He has posted four cases so far, and I'm not going to requote them here (it would do him a disservice, as he has done all the legwork and really should be given the credit for what he has been able to find), but I will leave some comments here.
Case I: December 1962, Los Angeles
There was just a raid from the LAPD and the FBI on a major bookie ring in Los Angeles, and this is one of the results they found.
After giving some opinion, the report goes on to note that many people in the ring and around it believed Sammy Baugh, now in the Hall of Fame (In fact, he was inducted the very next year, 1963!). By this time, Baugh had been out of the league about ten years.
But in his fifteen years in the NFL, the report notes, he was believed to be in league with those who would demand games being fixed.
My comments: This is NO SECRET. In fact, if you really want your illusions blown about the NFL, and especially it's origins, go read Dan Moldea's book Interference. The NFL, from it's inception, had mob ties all over the freaking place. You might get your belief system shattered on that classic Super Bowl III "guarantee", for one.
The Green Bay Packers, who would become NFL Champions later that same month for 1962 (their third-straight title, four years before Super Bowl I) were seen as particularly suspect.
This was probably because of gambling ties of the likes of even the great Paul Hornung, as Moldea points out in his book.
In fact, the report notes that their Week 5 game that year with the Minnesota Vikings was believed by most bookmakers (this was still de-centralized, unlike the Vegas-centralization of the sportsbooks today) was rigged, and no one would take any action on it as a result.
As Moldea points out, this was commonplace, especially with teams like the Kansas City Chiefs and their quarterback, Len Dawson. (The game must've been fixed for the Pack -- they won 48-21.)
Case II: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Same file, another angle.
The file appears to refer, Tuohy suspects, to Hall of Fame (1967 class) Pittsburgh quarterback Bobby Layne, but the name on the text is still redacted.
The problem with that is that Layne died 25 years ago, so there would be question as to why Layne's name would be redacted in this manner. It's not as if people didn't know that top-level and Hall of Fame players were in with illegal gamblers (The aforementioned Paul Hornung was actually suspended for one entire NFL season (1963) for his part in a gambling scandal!)
Basically, this apparently was a Pete Rose situation: The Steeler always bet on his team, and bookies and bettors took his action as a "tell" to bet on the Steelers.
Case III: January, 1963 -- Gambling Scandal Exploding?
As the Hornung (and others) Scandal began to take hold, the FBI was trying to figure out how best to handle it all.
Basically, the memo which Tuohy quotes from is a request to get a hold of the commissioners of both the NFL and the AFL to get all information they've received, as they had opened a significant investigation over the previous months.
J Edgar Hoover basically said that the allegations were being "down-graded" and that nothing could be expected from the parties involved.
This is no surprise. Consider what would happen today if the NFL were revealed to be the sham it is. Consider what would happen to the multi-billion dollar business that is not only the NFL, but also networks like the NFL Network and ESPN, plus all the radio stations and the like. The law, in this country, is what rocks the fewest boats.
Case IV: Dallas, TX, later in January, 1963
You can tell that the first of these files Brian has posted pretty much coincide with the Hornung (and others') Scandal which broke later in 1963, resulting in Hornung's suspension from the NFL, along with other players, for the 1963 season. (It was actually supposed to be indefinite, but Rozelle, after further consideration in 1964, reinstated the players.)
This, however, was a precursor to the later problems with Len Dawson and the Kansas City Chiefs (this being about the franchise when it was the AFL's Dallas Texans).
An FBI Lieutenant, through an intermediary, gave information regarding game fixing on the Texans to their owner, Lamar Hunt, and coach, Hank Stram.
These were purportedly actions and games during the 1961 season.
They got evidence of three players who, through actions and the like, were believed to be fixing games.
All three were off the Chiefs. One retired, two others went to the Raiders (one traded, another cut and signed by the Raiders).
So.... With this information, could we be able, thanks to our friends at Pro Football Reference, be able to discern who these three players are?
I refer to the 1961 Dallas Texans roster page on PFR, and then the 1962 Oakland Raiders roster page.
Matches are the following:
- Ben Agajanian, a kicker who only played three games with the Texans that year. He also was picked up by the Packers later that same year (he played weeks 7-9 with the Texans and 10 and 14 with the Packers), so Stram and Hunt might not have acted on him with these rumors.
- Max Boydston, a tight-end with the Texans in 1961, went to the Raiders in 1962, which was his final season. According to the Biographical Dictionary of American Sports, Boydston was, in fact, traded from the Texans to the Raiders after the 1961 season. (Page 380, 1992-95 supplement)
- Cotton Davidson, the starting quarterback for the Texans in 1961, and the starting quarterback for the Raiders in 1962! He handled punting, and also some kicking on both teams. He was also traded from the Texans to the Raiders in 1962 (he apparently was on the Texan roster for one game of 1962), for the #1 Draft Pick in 1963.
It appears as if they may well have acted on those rumors to drop Agajanian, as he is the only match not to have been traded from the Texans to the Raiders. It is unclear, however, as to whether Boydston or Davidson is the other player (the one having been traded) being referred to here.
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