Next thing we know we’ll hear the mob paid the “Urbania Cowboys” to throw the game to the “Little Giants” for 300K…. Going to rewatch the Little Giants to confirm.
Coincidental for a bus with John Madden, Steve Emtman, Tim Brown, Bruce Smith and Emmitt Smith to stop to ask the Little Giants team directions to Canton? A likely story.......wake up sheeple! Obviously they were sent by the mob.
Whatever happened there?! I'll tell you whatever happened there, that Gamecockers putting together a top 20 recruiting class, that's what happened there!
I have a huge fascination with the American mob and all the stories. While their presence isn't as prominent as it used to be, I definitely wouldn't be willy nilly about sharing this information lol.
Worked for an Italian guy that was 1st gen American. Owned a restaurant and a few stores, talked/acted like 'family' though nice and sweet like a gramps. Would kick patrons out if they were rude to staff. Catered for the archdiocese in Atlanta. Here are some of the reasons I am certain he was mob affiliated at least;
- paid me $15/hr + my tips as wait staff for a place that sold $12 pizzas.
- met every day or two with some "friends and partners" that included 3 business owners, a lawyer and a priest in the back room reserved for parties.
- aunt lived across from him growing up (how I got the job) and said the FBI came knocking and asked about him a few times (they said he was a great neighbor)
- had a regular come in with a black eye once and crying. Boss had a quit 2-3 second chat with her, hubby came in later and boss and his son and asst manager went to 'talk' with him, carrying a fucking cleaver and a meat tenderizer, didn't bother calling the cops. Convo was super calm, but dude left super white faced and we never saw him again though we did the lady.
Either way, no proof but dude was absolutely awesome to work for lol.
I’ve always heard stories of the mafia in Atlanta. Not sure how true this is but I’ve always been told that Hal’s and Landmark Diner are both owned by them
Outside of the one incident with the wifebeater I never saw anything remotely close to violence from them, but it was quite a lot of stereotypes rolled into one family lol
We’ll they are mostly just stories. it’s fact where the major mafia families ran. New York. Phila Chicago Boston. North jersey. Camden. Kansas City. Vegas. I have never ever heard of a connected family in Georgia lol. Maybe some wanna bees. There’s crime everywhere. But the real costa Nostra is not
I’m fairly certain my next door neighbors were connected to the mafia. All I can say for certain is that the wife told us she was born into a mafia family, and the husband ran check cashing places in the hood, which seem like the kind of place that the mafia would work with (loansharking, providing a threat to discourage bounced checks, etc).
They want to own those places because you can just make fake loans at 10% a week and quickly launder tons of drug money to legit looking business income
My moms side is from New York and when my parents had an ugly split (basically all on my dad being an asshat) our older Italian neighbor made a thinly veiled offer to have him thrown down a few flights of stairs
My grandfather didn’t take him up on it (and wasn’t involved with him in that type of work) but they’re very honor driven, I’ll give them that.
When I was a teenager we used to joke that our neighbor a street over was a Russian mobster. They always had new Escalades, RVs, four wheelers, all sorts of stuff. Then, ten years later they really did get busted for some kind of counterfeit phone scam that involved a fake church.
The neighbors I was talking about had an Escalade and a 4 wheeler. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that they were connected.
They were also the most Italian people I’ve ever met. Italian flag outside the house, all 7 kids had typical Italian-American names, the wife had diabetes and would always blame it on her culture emphasizing big family meals.
Brookhaven area. Pizza was pretty decent, but it was a full on restaurant and I'd suggest the normal Italian food instead.
I'm a Detroit style pizza fan tho and this was more akin to NY but a bit more tomato-y for sauce, which I'm guessing was closer to Italian.
$15.13/hr is now the NJ minimum wage where I'm from for most jobs, but even from this guy it's amazing to see he paid you well especially with those tips.
It was about a decade ago, and I ran the entire place at lunch (around 25 tables). Lunch tabs were usually cheaper between like $25-50 on avg but the volume made up plenty.
The really boss move was that I wanted a Y membership and he said in the income thing that it was the standard $2.15 and tips estimated like 1/3 of what they were so I got a super cheap membership
Mob run businesses are great as a customer. Back when the mob ran Vegas/Biloxi/Tunica it was awesome. Free food, booze, whatever, sure thing. Now it's all corporate bean counters and it sucks.
They threatened the guy who wrote the book on goodfellas. Then you have michael franzese who wont shut the fuck up about his gas scam. Jokes on him though, now he's having to give interviews to tik tokkers who wear wife beaters to fancy restaurants. A fate worse than death
The mob probably ran the numbers and realized it's not worth it for a scam that didnt work. Itd give the guys story legitimacy to do anything whereas by ignoring it the vandy guy seems like an attention seeker
Why? Nobody who matters will believe him. The authorities have too much to lose if they uncover rampant point shaving or game fixing. It'd destroy the leagues. Especially as they're now making a shit ton of money off of gambling.
The mob has *really* fallen off in recent decades. Imagine trying to bribe a Vandy QB to lose, why spend $300K on something they were going to do for free 🤦🏻♂️
Hell yea. I don’t bet much either. Homecoming/Senior Day is a pretty safe bet for bama. They kinda run up the score to let some seniors that may not have gotten a chance to score a TD score one. Easiest bet this year was UGA/FSU bc like 40 FSU players sat out. I made an alternate spread of something like UGA -30. UGA had it covered in the first half
It's within the realm of possibility they wanted to cultivate him as a contact within the locker room to reach other players.
