I was listening to the "Best of the Jim Rome Show" on the radio the other day and I caught his interview with Michael Franzese, a former member of the Colombo family.
This guy was a big time mob guy who, after serving time, has become a motivational speaker. At least, until whoever's left of the Colombo's gets a hold of him. Hopefully that won't happen any day soon, because he gave an eye-opening interview.
Most of us know that the mob was (and probably still is) connected to gambling. And athletes and officials with a gambling problem or a debt are offered an "easy" way out. Just shave a few points, miss a few fouls, blow a few calls to cover the spread, and your money problems are over.
According to Franzese, who enforced the collection of those debts, it was rampant throughout college and professional sports.
That brings up the question: just how naive are we, as sports fans?
You would think in the days of 24-hour sports networks, and a rampant, invasive media-driven culture we'd know all about any illegal actions and any gambling problems of every professional and high-profile college player.
But in the days of Internet gambling and...
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