9. Debating an empty chair
Copyright © 2000 by Dan E. Moldea
When I arrived home in Washington after the first leg of my book tour, my publicist had left a message, saying that I was scheduled for a debate the following day on CBS Nightwatch with Jim Feist, a Las Vegas sports-gambling tout. I called sports arbitrageur Lem Banker in Vegas to check out Feist. By coincidence, Banker was on his other line with Feist who had also called to check me out.
Predictably, Nightwatch, hosted by Charlie Rose, was a dogfight between Feist and me that lasted for three segments. Although our battle remained in good humor--especially after we recounted our simultaneous calls to Lem Banker to check each other out the night before--Rose and I went at it with considerably more zeal.
This sideshow started during the second segment when Rose interrupted the debate between Feist and me to allow Joe Browne, who had been invited on the program but declined, to take a free shot at me by repeating his mantra.
Rose said, "Here is what the director of communications of the NFL says about this book: 'The book is an outgrowth of a magazine piece and a tabloid television show, both of which contained a series of long-repudiated rumors, distortions, half-truths, and outright factual errors.'"
"Then the NFL," I laughed, "should be sitting here in the chair across from me, answering these allegations. The NFL has not denied anything that's in the book. As far as anything that happened in the article that I wrote in Regardie's magazine in 1988, I gave that article to Warren Welsh, the chief of NFL Security, not after it was in galleys, not after it was out. I gave it to Warren Welsh, the chief of security, before the article was even turned into the publisher."
"To give them an opportunity to respond?" Rose asked.
"To give them an opportunity to respond--and to make sure that the story was right. And Warren Welsh's response after hearing the story was that it was a 'fair and accurate' report. I offered the NFL Security people a copy of this manuscript before it came out, because I wanted to make sure that, again, my work was fair and accurate--which, of course, it is. I take my legal responsibilities very seriously. This is my fourth book. I've never not only lost a suit; I have never been sued. And I don't expect to be sued for this book. The NFL is coming at me with nothing. They have nothing. They are not denying anything. All they are hoping is that I go away."
On August 23, I flew to Los Angeles where I was to appear on CBS's Pat Sajack Show. Prior to the program, I called Jack Tobin, who told me that he had lunch the previous day with Warren Welsh, who said that he was interested in seeing me. Tobin told me where Welsh was staying in the Los Angeles area, and I told Tobin that I would call him after the television program.
On camera, Sajack opened the interview by asking, "What do you hear from the powers-that-be? Anything?"
"They just want me to go away, right now," I laughed.
"We've spoken to them, and they don't want to talk about it either. They have nothing to say."
"But they're not denying anything," I continued, "and they are not refuting any of the facts in the book."
After a recapitulation of everything I had been alleging during my tour--the fixed games, the corrupt owners, and the killed investigations--Sajack asked me what should happen next.
I replied, "Well, I'm hoping that there will be a federal investigation--hopefully a Senate select committee--to investigate organized-crime's influence in all professional sports, not just football but in baseball and basketball, as well. I'm hoping that there will be registration and licensing of anyone with a financial interest in a professional sports team; that there will be public disclosure of financial transactions involving professional sports teams. And that there will be a further examination of public ownership of teams, so that the citizens of the cities in which these teams play--the public--can have, literally, a piece of stock in those companies."
After the Sajack show, instead of calling Welsh, I asked my escort to take me to the hotel where Welsh was staying. When I arrived, I learned that he had already checked out. However, Welsh had left a forwarding number at the front desk of the hotel.
I called Welsh in West Covina and told him that I had interpreted his comments to Tobin as an act of good faith, and that I wanted to respond in kind. We agreed that he would call me in Las Vegas at the Stardust Hotel on Sunday afternoon. As a further act of good faith, I gave Welsh the names of the two referees who had allegedly participated in fixing several NFL games in 1979--an allegation in my book that had become the subject of considerable debate. I added that I would give him any other documentation he wanted from the book.