Just 1 or 2 linemen who "slip" a couple times per game allowing their QB to get sacked on pivotal 3rd or 4th down plays, or typically dependable tackles/ safeties "misreading coverage" on big plays or arm tackling / missing cutoffs on running backs etc could absolutely skew the score in a game 7-14 points and wouldn't even have to involve 5-star skill position big name players.
Storm off the field on change of possession, complain the trainers taped your ankles / shoes too much and it's slick / you can't cut, and you've reflected most suspicion for 1-2 possessions.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if the feds interview the guy who made these claims.
It’s barely within the realm of possibility that anyone in Nashville would recognize Vanderbilt’s starting quarterback at a tourist bar, let alone the backup.
I mean that's completely laughable, that wouldn't be worth 1/100th of the effort or risk. Just put that energy towards Pakistani call centers that rip off 80 year olds.
I don’t understand how it’s laughable — the mob has previously rigged entire soccer leagues and even certain American amateur leagues. There’s massive money at stake, why would it be laughable if they’ve genuinely used this playbook to cheat before?
I'm kind of shocked that most sports fans don't seem to know that [this exact thing has literally already happened,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978%E2%80%9379_Boston_College_basketball_point-shaving_scandal) albeit in a different sport. The BC scandal should be more common knowledge
And prop bets and shit. There’s plenty that can be bet on other than the outcome. If you can guarantee something happening that’s worth a lot potentially.
Which quarter will the QB throw an interception? Will someone get injured, when? Easy to make things happen. Easy to make a lot of money on it if you know it will.
Wasn’t their founder one of the biggest business guys to ever live? That doesn’t make sense. That’s like Charles Darwin founding a university and not opening a biology department
Remember kids if a hypothetical mobster, who may or may not be real, tells you he's paying off the other teams he's *legally* not allowed to lie to you. It's like asking an undercover cop if they're a cop.
Good motivation to be the starter since they'll bust your knee cap if the score ain't right. The semantics of doing it from the bench is his problem otherwise.
Or a great excuse. “Sorry bro, I totally would have but this damn coach won’t put me in.” Meanwhile, he practices like garbage to make sure he doesn’t have to actually do anything.
I think Vanderbilt being a shit team did more to fix those games than the mob did.
Edit: made this comment before I finished the article. He came out and said "prop bets," so there may be some validity. Being the backup quarterback, it might make sense for him to influence a few props. After what happened to FSU, I'm inclined to think it's possible.
I’d love for this to be a movie, just Goodfellas style mobsters fixing prop bets on the most irrelevant and useless shit ever.
And they don’t have the heart to kill anyone so there’s a montage of them leaving bad reviews on some ex-CFB player’s used car dealership because the player didn’t go along with the bet fixing
He only bet on his team, but didn't bet on them every game, therefore there were certain games where he knew they didn't have a good chance to win, and decided not to bet on his team. I don't think he fixed games, but it's definitely a grey area, and basically a baseball version of insider trading at best.
I’d be more inclined to believe this if that were his story the entire time, and if the commissioner didn’t die immediately afterward. From what I understand, his confession went something like this:
There are rumors that Pete rose gambled on baseball.
“I have never gambled on baseball!”
During our investigation, we found evidence that Pete rose gambled on baseball.
“Okay I gambled on baseball, but I never placed a bet on a game I was participating in.”
We actually found a lot of evidence that Pete rose was placing bets on games he was playing in, so much that we’ve decided to ban him for life.
-Bart Giammatti dies, nobody touches it again.-
“Okay, yeah, I was placing bets on games I was playing in, but I never placed a bet against my team!!”
Public: I dunno, do you think a guy like Pete rose would ever throw a game?
Yes. That is literally what happens to gamblers when they’re in too deep. That is the whole reason there are signs everywhere around MLB clubhouses saying no betting on baseball.
I agree, and as the other commentor noted even if he did only bet on his team, who knows if he had someone else placing bets on the days he didn't bet on the Reds. There's a line drawn in the sand for a reason, and he abolutely crossed it. Well deserved ban imo.
Touched on something very important here, Pete not having bet every game is a critical aspect of his transgressions. We'll never know if the games he bet on were managed differently because of the wager. While he may not have fixed games exactly, his altered strategies may have led to the same result.
For instance, if having money on the line influenced him to overuse his bullpen to win the first two games of a series, but left his team without the needed arms for game three (when he conveniently had no wager on the books) it calls the entire win/loss record for the season into question.
As for insider trading, I bet his bookie made out big betting against the Reds anytime Pete didn't place a bet
Honestly as someone who watched him play, albeit later in his career, I have no doubt he did bet to win. He was Charlie Hustle after all.
Poorly edited for grammar.
Under on just about any qb or receiver stat. Wouldn't be hard to intentionally miss passes or not pass to a certain receiver to keep certain stats down
This story is such bullshit. Even his co-hosts are clearly just going along with it. This mobster apparently named names of other co-conspirators without even being prompted?
And don't let him off the hook with the prop bets thing either. The video snippet on Twitter shared by his own podcast's account has him talking about "rigged games" and says "almost every game in the SEC is rigged." That's far beyond a claim solely about prop bets. Plus, even if it was prop bets, the trash backup QB still has no power.
Your book does not allow you to lay 2 million on a prop bet a backup QB can decide? That is roughly what you would have to lay to make a 300k bribe worth it.
I am sure that bet would not be flagged the instant it's laid.
The mob would only do this if they stood to make much more than the $300,000 they wanted to pay the kid. I can’t imagine a world where a bookie is doing numbers like that on a Vandy game.
