"The Sopranos." Season 1, Episode 5. Aired Feb. 7, 1999. Title: "College." (What? I write a gambling column for ESPN, spent six years living in the same Jersey town as Dr. Melfi and used to go to Holsten's for ice cream with my kids. You think I wasn't going to lead with James Gandolfini's death?) The episode is mostly remembered for Tony shuttling Meadow around to visit different New England colleges. And for the way he spotted an old mobster-turned-informant and then choked him to death with a wire after dropping Meadow off at Colby. It was a tour de force moment for the series, winning David Chase and James Manos Jr. an Emmy for writing.
But I remember it for a much smaller, quieter, different scene. I was reporting a story for ESPN The Mag about the guys who set the lines for the NCAA tournament, which would lead to me moving to Vegas for several months to write my book, "The Odds." Gambling was on my brain; I was acutely aware of every mention, hoping it would be something that could gobble up words or start a thread. In this scene, Meadow and Tony are driving down some tree-lined New England highway (truth is, the scene was shot in Jersey). She turns down the radio and asks him if he is in the Mafia. Tony looks pissed.
"I'm in the waste management business. Everyone thinks you are mobbed up. It's a stereotype, and it's offensive. And you are the last person I would want to perpetuate it."
"Fine," Meadow answers.
"There is no Mafia," he says.
Meadow stares at him. He stares at her. Then, before she says anything, again he says, "Look, Mead, you are grown woman, almost. Some of my money comes from illegal gambling and whatnot."
Meadow is unfazed. She was pleased, in fact, that her dad was opening up. But here's what got me: While he wasn't specific about sports betting, the intention was clear, as much a Mafioso stereotype as waste management. For decades, this is how it's been. Once upon a time, way back when having a radio was considered a luxury, no one knew how deeply sports betting was controlled by the Mafia. But in 1950, Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver held hearings to investigate organized crime. Frank Costello, head of a New York family, testified. Nearly 100 percent of the televisions in the United States tuned in. And what they learned was that sports betting made up a large part of his business. They learned that local cops from Chicago to New Orleans admitted to being on the take and looking the other way when gangsters collected. That is when the scales tipped, turning sports betting from a neighborhood hobby into a nationwide epidemic of ill-gotten gains.
The irony, of course, was that mobsters continued to make millions off of sports betting and then clean up in the waste management business. For Meadow, this was an acceptable transgression. "At least you don't keep denying it like mom. Kids in school think it's actually kind of neat."
In 1999, the offshores were just starting to sprout and begin slowly nipping away at the sports betting market. Even Tony wasn't immune. In another Sopranos scene, which the boys at Covers dug up, he's watching a fight with a rapper in the hospital, where both of them are recovering from being shot. The rapper says he has $50K on the match and that he had bet with Pinny. Tony is disappointed that his new buddy bet online.
cont'
http://espn.go.com/insider/blog/_/n...316/the-next-step-legalization-sports-betting
But I remember it for a much smaller, quieter, different scene. I was reporting a story for ESPN The Mag about the guys who set the lines for the NCAA tournament, which would lead to me moving to Vegas for several months to write my book, "The Odds." Gambling was on my brain; I was acutely aware of every mention, hoping it would be something that could gobble up words or start a thread. In this scene, Meadow and Tony are driving down some tree-lined New England highway (truth is, the scene was shot in Jersey). She turns down the radio and asks him if he is in the Mafia. Tony looks pissed.
"I'm in the waste management business. Everyone thinks you are mobbed up. It's a stereotype, and it's offensive. And you are the last person I would want to perpetuate it."
"Fine," Meadow answers.
"There is no Mafia," he says.
Meadow stares at him. He stares at her. Then, before she says anything, again he says, "Look, Mead, you are grown woman, almost. Some of my money comes from illegal gambling and whatnot."
Meadow is unfazed. She was pleased, in fact, that her dad was opening up. But here's what got me: While he wasn't specific about sports betting, the intention was clear, as much a Mafioso stereotype as waste management. For decades, this is how it's been. Once upon a time, way back when having a radio was considered a luxury, no one knew how deeply sports betting was controlled by the Mafia. But in 1950, Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver held hearings to investigate organized crime. Frank Costello, head of a New York family, testified. Nearly 100 percent of the televisions in the United States tuned in. And what they learned was that sports betting made up a large part of his business. They learned that local cops from Chicago to New Orleans admitted to being on the take and looking the other way when gangsters collected. That is when the scales tipped, turning sports betting from a neighborhood hobby into a nationwide epidemic of ill-gotten gains.
The irony, of course, was that mobsters continued to make millions off of sports betting and then clean up in the waste management business. For Meadow, this was an acceptable transgression. "At least you don't keep denying it like mom. Kids in school think it's actually kind of neat."
In 1999, the offshores were just starting to sprout and begin slowly nipping away at the sports betting market. Even Tony wasn't immune. In another Sopranos scene, which the boys at Covers dug up, he's watching a fight with a rapper in the hospital, where both of them are recovering from being shot. The rapper says he has $50K on the match and that he had bet with Pinny. Tony is disappointed that his new buddy bet online.
cont'
http://espn.go.com/insider/blog/_/n...316/the-next-step-legalization-sports-betting
