30-for-30
Playing for the Mob: The Story of College Kids Breaking Bad
In this ESPN “30-for-30” documentary, we peel back the curtain into the historic 1978–79 Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal. The audience is presented two sides of the story: the mobsters and the players. All coming together to beg the question: who was really responsible?
By Will Laney and Cade Rodriguez
“A crime story, about the mafia fixing a college basketball game, alleged innocent college basketball kids, and involves small time bookies in Pittsburgh, it’s really a story of betrayal and people turning on one another, and all being done in the name of greed.” — Director Joe Lavine
FOREWORD
In the time of COVID-19, sports fans everywhere are trying to find ways to pass the time. ESPN’s 30-for-30 sports documentary series is many of our last hopes at seeing historic events from our favorite sports. We have decided to cover the most scandalous of all 30-for-30’s, Playing for the Mob. The structure includes a minute-by-minute analysis, a slow-motion capture of the climax of the story, and a bolded narrative that gives the article structure. It is quite a ride, so please, enjoy it.
THE BEGINNING
The film begins by showcasing the classic movie Goodfellas and how this story is all wrapped up in the real-life events that inspired the movie. Director Joe Lavine goes on to feature many references and clips of the movie. Coupled with the narration being done by Ray Liotta, the actor that played Henry Hill in the movie, adding to the film’s overall gangster aesthetic.
Bruce Pearl, a normal student in the class of 1982, is introduced and talks about the smart, diverse basketball players. This offers a student’s perspective of how they never thought their team could have been fixing teams.
The Players
While Jim Sweeney is also introduced, he’s the other captain from a better upbringing: the poster child for BC.
Ernie Cobb is also introduced, a senior, team captain, and Boston College’s top scorer. He talks about how he wanted to be an NBA player.
The final player involved in the fix, Rick Kuhn, is introduced. Rick Kuhn was an older player who was friends with Sweeney and a tough, street smart kid with a different upbringing than Sweeney.
The Mobsters
The next step in the saga is how these players get connected to the mob. This is when the documentary transitions to the Pittsburgh mobsters and how they meet. The mobsters Paul Mazzei and Henry Hill met in a nearby jail stayed in touch after serving their time. Later, Mazzei hears that Kuhn is able to start fixing games. Mazzei’s connection to Kuhn was through fellow gangsters Rocco and Tony Pearla. The movie begins by introducing the key Boston College basketball players and the Pittsburgh mobsters. The audience gets one on one interviews with each person to see the scandal from their perspective.
Over cocaine or dinner?
Sweeney describes his side of the story, claiming he is invited to dinner with Kuhn and Tony, where he meets Henry Hill who threatens to kill him if he doesn’t begin fixing games with Kuhn. Hill and Tony Perla claim that they were all doing cocaine and Kuhn and Sweeney begin marking games that they are favored in and talking about all the money they will make. They all have different versions of the story, but regardless games are going to start being fixed.
Never Snitch
To establish Hill’s character, the film showcases numerous scenes from Goodfellas, including when Hill, under trial, is rewarded for not snitching on his family associates. We also see Liotta, as Hill, trying to impress Robert DeNiro, who portrayed the mobster Jimmy Burke. According to Ernest Volkman, a crime journalist, Hill learned everything from Jimmy Burke and wanted to reward him with a lucrative scheme which became the BC scandal.
Kuhn explains to Sweeney that they are both going to get killed after not successfully fixing a game against Providence. They need to get another player to help fix games. Rocco has a “vague” conversation with Cobb over winning certain games, but both sides won’t admit to knowing the extent to which he was involved. Although Cobb maintains that he received money from Rocco, he claims it was just for “winning the game” even though Rocco claims he knew for sure.
The fixing begins to wear into Sweeney, who confides in his roommates but never seeks out the proper authority. Fellow player Michael Bowie begins to ask questions, but Sweeney argues that they are still winning.
We get footage of the games and the scheme continued, but no one knew just how much the fixers made. Sweeney purposefully misses a free throw to help the fixers win even though he is the best free-throw shooter in the nation. Rocco says Sweeney told him he missed it to avoid a pair of cement shoes.
The audience is left to make their own judgment on how involved Sweeney and Cobb were in the fixes, but Sweeney missing a free throw when he is the best in the nation is some serious evidence of his involvement.
CLIMAX (Slow-Motion Analysis)
The audience learns about Boston College’s rival Holy Cross and its huge significance to the players and the alumni. The fixers changed the original plan and bet on Holy Cross, but the players were told this right before the game.
Kuhn tells Sweeney that the mobsters in New York and Pittsburgh want this win and that this will be the last fix. Paul Mazzei explains that there is no time to change your mind in their business. Sweeney hears Tony explain that this is the grand finale, Tony claims he never threatened him.
Sweeney, starter and team captain, intentionally fouls himself out of the game. The whole team is confused as Sweeney hides on the bench. Cobb scores 8 points in the last minute of the game only to be blocked in the last seconds of the game. Holy Cross wins by two causing the mobsters to lose hundreds of thousands. Jimmy Burke goes berserk and shatters his own TV.