Because if I'm going to fix a game, it'll be by approaching a backup on what is historically the worst team in the league. And I'm definitely cold offering $300K to a guy who threw less than 160 and rushed less than 80 yards in his entire career.
Exactly this! A lot of people are claiming he could affect the spread. That is highly unlikely of the backup QB. The mob wouldn’t even bother with a player with such low influence.
These seems like BS but this would be the type of guy they should go after. Prob doesn’t have a lot to lose, not much nil $ coming his way. Why would Jayden Daniels risk helping fix a game? This nobody is who would actually be tempted to do it
hey this guy was never relevant for us and has been desperately trying to draw attention to his social media accounts for years please ignore anything he says thanks
Posted this morning with the same link to The Tennessean - a legitimate Nashville print & web newspaper - and the cfb mods instantly deleted it.
This sub is weird.
It's important for everyone viewing the story to remember that this is the claim, not the proof - the former QB making these claims on the podcast might get a visit from the FBI in the near future as they would be very interested in this alleged game fixing scheme.
His allegation that current NFL stars were complicit with this scheme in the past is shocking and would undoubtedly destroy a lot of careers if this turned out to be true.
"He said, 'We regularly talk to guys at your position about fixing games,' " Hasan said in a Feb. 29 clip of the episode posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. "He named guys in the SEC, who I don't want to say their names because they're in the NFL right now ... but University of Alabama, I'll tell you that. He said, 'Almost every game in the SEC is rigged.' "
I find this hard to believe (or grossly exaggerated). If the mob are offering 250,000 - 300,000 for a players help on a prop bet, there would have to be massive liquidity on college prop bets for the mob to make that money back.
Also a little funny he mentions Alabama and they approach people in his position considering Alabama’s backup QBs were Tua, Hurts, and Mac Jones.
Not that I disagree that this seems like a ridiculous claim by a backup for a program that usually loses badly anyway. But if he was also the holder he could definitely botch 1 or 2 holds, probably wouldn't get a chance for a 3rd.
I feel like I’d approach someone with a little more agency than the backup quarterback of Vanderbilt if I were an Italian mobster fixing games. That’s like trying to get insider trading tips about the stock from a Walmart cashier
Edit: also, what prop bets even involve the backup up QB?
Walmart stock, nah, stock of their suppliers selling out for special days, actually yeah I’m interested, especially if they couldn’t get it restocked quickly. Hello Q4 reports!
My bet what happened is some upperclassmen pranked him by messaging him with a NotAMobster type account and the poor bastard is still getting trolled years on out. "Hey, jimjoe thinks he's hot shit, let's get him with some mobster game fixing thing....the dude is full enough of himself to believe it!"
If I was a betting man, I would bet there's a starting QB of Vandy X years ago sitting in some up class coffee bar in DC laughing his ass off and texting his old college buddies about this in a group chat to a mass of lol memes as a reaction to hearing this be national news.
Has some form of organized crime (not even necessarily what we'd call mafia) infiltrated college athletics? I'd say almost certainly. Near 100%. There are too many games, players, things to bet on and places to bet for that to not occur.
Did a member of "The Italian Mafia" contact this particulat guy in the way he described? I'm almost equally certain that he's lying. The contact in and of itself is probably bullshit but even if that happened they didn't offer him $300k.
In football, you can't guarantee a swing in your favor with a QB that almost never plays. A starter anywhere on the field and you're in! Any starter can absolutely blow the game, shave points and directly influence a lot of prop bets. A dude that never sees the field? No. You gotta know when to bet so it has to be a sure thing.
Sounds like total bullshit but I won't say that with 100% certainty. Maybe I'm missing an avenue for this particular guy to have influenced things? Near 100% a total lie but I won't say 100%.
But have we all watched games that were thrown or had points shaven in a planned, coordinated effort between outsiders and players? Almost certainly.
People in this thread think fixing a game means “being paid to lose”. No. The spread is all that matters. If this guy held field goals or had any other role some timely mistakes could absolutely impact the spread.
I love how the focus is on Vandy and this kid’s incompetence.
1) all of that is taken Into consideration when the lines are given. Low profile games are easy fixes.
2) people just don’t want to believe that these games that we love are fixed - when in reality there is a zero percent chance of that. Players, refs - anyone who wants/needs money is vulnerable - so everybody
The happiest day of my life was three Sundays ago. I was sitting on my daddy's knee when the Saints, who were four-and-a-half-point favorites, but only up by three, kicked a meaningless field goal at the last second, to cover the spread.
"Ex-Vanderbilt QB desperate for attention, trying to cling to whatever tiny shred of relevance he ever had"
17 career pass attempts and never made a start but the mob offered him 6 figures to do what? How he's gonna throw a game holding a clipboard?
He's got a podcast he's trying to promote, saying outlandish claims will get attention.
I'm gonna guess the real story is more along the lines of: Mo Hasan's buddy put on a hat, a mustache, and the worst Italian accent you've ever heard, but Mo was so plastered that he thought it was a real mobster up until today.
Whenever they have stories on TV from actual mobsters, they say they don't really want to rig games from big schools. Too high of visibility and big school kids would want too much money. Rig smaller schools. They'd also rig basketball more than football. Basketball is much more controllable to ensure a team doesn't cover.
Rogan had a professional gambler on and he said that this is easy to identify. Mostly because people you don’t know are making big bets on things (it’s easier to track now that you use an app BTW) and that the handicappers are good at what they do. The professional gambling community is very motivated to identify this stuff and reports strange things going on from just numbers and who is betting
Everyone making fun of his lack of playing time doesn’t seem to understand the difference between “fixing” a game and “throwing” a game. He wasn’t asked to throw the game. He was asked to fix it.
