide range of business deals. The tapes detailed Davidson's role as a go-between for Marcello and Murchison on a land deal and a bank purchase the two men were negotiating. The FBI sting operation became known as Brilab, which had broadened into an investigation of bribery of labor union officials and politicians in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Davidson—who was indicted in the Brilab case along with Marcello and three others—admitted that he had introduced FBI sting man Hauser to Marcello and vouched for him. However, Davidson was acquitted.

Marcello was later convicted and finally sent back to prison. At the mob boss's sentencing hearing, a federal judge told Marcello, “You've led a life of crime. The record shows that. By any evaluation, I think it's fair to say you're a bad man.”

Murchison was neither prosecuted nor investigated further. There also was no known investigation of Murchison by the NFL.

Another NFL owner had proven that he could maintain a direct link to a major organized-crime figure without any reprisals from the league.

35 More Players and Bookmakers

WHILE NFL OWNERS MAINTAINED their close connections with members of the organized-crime syndicate with little or no exposure from law-enforcement agencies, the league, or even the sports media, several incidents involving NFL players did receive considerable attention.

After a widely publicized 1977 investigation of ten Miami Dolphins players, the team's all-pro quarterback Bob Griese was threatened by the NFL with a stiff fine “for associating with a suspected bookmaker,” thirty-seven-year-old J. Lance Cooper, a former golf pro and Miami real estate broker.
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Cooper had been arrested in November 1976 with four other bookmakers who were charged with illegal gambling.

After reading about the arrest, Dolphins coach Don Shula notified the NFL that some of his players knew Cooper. Shula cooperated fully with the probe—which included wiretaps on Cooper's house and office that were authorized by the local district attorney. A big team booster who had bought carpeting for the Dolphins' clubhouse, Cooper had enjoyed free access to the Dolphins' locker room and practice field for seven years up to the time of his arrest.

Shula told reporters, “When I first came down here, I met him [Cooper] as a friend of some of the players who were on the 1970 Dolphins. I accepted him as a friend of theirs … He was welcome at practice. There were times when I saw him in the locker room, talking to some of the players he knew pretty well.”

The names of Shula and three players—Griese, backup quarterback Earl Morrall, and defensive end Bill Stanfill—were found in Cooper's address book, according to the Miami police.

NFL Security chief Jack Danahy explained that there were “people in the Dolphins organization who were aware that Cooper had some interest in gambling.” Cooper reportedly swore that he had “never used any of the ballplayers for … gambling purposes.” However, he later admitted during a polygraph examination that he had passed on information about the Dolphins to organized-crime figures. He pleaded guilty to the gambling charges and was sentenced to two years probation and fined $1,500.

“I've probably known Lance longer than any of the other players,” Griese told Edwin Pope of
The Miami Herald
. “I got to know him through Jack Clancy [an ex-Dolphin receiver]. I met Lance through Jack, and then I went to work in the real estate business and eventually so did Lance and Jack. Lance was a golfer. We probably played golf once or twice together way back when. He's been coming around our practices for a long time, maybe as far back as the late 1960s.”

No fines were leveled against any NFL personnel. “We have found no evidence of wrongdoing and found no reason to fine anyone,” said Jim Kensil, Commissioner Rozelle's deputy.

Also investigated by NFL Security in a separate incident was Craig Morton, the quarterback of the American Football Conference champions, the Denver Broncos, who, in early January 1978, was found to have been in serious financial trouble just prior to Super Bowl XII—despite his $150,000-a-year salary. Like Len Dawson in 1970, Morton was besieged by reporters during the week before the game and asked embarrassing questions about a $38,000 bank loan and a $34,635 IRS lien against him. The obvious concern was whether Morton was considering short-cutting his money problems, placing some bets, and then taking a dive in the Super Bowl.

Advised by the Broncos' quarterback coach, Babe Parilli, Morton refused to dignify most questions with an answer and took the high road, denying that he really had any financial problems.

When finally confronted during a press conference, he told reporters, “Everyone come in close. I'm going to talk about this once and then I'm not going to discuss it anymore. It's all being
taken care of. We've talked to the Internal Revenue Service, and the matter will be settled. I've paid the taxes I thought I owed, and then another amount was added on. That's about it. It's really not important. It's not on my mind. Now, any more questions?”

When asked about his money problems again later, Morton repeated, “Everything is being taken care of … I've already paid the IRS about sixty thousand dollars. They didn't accept some of the things I claimed [as deductions]. And now they want some more money.”

Denver's opponent in the Super Bowl was the Dallas Cowboys, with whom Morton had played from 1965 to 1974. Morton had been the Cowboys' quarterback in Super Bowl V in 1971, completing only twelve of twenty-six passes for a mere 127 yards and one touchdown. He also threw three interceptions as Dallas lost to the Baltimore Colts with five seconds left in the game, 16-13. In Super Bowl VI the following year, Morton was benched in favor of Roger Staubach, who led the Cowboys to a 24-3 win over the Miami Dolphins.

While with the Dallas team, Morton also ran into financial difficulties and filed for bankruptcy. Although he recovered after opening a Dallas discotheque, he nearly lost everything again when another business venture, a Dallas restaurant, collapsed.
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Morton was traded to the New York Giants in 1974 and remained there until 1976. During those three years, the Giants' records were 2-12 in 1974, 5-9 in 1975, and 3-11 in 1976.

