On This Date in Sports January 16, 1988: Jimmy the Greek's Downfall
CBS Sports commentator Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder is fired a day after making racial comments during an interview with a local report. Snyder, who worked on the “NFL Today” pregame show as an oddsmaker, was asked about race in the NFL while eating at a local restaurant in Washington ahead of the NFC Championship Game. Jimmy the Greek later apologized but never worked on football coverage again after the incident.
Jimmy the Greek Snyder was born on September 9, 1918, in Steubenville, Ohio. As a teenager, Snyder became acquainted with local bookies and became familiar with betting trends and odds-making. In 1948, he cashed in on an election day bet when he put $10,000 on President Harry Truman to win reelection, getting 17-1 odds. After failing in the energy sector, Jimmy the Greek moved to Las Vegas and established a Pro-Football betting line.
As the league grew in popularity, so did the interest in adding television coverage examining the games from all angles. This included the start of pregame coverage in the 1970’s. The first NFL pregame show was “The NFL Today” on CBS, which began a half hour before the kickoff of the first games every Sunday during the regular season. The NFL Today starred Brent Musburger, former NFL player Irv Cross, and former Miss America Phyllis George, giving weekly previews and human-interest stories of the games. The show set the standard for the modern pregame show, began in 1975, and included a prediction segment with Jimmy the Greek giving his picks for the final scores so he could provide the point spread without mentioning the point spread starting in 1976. The Greek picks became the most popular part of the show, turning him into the face of pigskin prognostication.
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Jimmy the Greek worked on The NFL Today for 12 years, having an often-stormy relationship with his co-stars, that Snyder began taping his segments in advance so he did not have to interact with Brent Musburger, whom he once punched after an argument at a bar. On the Friday before the Washington Redskins faced the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship Game, Jimmy the Greek was out at a local restaurant when WRC reporter Ed Hotaling approached him to comment about Doug Williams and the role of black athletes and race on Martin Luther King’s birthday. Saying that the black athlete was superior, Jimmy the Greek began going down a rabbit hole as he mentioned breeding during the times of slavery. Sometimes slurring his words, Snyder continued to dig a deep hole when he lamented that if blacks got into coaching, there would be nothing left for white people.
The comments were quickly replayed throughout the country as the NBC affiliate uploaded them to the network. Some compared Jimmy the Greek’s remarks to those of Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager Al Campanis a year earlier. As the storm clouds gathered, a contrite Snyder issued an apology, but the damage was done, and CBS decided to terminate its relationship with the oddsmaker the day before he would have made a pick on the NFC Championship.