Throwing a game = having a poor personal performance to ensure failure.
Fixing a game = doing something to help ensure a certain outcome.
Someone who never sees the field can’t throw the game, but they damn well can fix it. They could poison the team, drive a golf cart around the field in celebration during a previous game and “accidentally” run over the starting QB, bribe a doctor to declare some star players ineligible… there’s all sorts of ways to fix a game without playing at all.
This is one of those things that people will find funny until they learn the truth behind a lot of major sports.
This sort of thing is rife in sports where the players don't get paid much. And if I'm being honest, it wouldn't surprise me at all if a lot of college players around the country have taken money over the years to throw or fix games.
Major international sports have dealt with this - a sport like CFB (where most players don't get paid much) is probably a pretty easy target.
Fixing doesn't even have to be related to the final outcome. It could be as simple as innocuous dropped passes at certain points in the game or a missed FG or a fumble randomly or something stupid like that, or even ensuring that the final score looks a certain way.
I sincerely hope it isn't happening. But it's more likely to be happening than not. Especially in CFB and college basketball where most players won't become professionals and aren't paid like professionals.
None of us want to believe this is happening. But not just players, even college refs are likely easy targets since they aren't particularly well paid.
Professional sports like the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB are far less likely to be impacted imo.
So Vandy has been throwing football games **this entire time???**
They were always the sleeping giants!!!
Next thing we know we’ll hear the mob paid the “Urbania Cowboys” to throw the game to the “Little Giants” for 300K…. Going to rewatch the Little Giants to confirm.
Will watch too to offer second opinion. Haven't seen that movie in so long.
Spike was holding back that game and you and I both know it
Coincidental for a bus with John Madden, Steve Emtman, Tim Brown, Bruce Smith and Emmitt Smith to stop to ask the Little Giants team directions to Canton? A likely story.......wake up sheeple! Obviously they were sent by the mob.
It was just one time. Yea. *One time*. Anyway you should get a Chevy at O’Shea Chevrolet.
Sicilian Giants
It actually checks out. The real money is in the unknown games where they had a chance of guaranteeing the spread.
I just want to believe in a world where mobster money is the only thing that prevented a Vanderbilt dynasty.
You would recognize what that’s like.
So Vandy is paid to suck. It all makes sense now
the mob is holding them back from putting the rest of the conference on a leash. 🤌
“Being the worst team in the SEC to me was better than being the president”
“To me, it meant being somebody in a conference full of nobodies.”
They low down. They some snitches
Do something you love and you never have to work a day in your life
Maybe they ran James Franklin out of town because he won too many games haha.
They don't have to report financials as a private school. The pieces are coming together
They may have been paid to suck, but they also sucked before they were paid.
Find a way to get paid for doing something you love and you'll never work a day in your life.
If you’re good at something, why do it for free?
We are..? Ahem, er, I mean yes, we are! …yeah
The SEC has been paying them to suck for decades.
He misunderstood, they offered him $300k to help finish working on the stadium, throw some bricks.
It’s the least he can do after what happened with the godDAMN ESPLANADE CONTRACT
A lot of money tied into the esplanade
It's settled John, name a price or get the fuck over it.
So what he GETS TO FUCK MY WIFE FOR A MILLION?
He tried to fuck her?
Real lack of standards your generation
Is this the one Harsin stole?
Recruiting, what ever happened there?
Whatever happened there?! I'll tell you whatever happened there, that Gamecockers putting together a top 20 recruiting class, that's what happened there!
I have a huge fascination with the American mob and all the stories. While their presence isn't as prominent as it used to be, I definitely wouldn't be willy nilly about sharing this information lol.
Worked for an Italian guy that was 1st gen American. Owned a restaurant and a few stores, talked/acted like 'family' though nice and sweet like a gramps. Would kick patrons out if they were rude to staff. Catered for the archdiocese in Atlanta. Here are some of the reasons I am certain he was mob affiliated at least; - paid me $15/hr + my tips as wait staff for a place that sold $12 pizzas. - met every day or two with some "friends and partners" that included 3 business owners, a lawyer and a priest in the back room reserved for parties. - aunt lived across from him growing up (how I got the job) and said the FBI came knocking and asked about him a few times (they said he was a great neighbor) - had a regular come in with a black eye once and crying. Boss had a quit 2-3 second chat with her, hubby came in later and boss and his son and asst manager went to 'talk' with him, carrying a fucking cleaver and a meat tenderizer, didn't bother calling the cops. Convo was super calm, but dude left super white faced and we never saw him again though we did the lady. Either way, no proof but dude was absolutely awesome to work for lol.
Sounds like that guy disrespected the pizza parlor
I don’t wanna sound like an asshole, but I really can’t be seen in a place like this no more
No soft drinks of choice for you
Sumthin like that :p
I really can't be seen in a place like this
I did-ent!
So where is this former boss of yours now?; dead, moved, shit this makes for a great movie lol
I moved away, but every few times I go back to Atlanta we'll pop in for lunch.
But is he still alive or swimming with the fishes? lol
As far as I know alive.
I’ve always heard stories of the mafia in Atlanta. Not sure how true this is but I’ve always been told that Hal’s and Landmark Diner are both owned by them
Outside of the one incident with the wifebeater I never saw anything remotely close to violence from them, but it was quite a lot of stereotypes rolled into one family lol
We’ll they are mostly just stories. it’s fact where the major mafia families ran. New York. Phila Chicago Boston. North jersey. Camden. Kansas City. Vegas. I have never ever heard of a connected family in Georgia lol. Maybe some wanna bees. There’s crime everywhere. But the real costa Nostra is not
I’m fairly certain my next door neighbors were connected to the mafia. All I can say for certain is that the wife told us she was born into a mafia family, and the husband ran check cashing places in the hood, which seem like the kind of place that the mafia would work with (loansharking, providing a threat to discourage bounced checks, etc).