The mobsters are done fixing games with the Boston College players and call them “babies” for barely getting the job done. The move on and they all thought the fixes were history. The players as well as the mobsters believe that this failed fix would be their last, the players graduate and the mobsters move on. None of them know that this is only the beginning, as Henry Hill would talk to the FBI launching a massive investigation that would lead to the arrest of famous mobster Jimmy Burke.
INVESTIGATION
At this point in the film, we stray away from the actual point-shaving and more into the consequences and investigation after the fact. The police have Henry Hill as an informant in hopes that he will have information on his boss, Jimmy Burke and other mobsters involved in the Lufthansa robbery, where five million dollars was stolen in the heist.
Hill casually brings up and admits to fixing basketball games at Boston College. He talks about the fix and how Jimmy Burke participated even though he wasn’t the ringleader. The FBI agent is shocked and doesn’t believe him, but begins to ask questions. The intense music, clues in the audience that this is where it all comes out. Investigators find phone records from Pittsburgh to Burke that allow them to connect the point-shaving scheme to him. Hill gave up everybody including the players involved.
The FBI finds all the players and begins asking questions. Sweeney agreed to cooperate claiming he was forced to help with the fix, Kuhn came clean about the whole operation, and Cobb was cut from the Nets after the FBI visited him despite him not having any real information. The story breaks to the media and the massive investigation followed. It was national news that brought Cobb, Sweeney, and Kuhn under massive headlines.
Although Cobb and Sweeney received money and were a part of the scandal, the FBI did not prosecute them in the first round and were primarily focused on getting the mobsters. The FBI had all the evidence they needed and were going to try and swing that Jimmy Burke played a large role in the scandal in order to convict him. It is similar to how they captured Al Capone on tax evasion, the smaller of his many crimes that would ultimately put him away.
TRIAL
Suspenseful music plays and the trial begins. The jury is scared to be connected to this case because Burke was so powerful and violent in the mob.
The narrator explains that the strength of how Henry Hill’s testimony is would determine if Burke was going to be convicted. It creates suspense as Hill is a mess on the stand and can barely speak under the pressure of snitching on his friends. His testimony continued terribly, he was a nervous wreck, he was rambling about unnecessary information and he couldn’t even look in Burke’s direction. This scene gives the audience insight into the type of person Henry Hill was and how hard it was to testify against someone like Burke.
While Hill was trying to bury Burke, Sweeney was trying to bury Kuhn. The former friends work hard to cast blame and the true conversations that went on between the mobsters and players will never be discovered. Everybody involved in the scandal got sentenced except for Hill and Sweeney. A witness is interviewed and says, “The rat one.”
Overall, the real end to the Boston College point-shaving scandal is the trial, the main conflict of the film. We see it all come out and the mobsters being held accountable. With Sweeney making it out with no sentence, the mystery still remains of how involved he really was. Regardless of what the audience thinks, the eyes of the law he is not guilty.
AFTERMATH
Towards the end of the film, we see Hill and Mizzou, one of the people Hill snitched on, are meeting at a restaurant 30 years later. They greet each other like old friends; there is no bitterness between them. Mizzou understands that Hill was doing what he had to do to survive. He said he would have done that if the sides were reversed. This is an important part of the documentary because it shows the respect they have for one another regardless of the past. Snitching is seen as one of the worst things you can do to a business partner, but to these people, it is just water under the bridge.
The film goes on to show how nobody really made a lot of money from the fix. This is important because it shows how it was a poorly run operation. They could have probably gotten away with the fix if they handled certain things better.
For Cobb, the result was far worse. Everybody testified against him. He went against his lawyer’s advice and fought back and managed to win his case. Even with the not guilty verdict, he still lost all hope of going to the NBA. Kuhn went on to live a quiet life only talking about the scandal to high school students encouraging them to not make the same mistakes. Sweeney goes on to sell his computer service company and make millions. He continues to be involved in sports and is in an older men’s basketball league that competes around the world. Even though he was not guilty, Boston College has erased them from their memory.
Who was responsible?
If this film has taught us anything, it is that it doesn’t matter which side was more at fault, ultimately the decisions they made changed their lives forever. This scandal did not end with the regular basketball season, it continued to affect and alter these players and gangsters lives for years after. It goes to show that crimes like these don’t stay in the past, especially when they involve other people’s money.
WORKS CITED
Riper, Tom Van. “ESPN Looks Back On Boston College Point Shaving Scandal — And A Player Speaks Out.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 1 Oct. 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2014/10/01/espn-looks-back-on-boston-college-point-shaving-scandal-and-a-player-speaks-out/#3f03989d26b8.
Purdum, David. “‘The Worst Fix Ever’.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 3 Oct. 2014, www.espn.com/espn/chalk/story/_/id/11633538/betting-chronicling-worst-fix-ever-1978-79-bc-point-shaving-scandal.
Staff. “Keeping Score: Close Shave.” Greenfield Recorder, Greenfield Recorder, 27 Apr. 2015, www.recorder.com/Archives/2015/01/spt-KeepingScore-GR-012415.
Danois, Alejandro. “30 Years After His Exoneration, Former BC Hoops Star Ernie Cobb Is Still Fighting to Clear His Name — Pt. II.” The Shadow League, 29 May 2017, theshadowleague.com/30-years-after-his-exoneration-former-bc-hoops-star-ernie-cobb-is-still-fighting-to-clear-his-name-pt-ii/.
