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No matter what two teams play in this year's Super Bowl Feb. 1, the relationships of National Football League owners to organized crime should be on display, although mainstream media will almost certainly ignore the facts. The best source on gangster ties to pro football owners and players is Dan E. Moldea 1989 book, "Interference: How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football." So which of the four teams are you rootin' for? The Arizona Cardinals? Moldea tells how "Charles W. Bidwill, a bootlegger, gambler, racetrack owner, and an associate of the Al Capone mob in Chicago" initially helped finance George Halas's Chicago Bears. But in 1933, Bidwill bought the Chicago Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals) and had to give up his minority position in the Bears. Bidwill's nefarious activities with various Chicago racetracks were highlighted by the Kefauver Committee's probe of organized crime in the 1950s. Another one fingered in that investigation was Mickey McBride, founder of the Cleveland Browns, now the Baltimore Ravens. McBride was paying Capone $4,000 a week, the committee said. Later, team ownership shifted to Art Modell, who owned a racetrack with Mushy Wexler, called one of the "leading hoodlums" in McBride's syndicate, according to the committee. Modell took the team to Baltimore. Bert Bell, early owner of Philadelphia Eagles, was a rich lad and big gambler. "He was just as comfortable with Alfred Vanderbilt as he was with Al Capone," Bell's son told author Moldea. "He knew all the gamblers because he was a gambler himself." Art Rooney, the early owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, had a bar in which bets on sports games were placed with bookies. Rooney, a big-time gambler, came to own several racetracks. He was "the most powerful layoff man in Pittsburgh," writes Moldea. Now, his sons have been divided over the future of the football/gambling empire.
No matter what two teams play in this year's Super Bowl Feb. 1, the relationships of National Football League owners to organized crime should be on display, although mainstream media will almost certainly ignore the facts. The best source on gangster ties to pro football owners and players is Dan E. Moldea 1989 book, "Interference: How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football." So which of the four teams are you rootin' for? The Arizona Cardinals? Moldea tells how "Charles W. Bidwill, a bootlegger, gambler, racetrack owner, and an associate of the Al Capone mob in Chicago" initially helped finance George Halas's Chicago Bears. But in 1933, Bidwill bought the Chicago Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals) and had to give up his minority position in the Bears. Bidwill's nefarious activities with various Chicago racetracks were highlighted by the Kefauver Committee's probe of organized crime in the 1950s. Another one fingered in that investigation was Mickey McBride, founder of the Cleveland Browns, now the Baltimore Ravens. McBride was paying Capone $4,000 a week, the committee said. Later, team ownership shifted to Art Modell, who owned a racetrack with Mushy Wexler, called one of the "leading hoodlums" in McBride's syndicate, according to the committee. Modell took the team to Baltimore. Bert Bell, early owner of Philadelphia Eagles, was a rich lad and big gambler. "He was just as comfortable with Alfred Vanderbilt as he was with Al Capone," Bell's son told author Moldea. "He knew all the gamblers because he was a gambler himself." Art Rooney, the early owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, had a bar in which bets on sports games were placed with bookies. Rooney, a big-time gambler, came to own several racetracks. He was "the most powerful layoff man in Pittsburgh," writes Moldea. Now, his sons have been divided over the future of the football/gambling empire.