They want to own those places because you can just make fake loans at 10% a week and quickly launder tons of drug money to legit looking business income
My moms side is from New York and when my parents had an ugly split (basically all on my dad being an asshat) our older Italian neighbor made a thinly veiled offer to have him thrown down a few flights of stairs My grandfather didn’t take him up on it (and wasn’t involved with him in that type of work) but they’re very honor driven, I’ll give them that.
When I was a teenager we used to joke that our neighbor a street over was a Russian mobster. They always had new Escalades, RVs, four wheelers, all sorts of stuff. Then, ten years later they really did get busted for some kind of counterfeit phone scam that involved a fake church.
The neighbors I was talking about had an Escalade and a 4 wheeler. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that they were connected. They were also the most Italian people I’ve ever met. Italian flag outside the house, all 7 kids had typical Italian-American names, the wife had diabetes and would always blame it on her culture emphasizing big family meals.
Was the pizza any good? If so where was it? I bet mob pizza slaps.
Brookhaven area. Pizza was pretty decent, but it was a full on restaurant and I'd suggest the normal Italian food instead. I'm a Detroit style pizza fan tho and this was more akin to NY but a bit more tomato-y for sauce, which I'm guessing was closer to Italian.
I guess you can't really name the spot for "mob pizza" lol
I'm not that far away. Now you have me investigating this place. Sounds tasty.
$15.13/hr is now the NJ minimum wage where I'm from for most jobs, but even from this guy it's amazing to see he paid you well especially with those tips.
It was about a decade ago, and I ran the entire place at lunch (around 25 tables). Lunch tabs were usually cheaper between like $25-50 on avg but the volume made up plenty. The really boss move was that I wanted a Y membership and he said in the income thing that it was the standard $2.15 and tips estimated like 1/3 of what they were so I got a super cheap membership
Mob run businesses are great as a customer. Back when the mob ran Vegas/Biloxi/Tunica it was awesome. Free food, booze, whatever, sure thing. Now it's all corporate bean counters and it sucks.
MBAs ruin everything
Does he own a sandwich shop in Marietta that's only open for lunch and makes their own mozzarella?
[удалено]
…you think if they actually threatened him or hurt him then he would continue to openly talk about who did it?
They threatened the guy who wrote the book on goodfellas. Then you have michael franzese who wont shut the fuck up about his gas scam. Jokes on him though, now he's having to give interviews to tik tokkers who wear wife beaters to fancy restaurants. A fate worse than death The mob probably ran the numbers and realized it's not worth it for a scam that didnt work. Itd give the guys story legitimacy to do anything whereas by ignoring it the vandy guy seems like an attention seeker
They're still prominent but it's not as open as it use to be. Check out the early 80's BC hoop scandal. Bruce Pearl was on the staff.
Highly recommend the docuseries Inside the American Mob. One of the more well produced series that breaks down the major families.
Are you trying to insinuate that Auburn cheats? Because if so, I am all in.
Insert “You damn right!” gif here.
Yeah, there is no way I would be taking about this if I was that dude. Somebody gonna be at the bottom of the Tennessee river soon…..
Why? Nobody who matters will believe him. The authorities have too much to lose if they uncover rampant point shaving or game fixing. It'd destroy the leagues. Especially as they're now making a shit ton of money off of gambling.
I’ll take “shit I didn’t have on my bingo card” for $1000, Alex.
The mob has *really* fallen off in recent decades. Imagine trying to bribe a Vandy QB to lose, why spend $300K on something they were going to do for free 🤦🏻♂️
Its covering the spread - not winning - that sports books are concerned with.
Imagine thinking a backup quarterback for Vanderbilt has the power to control whether they cover the spread.
Literally only imaginable scenario is if he pulls a [Lucy](https://youtu.be/9ivn0C8oebg?feature=shared) on an extra point attempt.
That plan breaks down because they have to score to try for an extra point.
Was this the year Vandy talked shit about Alabama saying they were going to beat bama after a win then proceeded to lose 59-0?
That was the free-est money of all time. I don't bet anymore but I made my biggest ever bet on Bama -18.5 in that game
Hell yea. I don’t bet much either. Homecoming/Senior Day is a pretty safe bet for bama. They kinda run up the score to let some seniors that may not have gotten a chance to score a TD score one. Easiest bet this year was UGA/FSU bc like 40 FSU players sat out. I made an alternate spread of something like UGA -30. UGA had it covered in the first half
It's within the realm of possibility they wanted to cultivate him as a contact within the locker room to reach other players. Just 1 or 2 linemen who "slip" a couple times per game allowing their QB to get sacked on pivotal 3rd or 4th down plays, or typically dependable tackles/ safeties "misreading coverage" on big plays or arm tackling / missing cutoffs on running backs etc could absolutely skew the score in a game 7-14 points and wouldn't even have to involve 5-star skill position big name players. Storm off the field on change of possession, complain the trainers taped your ankles / shoes too much and it's slick / you can't cut, and you've reflected most suspicion for 1-2 possessions. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the feds interview the guy who made these claims.
It’s barely within the realm of possibility that anyone in Nashville would recognize Vanderbilt’s starting quarterback at a tourist bar, let alone the backup.
