Cancel Culture Isn’t Real; But It Does Reveal Racists

The most fascinating sports figure of my life is someone I never remembered seeing live.

In early 1988, Jimmy the Greek was fired by CBS for being racist. I was five at the time. I vaguely remember the scandal that engulfed him living near New York and my Dad’s love of the NYC tabloids.

Over the next few years, Jimmy the Greek was used mostly as a punchline, parodied later in shows I watched like The Simpsons.

When ESPN launched its 30 for 30 series, a documentary on Jimmy the Greek was one of my favorites because of how insane it seemed that someone could get so famous talking about gambling on television. For my entire life until a few years ago, talking about gambling and sports seemed forbidden.

Of course, the racism is what ended his career. I’m not sure I actually saw his comments in full until that documentary aired. It was pretty horrifying, even if his friends tried to defend him by saying he was more stupid than racist. Not a good defense in 1988, and still not a good one today.

Several years ago, I wrote a piece here about how I didn’t think Jimmy the Greek would be shunned from society in the Trump era. If anything, he would’ve found a second life somewhere — either in the right wing disinfo sphere and rehabilitated after time off in the…