On This Date in Sports January 16, 1988
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
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 the on “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.
For the next two decades, Jimmy the Greek became the most well-known NFL oddsmaker in Las Vegas, while gambling on football games was illegal in most of the country, Snyder’s NFL analyzation became highly sought due to his high rate of success.
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As the league grew in popularity, so did the interest in adding television coverage examining the games at all angles. This included the start of pre-game 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 along with former NFL player Irv Cross and former Miss America Phyllis George giving previews and human-interest stories of the games each week. The show set the standard for the modern pregame show began in 1975, included a prediction segment with Jimmy the Greek giving his picks for the final scores, so he could give the point spread without mentioning the point spread starting in 1976. The Greek’s picks became the most popular part of the show, turning him in the face of pigskin prognostication.
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 he was approached by WRC reporter Ed Hotaling 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, 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 get into coaching there would be nothing left for white people.
The comments quickly were replayed throughout the country, as the NBC affiliate uploaded it to the network. With some comparing Jimmy the Greek’s comments to those made by 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.
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Jimmy the Greek later filed a lawsuit against CBS for wrongful termination and age discrimination but lost his case in court. Snyder never again worked in television and died in 1996 at the age of 77.