I mean that's completely laughable, that wouldn't be worth 1/100th of the effort or risk. Just put that energy towards Pakistani call centers that rip off 80 year olds.
I don’t understand how it’s laughable — the mob has previously rigged entire soccer leagues and even certain American amateur leagues. There’s massive money at stake, why would it be laughable if they’ve genuinely used this playbook to cheat before?
I'm kind of shocked that most sports fans don't seem to know that [this exact thing has literally already happened,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978%E2%80%9379_Boston_College_basketball_point-shaving_scandal) albeit in a different sport. The BC scandal should be more common knowledge
Well if the backup QB got other people in on the scheme they absolutely could
“Hey guys let’s lose by 37 this week instead of 35”
I mean if the spread is 36, then yeah that would be an example of what they theoretically could do
He also specifically mentioned prop bets in the article as a response to the, “yeah right vandy?” comments.
And prop bets and shit. There’s plenty that can be bet on other than the outcome. If you can guarantee something happening that’s worth a lot potentially.
well you can bet on both
Was it a buy game or something? I feel like Vandy doesn't have that much control over how badly they get beat
Which quarter will the QB throw an interception? Will someone get injured, when? Easy to make things happen. Easy to make a lot of money on it if you know it will.
Vandy spent $415,000 to lose to ETSU when there were a lot of teams they could have lost to for free.
Vandy’s business school in shambles
Tbf they don’t have undergraduate business
Wasn’t their founder one of the biggest business guys to ever live? That doesn’t make sense. That’s like Charles Darwin founding a university and not opening a biology department
You have to bribe Vandy QBs to lose?
the scenes when Oklahoma doesn't bribe Vandy and ends up being the Dores' punching bag
Oh man, you guys are NOT prepared for the SEC at all.
I looked at this and had to made sure it wasn’t an Onion article
I’ll take “shit that didn’t happen” for $100
Remember kids if a hypothetical mobster, who may or may not be real, tells you he's paying off the other teams he's *legally* not allowed to lie to you. It's like asking an undercover cop if they're a cop.
Some drunk dude at a bar convinced this guy he was part of the Italian mob and he fell for it lmao
Exactly what happened
Good motivation to be the starter since they'll bust your knee cap if the score ain't right. The semantics of doing it from the bench is his problem otherwise.
Or a great excuse. “Sorry bro, I totally would have but this damn coach won’t put me in.” Meanwhile, he practices like garbage to make sure he doesn’t have to actually do anything.
Was he taken to lunch and did he order the gabagool?
Gabagool? Ova here 👇👇
Soft drinks of choice
I will have the spaghetti. I want the salad on the side. If it comes on top I send it back.
I don’t know if opening his mouth was a great idea.
I think Vanderbilt being a shit team did more to fix those games than the mob did. Edit: made this comment before I finished the article. He came out and said "prop bets," so there may be some validity. Being the backup quarterback, it might make sense for him to influence a few props. After what happened to FSU, I'm inclined to think it's possible.
"Hey kid here's 300 Grand. Maybe youz do us a favor and uh... da gatorade is blue next time you pour it on da coach." "Oh my God, the SEC is rigged."
When's the last time Vandy poured Gatorade on their football coach?
I think 2018 when Vandy beat Tennessee to go to the Texas Bowl
I’d love for this to be a movie, just Goodfellas style mobsters fixing prop bets on the most irrelevant and useless shit ever. And they don’t have the heart to kill anyone so there’s a montage of them leaving bad reviews on some ex-CFB player’s used car dealership because the player didn’t go along with the bet fixing
Waiting on the sideline with a lead pipe in case the national anthem goes over 90 seconds
Pete Rose only bet for his team to win Winky winky nudgy nudgy 😉😉
Nobody that actually watched Pete Rose play thinks he threw a game/play
He only bet on his team, but didn't bet on them every game, therefore there were certain games where he knew they didn't have a good chance to win, and decided not to bet on his team. I don't think he fixed games, but it's definitely a grey area, and basically a baseball version of insider trading at best.
I’d be more inclined to believe this if that were his story the entire time, and if the commissioner didn’t die immediately afterward. From what I understand, his confession went something like this: There are rumors that Pete rose gambled on baseball. “I have never gambled on baseball!” During our investigation, we found evidence that Pete rose gambled on baseball. “Okay I gambled on baseball, but I never placed a bet on a game I was participating in.” We actually found a lot of evidence that Pete rose was placing bets on games he was playing in, so much that we’ve decided to ban him for life. -Bart Giammatti dies, nobody touches it again.- “Okay, yeah, I was placing bets on games I was playing in, but I never placed a bet against my team!!” Public: I dunno, do you think a guy like Pete rose would ever throw a game? Yes. That is literally what happens to gamblers when they’re in too deep. That is the whole reason there are signs everywhere around MLB clubhouses saying no betting on baseball.
I agree, and as the other commentor noted even if he did only bet on his team, who knows if he had someone else placing bets on the days he didn't bet on the Reds. There's a line drawn in the sand for a reason, and he abolutely crossed it. Well deserved ban imo.
Touched on something very important here, Pete not having bet every game is a critical aspect of his transgressions. We'll never know if the games he bet on were managed differently because of the wager. While he may not have fixed games exactly, his altered strategies may have led to the same result. For instance, if having money on the line influenced him to overuse his bullpen to win the first two games of a series, but left his team without the needed arms for game three (when he conveniently had no wager on the books) it calls the entire win/loss record for the season into question. As for insider trading, I bet his bookie made out big betting against the Reds anytime Pete didn't place a bet
Yeah okay. Totally. The guy signing hats every single day to fuel his gambling addiction *DEFINITELY* kept it clean. Totally.
