OTL Does It's Job And Nobody Likes It, Gambling Addiction Edition, Part One: Phil Mickelson (???)

This has not been a good eight days for two beloved American sports figures, and Outside the Lines has been instrumental in problems for both.

This article, I'll talk about Phil Mickelson and today's bombshell.

And this one comes right out of Riverside, California.

Gregory Silveira of La Quinta, California pled guilty to three counts of money laundering of funds from a "gambling client" to Silveira's illegal gambling operation.

Silveira has been involved in some of the shadier aspects of gambling and sports for quite some time now.  He was a phone handicapper (you know, one of those "IF ALL MY 1,000-STAR PICKS DON'T COME THROUGH THIS WEEK, YOU GET THE REST OF THE SEASON FOR FREE!!" jobs -- the ones I will gladly use as evidence that a lot of the sporting events in this country are fixed.) who eventually graduated to an underground gambling situation...

... one which, if two Outside the Lines sources are correct, has had about $2,750,000 wired into it from one Phil Mickelson.

As of this point, Mickelson is not charged with anything nor being investigated, but one would have to believe (should this hold any merit!) that the FBI will change at least the latter in very very short order.

I would have to think the PGA would want words with Mickelson even faster, though.

One has to wonder the PGA's response, but that's only if Mickelson is the person involved (which has NOT been confirmed, but has been stated by two supposed sources to Outside the Lines.  There is a common thread between the two stories, and someone reading this blog pointed this out to me already about the other one I'm about to post:

What if ESPN is trying to blow up OTL by "Dan Rather"ing them -- planting false stories and leads that the OTL crew follows up on, reports on, gets blown up on, and gets fired because of?

Between this and the other story, two major beloved sports figures may well have their careers (or their legacies) ended, and given what kinds of things OTL might well uncover (say, in the National Football League???), could ESPN be doing this, at minimum, to turn public sentiment against things like Bob Ley's OTL, or could they be simply trying to blow them up entirely?

Stay tuned!