Posted on 02/09/2006 10:28:42 AM PST by fanfan
Turin, Italy -Tell me you didn't cringe when you read it. The New Jersey State Police's press release on Operation Slap Shot mentioned an illegal high-rollers gambling operation with connections to the mafia, and an investigation that could well drag down a National Hockey League coach, up to a dozen or more players ... and an owner.
Please, tell me it's not that owner.
Please tell me it's not the owner whose employee and close friend is Rick Tocchet, the Phoenix Coyotes assistant coach who is in deep trouble as the financier of the gambling ring, allegedly with a little help from the mob. Tell me it's not the owner whose wife, actress Janet Jones, has already been named by the cops as a major player. Please tell me that all those arrows pointing in one direction are pointing to the wrong guy.
Please tell me the legend who never put a foot down wrong, who stickhandled past every kind of trouble that so effortlessly seems to trip up merely mortal millionaire sports stars, isn't the one whose name the police have found in the betting slips.
Not Wayne Gretzky. Please. Not The Great One.
Can't you feel the chill, Canada? We wait for the names to come spilling out, as they surely will in the days ahead, wondering if the ones who've had brushes with gambling in the past - Jaromir Jagr, Keith Tkachuk, Jeremy Roenick - will be among them. But most of all, we wonder if the unthinkable could be true: if arguably the greatest hockey player of all could have slipped some money to his wife to add to her own wagers on games.
The best-case scenario, that none of the auxiliary players actually broke any laws, is still plenty sordid. Unless you believe that Wayne and Janet never talked about her wins and losses.
The worst-case scenario is so disillusioning, it is hard to write. The facts do not, at the moment, support these thoughts - at least, not all of them - but what if, among the wagers these big-name sports stars and minor celebrities made, were some on hockey games? What if Janet didn't use her own inside knowledge to make the bets? What if some of the info was in the form of pillow talk with her famous husband, who has friends in every major pro sport? What if money she gambled came from the family bank account?
If you read between the lines, you see how this is going to play out from Gretzky's end. It is the only way he can play it.
"Listen, first of all, my wife is my best friend, so my love for her is deeper than anything," he said the day the story broke. "The reality is, I'm not involved. I wasn't involved. I'm not going to be involved."
That sounds pretty unequivocal. Especially that last sentence. He knows there is nothing to be found that will implicate him. And yet, the news is sad. Some little piece of the goodness that has always seemed to surround The Great One has a smudge on it, for the moment.
The circumstantial evidence is disturbing, if far from conclusive. His wife. His good friend. His history of working for, or with, an assortment of owners ranging from the merely unsavoury to the outright crooked. That he has survived all of that, untarnished by them, speaks to his excellent instincts for doing the right thing.
But there is no doubting he fits the profile of the people the New Jersey police are investigating. Wealthy, celebrity, former hockey player, owner. And sadly, we all know that many of the biggest names in sports have gambled and lost, from Shoeless Joe Jackson to Paul Hornung to Gretzky's great good friend, Michael Jordan, whose habits extended from huge wagers on golf games to a propensity for casinos.
The higher the salary, the bigger the bets. Sports figures love the rush. The Edmonton Oilers loved to make golf bets that hurt, in Gretzky's playing days.
But there are no good people in gambling, only shades of crummy.
Which is why the NHL has language in its bylaws and conducts preseason lectures on the dangers. And specific wording forbidding betting on hockey games. So far, there is no hard evidence that Tocchet's crowd ever did that. But the Jersey police haven't ruled it out, either.
Their pictures are all over the news channels and the front pages now, Wayne and Janet. In happier times.
It's got to be killing the NHL. It's got to be killing Team Canada, whose arrival in Turin on Tuesday morning was going to be a triumphant one for the defending gold medallists. But now, the head of the delegation is going to be here, holding the bag for his wife and his buddy, Tocchet. There is no hiding, once Gretzky is on the ground in Italy. He's not involved, but his good name surely is.
Gambling, money laundering and conspiracy. Maybe racketeering, before it's all over. That's for Tocchet.
Even if none of it ends up touching The Great One, it will have come closer than we would ever have believed.
They're blowing this way out of proportion, as they do everything in the hockey world.
Oh no, not the great one ping.
So what if they bet on sports, as long as it wasn't hockey?
Pete Rose tried that one.
It's hard to overstate Gretzky's stature in Canada - the Toronto Sun is already in full cry. I really hope this all works out. Tocchet appears to have made his own bed and I'm puzzled by Janet Jones' involvement beyond placing a bet or two. It is guilt by association?
Michael Jordan got caught a few times and there are unchecked rumors about his gambling exploits. His image and popularity appear not to have suffered, but of course he didn't have the NJ authorities on his back.
There was a rumor that Jordan's days in baseball were an informal suspension for gambling. He sure was awful chasing high fastballs.
The difference with Jordan's case and this is Jordan was betting in legal casinos. This has an allegedly dirty NJ state trooper involved along with mob connections. All alleged at this point. The feds got involved because all of this activity was under the table not in a legal gambling establishment as was the case with Jordan.
LOL!
I wouldn't be too sure that it is being blown out of proportion. One of the mobsters mentioned in this is Joey "Skinny Joey" Merlino, a South Philly mobster and member of the Scarfo family. When Tocchet played for the Flyers he and Eric Lindros were buddies with Merlino and were seen with him around town. Also named in this affair is South Philly underboss Anthony Staino, also a member tof the Scarfo family. I'm sure a lot more will be coming out in the days ahead.
I don't think his wife, if she did indeed bet, knew what exactly it all entailed. Gretzky's a good guy, this isn't fair of the press to lambaste him and his wife like this.
No photos of Janet Jones yet? I'm shocked!
Actually, I'm shocked AND disappointed.
Supposedly she has bet over 500G in a 40 day period. How could someone not know they had a problem with that much scratch in motion?
I have no problem with legalized gambling, but people have got to understand that situations like this are a million times more dangerous to a sport than, say, players using steroids.
Oh man. I didn't know that. I don't watch Canadian news and/or television, for obvious reasons. Not good.
Janet Jones is alleged to have made a bet or two totaling half a million dollars in a 40 day period. And Gretzky had no idea? Riiiiight...
And now, apparently, contrary to the latest unconfirmed reports that the Great One's voice is on some of those wire taps discussing the issue.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.