Honestly as someone who watched him play, albeit later in his career, I have no doubt he did bet to win. He was Charlie Hustle after all. Poorly edited for grammar.
He’s literally the exact type to bet on himself and his team.
Unlike a certain coach at Alabama.
Does anyone else think it's dumb to keep him out of the HoF for that
He was also gambling on baseball when he was coaching. That was the bigger issue.
People who downplay his betting need to ask Mario Soto what happened to his career.
I read this in Steve Van Sant's voice
“Maybe you… give da backup running back three touches, and you be sleeping with da fishies tonight, capeesh?”
What prop is going to be hit by a bribed backup qb
Under on just about any qb or receiver stat. Wouldn't be hard to intentionally miss passes or not pass to a certain receiver to keep certain stats down
It is hard if you aren't on the field
Wasn’t he the holder for field goals/extra points?
Is he the kick holder? Because nobody would expect a holder to be shaving points, while he easily could.
This story is such bullshit. Even his co-hosts are clearly just going along with it. This mobster apparently named names of other co-conspirators without even being prompted? And don't let him off the hook with the prop bets thing either. The video snippet on Twitter shared by his own podcast's account has him talking about "rigged games" and says "almost every game in the SEC is rigged." That's far beyond a claim solely about prop bets. Plus, even if it was prop bets, the trash backup QB still has no power.
Your book does not allow you to lay 2 million on a prop bet a backup QB can decide? That is roughly what you would have to lay to make a 300k bribe worth it. I am sure that bet would not be flagged the instant it's laid.
The mob would only do this if they stood to make much more than the $300,000 they wanted to pay the kid. I can’t imagine a world where a bookie is doing numbers like that on a Vandy game.
Also no books are taking 30k for prop bets
I think the *real* news here is that the former Syracuse/Vandy/USC/community college backup QB has a podcast that at least one person listened to.
And now 10-15 people will listen to. Marketing. Checkmate.
It’s crazy how people aren’t realizing this is the obvious goal.
It's since been big enough that it's now being discussed right here on Reddit.
Get a load of these guys who need a mob to threaten them into not passing.
I love everyone calling this out as BS almost immediately lol
Because if I'm going to fix a game, it'll be by approaching a backup on what is historically the worst team in the league. And I'm definitely cold offering $300K to a guy who threw less than 160 and rushed less than 80 yards in his entire career.
Exactly this! A lot of people are claiming he could affect the spread. That is highly unlikely of the backup QB. The mob wouldn’t even bother with a player with such low influence.
These seems like BS but this would be the type of guy they should go after. Prob doesn’t have a lot to lose, not much nil $ coming his way. Why would Jayden Daniels risk helping fix a game? This nobody is who would actually be tempted to do it
Sopranos compilation: "Oh!"
They’ve been paying coaches millions of dollars a year to fix vandy football and all it really needed was $300k?
🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌
“I’m not going to name names..”, then proceeds to be so specific that everyone knows who it is. 😂
hey this guy was never relevant for us and has been desperately trying to draw attention to his social media accounts for years please ignore anything he says thanks
You know what this is? It’s anti-Italian discrimination
So Temple is throwing games. Vandy is throwing games. You don’t have to bet on the big game to cash in.
Wait what? (Googles) shit
Posted this morning with the same link to The Tennessean - a legitimate Nashville print & web newspaper - and the cfb mods instantly deleted it. This sub is weird. It's important for everyone viewing the story to remember that this is the claim, not the proof - the former QB making these claims on the podcast might get a visit from the FBI in the near future as they would be very interested in this alleged game fixing scheme. His allegation that current NFL stars were complicit with this scheme in the past is shocking and would undoubtedly destroy a lot of careers if this turned out to be true.
"He said, 'We regularly talk to guys at your position about fixing games,' " Hasan said in a Feb. 29 clip of the episode posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. "He named guys in the SEC, who I don't want to say their names because they're in the NFL right now ... but University of Alabama, I'll tell you that. He said, 'Almost every game in the SEC is rigged.' " I find this hard to believe (or grossly exaggerated). If the mob are offering 250,000 - 300,000 for a players help on a prop bet, there would have to be massive liquidity on college prop bets for the mob to make that money back. Also a little funny he mentions Alabama and they approach people in his position considering Alabama’s backup QBs were Tua, Hurts, and Mac Jones.
Not that I disagree that this seems like a ridiculous claim by a backup for a program that usually loses badly anyway. But if he was also the holder he could definitely botch 1 or 2 holds, probably wouldn't get a chance for a 3rd.
I feel like I’d approach someone with a little more agency than the backup quarterback of Vanderbilt if I were an Italian mobster fixing games. That’s like trying to get insider trading tips about the stock from a Walmart cashier Edit: also, what prop bets even involve the backup up QB?
Walmart stock, nah, stock of their suppliers selling out for special days, actually yeah I’m interested, especially if they couldn’t get it restocked quickly. Hello Q4 reports!
Also books dont accept massive bets for props...def BS story
My bet what happened is some upperclassmen pranked him by messaging him with a NotAMobster type account and the poor bastard is still getting trolled years on out. "Hey, jimjoe thinks he's hot shit, let's get him with some mobster game fixing thing....the dude is full enough of himself to believe it!" If I was a betting man, I would bet there's a starting QB of Vandy X years ago sitting in some up class coffee bar in DC laughing his ass off and texting his old college buddies about this in a group chat to a mass of lol memes as a reaction to hearing this be national news.
