This is a review of ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary, “The Legend of Jimmy The Greek”. For those who saw Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder every Sunday on The NFL Today on CBS from 1976-1988, there was no one like him. For those who never him, no one on TV today can ever match the chutzpah or the bravado of one Jimmy The Greek.
For one, he was a prognosticator who legitimized gambling and the point spread for NFL games. Two, he was certainly one of the most original characters ever seen on sports television. And three, he came at a time when there were only two Sunday NFL pregame shows, the widely popular NFL Today on CBS and NBC’s pregame show which was slaughtered in the ratings every week by the NFL Today.
To understand Jimmy The Greek, one must understand his background. Jimmy was born on the wrong side of the tracks in Steubenville, OH. He lost his mother at the age of 10 and he also lost three of his children. As an early teen, Jimmy found that he had a knack with numbers and could use that knowledge in gambling. By the 10th grade, he quit school and worked on his gambling skill full time. He gambled on the horses and the cards. He made money. He lost money. But the whole time, he always had fun.
The Greek also could read people and he could gather information to his advantage. Using that info, he would gamble all he had to get the big score, but he would also lose big as well. He quickly made his name on big scores and in 1948, he discovered through a girlfriend that women didn’t like mustaches. So he hired some women to do some informal polling at three Steubenville supermarkets to find out who they liked in the Presidential election, Senator Thomas Dewey, who had a mustache or the unpopular incumbent, Harry S. Truman. Pollsters had Dewey easily winning the election. But using the information he gathered from women, he saw that based on their dislike of mustaches, he bet $10,000 on election on 17-1 odds and won back $170,000.
In the 1950’s, Jimmy moved to Las Vegas, but after a conviction for interstate gambling, the Greek decided that he had to quit gambling and worked at a casino in its public relations department.
But he really took off when he started to write a newspaper column in the early 1960’s establishing the point spread for football games. For many Americans, it was their first education on the point spread and gambling on the NFL. But one career move he didn’t make was selling his name to the Las Vegas sports books. Had he done so, it’s felt by the Greek’s family that he would have made millions, but he did not want his name associated with sports gambling. So a huge opportunity fell by the wayside.
In the mid-1970’s, things started going the Greek’s way. He was pardoned by President Gerald Ford, expunging his conviction and in 1976, CBS hired him to join Brent Musburger, Phylis George and Irv Cross on the NFL Today. It legitimized him and it gave him national prominence.
But during those years, especially with Brent and Phylis, Jimmy could be volatile. At one point, Jimmy and Phylis sparred forcing CBS to separate them on the set. In addition, Jimmy feeling Phylis was taking away his airtime, fought with Musburger at a bar following one show. He also became high maintenance forcing producers to find a way to calm him down.
He worked 12 years on the NFL Today, but it all came crashing down in 1988 when he made a comment to WRC-TV on Martin Luther King’s birthday about the so-called breeding of the black athlete. It aired on NBC stations all throughout the country, became the lead story on NBC Nightly News and for all intents and purposes, Jimmy The Greek’s career was over. CBS not wanting any controversy took The Greek off the air and fired him. He never worked in television again.
Director Fritz Mitchell, a former lead researcher on The NFL Today, manages to get the lead cast at the pregame show including Musburger, George and Cross to talk about Jimmy. In addition, we hear from his son, Anthony, co-workers at CBS including former NFL Today producer George Veras who was very instrumental in getting the documentary on the air, former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather and good friend, writer Frank Deford. Mitchell uses an actor playing the Greek to narrate the documentary. And while he doesn’t sound like Jimmy, the device works and it holds the film together, enabling the viewer to go from one story to another.
This is a documentary that shows the good side of Jimmy The Greek and the bad side. But it also shows what impact The Greek had on gambling bringing it into the mainstream.
I’m very glad to see that Mitchell was able to get the people inside The NFL Today and CBS to talk about Jimmy and also get family members to give us a look at the man. I do think Jimmy would have liked this look at his life.
This receives an A+ and it’s as close to perfect on its storytelling.
“The Legend of Jimmy The Greek” premieres tonight at 8 on ESPN with multiple replays throughout the week.
Another fantastic effort by ESPN Films.