However, after being traded to Denver in 1977, Morton, who had become a born-again Christian, experienced a resurrection, leading the Broncos to a 12-2 season, the best record in the NFL. In one of the two games Denver lost—that against Dallas in the last game of the regular season—Morton played only one series of downs. Dallas, which was a five-point favorite, won, 14-6. After stunning victories against Pittsburgh in the divisional play-off game and against Oakland for the AFC championship, Denver, although still five-point underdogs, went to the 1978 Super Bowl in New Orleans to face Dallas brimming with confidence.

However, unlike Len Dawson in 1970, Morton could not rise to the occasion under all the pressure he was under in the Super Bowl. In the first half alone, he threw four interceptions and his teammates gave away three fumbles. After completing only four of fifteen passes for a game total of nineteen net yards, Morton was replaced by Norris Weese early in the fourth quarter. The
Broncos lost to Dallas, 27-10. Morton said after the game, “They beat us at our own game—taking turnovers. So many times this season, other teams gave us all those turnovers. Today it was just our turn.”

Later that year, on December 18, 1978, yet another incident involving a bookmaker and active NFL players occurred—but this matter was hushed up for nearly four years, even after a state law-enforcement agency notified the NFL, in writing, of the problem.

On that December day, Georgia state law-enforcement officials raided the house of convicted bookmaker Bennie R. Fuqua, who was operating a $500,000-a-year gambling operation. Inside the house, agents found two NFL players present: all-pro safety Jake Scott of the Washington Redskins, and Craig T. Hertwig, a former offensive tackle for the Detroit Lions. Scott was a life-long friend of Fuqua.
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Neither player was charged during the raid.

During my interview with Fuqua, who was the target of wiretaps, he told me, “I've lived here at the same house since 1962. I wasn't doing any gambling out of here. I have my business somewhere else. And the police just came here. They searched the place but didn't find anything. Really, they just came here to arrest me and lock me up for bookmaking. See, I had someone else working for me. And he called me one day at home and said, ‘Twenty-six [a bettor's code] made a bet with you on some team at five and a half.' And I said to him, ‘Stupid, why are you calling me here?' So that was the basis for the arrest.

“Jake and Craig were here visiting. Scott was living here at the time. But it's not a gambling house.”

Fuqua denies that he ever received any inside information from either player. “Anyone who ever gave me inside information were usually the biggest losers—and that goes for coaches, football players, and radio announcers. What I do, I do. And that is separate from any relationship I have with Jake and Hertwig.”

The raid occurred two days after the Redskins were upset by the four-and-a-half-point underdog Chicago Bears, 14-10, in Washington. Fuqua reportedly won $1,700 betting against the Redskins.

Fuqua told me that he doesn't remember betting on that particular game. “I very seldom bet. If I bet anything, it's only a hundred or two hundred dollars. If they [Scott and Hertwig]
ever bet, they bet with someone else. I told them that they were stupid if they do. And I wouldn't have anything to do with it.”

Hertwig, an all-American from the University of Georgia and a two-year starter with the Lions, had been released by Detroit during the 1978 preseason. He was picked up by the Bills for the last game of the season—the week before the raid on Fuqua's house—but did not play. The Bills, who were three-point underdogs, lost that game to the Baltimore Colts, 21-14. Hertwig was later accused by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations of being a payoff man for Fuqua. Both Fuqua and Hertwig denied the charge.

Despite being notified about the raid, the NFL did not even question the two players. Scott played in the 1979 preseason with the Minnesota Vikings before being released, and Hertwig played his preseason with the Buffalo Bills before being cut.

When I asked Scott about the incident, he replied, “We're just simple people who like to have fun.”

While violations of NFL rules regarding the association between NFL personnel and bookmakers continued, the league's drug problems intensified as well. In May 1977, Randy Crowder and Don Reese of the Miami Dolphins were arrested for selling a pound of cocaine to an undercover agent for $233,000. Dolphins owner Joe Robbie immediately suspended both players.

After Robbie suspended them, Crowder and Reese filed a grievance with the NFL Players Association, charging that Robbie had assumed their guilt before their trial. A subsequent hearing ruled in the players' favor, with Robbie being ordered to reinstate or trade them.

Robbie angrily replied, “What will happen if two players are arrested for fixing a football game? Will their owner be prohibited from suspending them until they are tried in court so that they can play under indictment? What happens in the case of a player who bets against his own team?” The Dolphins' owner then released the two players and announced that he was going to file suit against both the NFL and the NFLPA.

Also implicated in the Dolphins drug scandal was an Eastern Airlines stewardess Camille Richardson, who cooperated with law-enforcement officials. She testified that she had done cocaine with nine NFL players, including six members of the Dolphins. With Richardson's testimony, Crowder and Reese decided to
plead guilty. However, no other players were named or indicted. Richardson received a suspended sentence. The two players each received a one-year prison sentence. Soon after, Robbie dropped his suit against the league and the players' union.

“There is this incredible ability by the American public and even the NFL to distinguish drug dealers and bookmakers from organized crime,” a top Strike Force attorney told me. “When a player has been doing drugs, he has been associating with a dealer who has ties to the underworld. That is a fact of life. Although there are gamblers and bookmakers who will have nothing to do with drugs and drug dealing on principle, I really doubt that there are many drug dealers who are principled enough to refuse to gamble on NFL games and to exploit those players whom they are supplying.”

36 Car Dealers' Bonanza

SINCE THE ALLEGED FIXES in 1951 by a crooked referee, game officials in the NFL have become targets of close scrutiny by the league. A thorough background check is conducted on all potential candidates for these crucial positions on the football field. This is necessary because most referees accept their jobs on a part-time basis. When not in striped shirts and knickers, with whistles around their necks, they are wearing tailored suits and running businesses, practicing law, selling insurance, or teaching school, among other full-time professions.