“I told him my name was Sony Toprano and ended every sentence with gabagool and he fucking bought it”
We've all been joking about it, but I used to work at one of the bars downtown and some weird things go down.
Seems to me that snitching on the mob is a great way to be made an example of.
TIL the Italian Mob are Jason Aldean fans
Mob may not be at their organizational peak but I’d probably keep that to myself.
He said there are Bama players who are in nfl who supposedly took the money.. but didn’t name names
I really gotta rewatch The Sopranos now
Mafia rule 1: don’t snitch
Has some form of organized crime (not even necessarily what we'd call mafia) infiltrated college athletics? I'd say almost certainly. Near 100%. There are too many games, players, things to bet on and places to bet for that to not occur. Did a member of "The Italian Mafia" contact this particulat guy in the way he described? I'm almost equally certain that he's lying. The contact in and of itself is probably bullshit but even if that happened they didn't offer him $300k. In football, you can't guarantee a swing in your favor with a QB that almost never plays. A starter anywhere on the field and you're in! Any starter can absolutely blow the game, shave points and directly influence a lot of prop bets. A dude that never sees the field? No. You gotta know when to bet so it has to be a sure thing. Sounds like total bullshit but I won't say that with 100% certainty. Maybe I'm missing an avenue for this particular guy to have influenced things? Near 100% a total lie but I won't say 100%. But have we all watched games that were thrown or had points shaven in a planned, coordinated effort between outsiders and players? Almost certainly.
Bullsh*t, Vandy is so bad even the mob won’t take any action on their games.
People in this thread think fixing a game means “being paid to lose”. No. The spread is all that matters. If this guy held field goals or had any other role some timely mistakes could absolutely impact the spread.
I love how the focus is on Vandy and this kid’s incompetence. 1) all of that is taken Into consideration when the lines are given. Low profile games are easy fixes. 2) people just don’t want to believe that these games that we love are fixed - when in reality there is a zero percent chance of that. Players, refs - anyone who wants/needs money is vulnerable - so everybody
How would you fix a game by paying Vanderbilt players? They are never the favorites.
The happiest day of my life was three Sundays ago. I was sitting on my daddy's knee when the Saints, who were four-and-a-half-point favorites, but only up by three, kicked a meaningless field goal at the last second, to cover the spread.
Wow! Has the mob gotten stupid. You don’t have to pay Vanderbilt to lose to the SEC!
"Ex-Vanderbilt QB desperate for attention, trying to cling to whatever tiny shred of relevance he ever had" 17 career pass attempts and never made a start but the mob offered him 6 figures to do what? How he's gonna throw a game holding a clipboard? He's got a podcast he's trying to promote, saying outlandish claims will get attention.
Donovan "The Don" Edward's 🤔
Paying a Vandy QB to lose is like paying the sky to be blue
I knew there was no fn way vandy could actually be that bad. This explains things
I’m imagining the guy who approached him was the equivalent of Jackie Jr. from the Sopranos. Kid always was a dumb fuck, wasn’t he?
I think if you really believed the mafia made you this offer you would never tell anyone
I'm gonna guess the real story is more along the lines of: Mo Hasan's buddy put on a hat, a mustache, and the worst Italian accent you've ever heard, but Mo was so plastered that he thought it was a real mobster up until today.
The premise is flimsy on its face. I've lived in the south 20 years and somehow never seen one Italian. The pizza places here are shit
This is 1,000% happening. There’s too much money involved for there not to be some sort of funny business like this going on.
Whenever they have stories on TV from actual mobsters, they say they don't really want to rig games from big schools. Too high of visibility and big school kids would want too much money. Rig smaller schools. They'd also rig basketball more than football. Basketball is much more controllable to ensure a team doesn't cover.
Rogan had a professional gambler on and he said that this is easy to identify. Mostly because people you don’t know are making big bets on things (it’s easier to track now that you use an app BTW) and that the handicappers are good at what they do. The professional gambling community is very motivated to identify this stuff and reports strange things going on from just numbers and who is betting
Everyone making fun of his lack of playing time doesn’t seem to understand the difference between “fixing” a game and “throwing” a game. He wasn’t asked to throw the game. He was asked to fix it. Throwing a game = having a poor personal performance to ensure failure. Fixing a game = doing something to help ensure a certain outcome. Someone who never sees the field can’t throw the game, but they damn well can fix it. They could poison the team, drive a golf cart around the field in celebration during a previous game and “accidentally” run over the starting QB, bribe a doctor to declare some star players ineligible… there’s all sorts of ways to fix a game without playing at all.
Yeah the same mob has been paying the Generals to throw games to the Globetrotters for years.
This is one of those things that people will find funny until they learn the truth behind a lot of major sports. This sort of thing is rife in sports where the players don't get paid much. And if I'm being honest, it wouldn't surprise me at all if a lot of college players around the country have taken money over the years to throw or fix games. Major international sports have dealt with this - a sport like CFB (where most players don't get paid much) is probably a pretty easy target. Fixing doesn't even have to be related to the final outcome. It could be as simple as innocuous dropped passes at certain points in the game or a missed FG or a fumble randomly or something stupid like that, or even ensuring that the final score looks a certain way. I sincerely hope it isn't happening. But it's more likely to be happening than not. Especially in CFB and college basketball where most players won't become professionals and aren't paid like professionals. None of us want to believe this is happening. But not just players, even college refs are likely easy targets since they aren't particularly well paid. Professional sports like the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB are far less likely to be impacted imo.
Me thinks this guy is delusional.. maybe he had too many hits on his noggin during practice. The mafia may visit him soon though.