OCR Text |
Show Released by Western Newspaper Union. UVERY time there is a startling upset in professional sports it is followed by a wave of stories which reflect on the honesty of the play-for-pay boys. A couple of weeks ago such stories came out of Washington, hinting that games the Redskins had lost to the Pitt-Phil Eagles and the New York Giants were not all they should have been. It was also Intimated that the gamblers had been on the inside track that they knew what was going go-ing to happen. As you may remember, the Giants were definitely not expected to win their Initial game with the Redskins. But they did, 14 to 10. Then, when the two teams were scheduled to meet again, the wise guys reasoned that Washington would have to "be honest" hon-est" this time. And, of course, if they were "honest," they would win. Too Smart The wise guys were too smart. There was nothing wrong with the Redskins' loss to the Eagles and Giants. Washington had played a rugged schedule. They managed to beat the powerful Chicago Bears, for whom they were primed, but they suffered a natural letdown following r I?' l ' n ELMER LAYDEN that game. The Redskins were hurt by Injuries. And injuries make a lot of difference in these days when many a star performer has gone to war. The gamblers, who pride them-i selves somewhat falsely on their intelligence, in-telligence, should have known that the next Giant-Redskin game was' on the level. But they swallowed the scandal stories completely. The smart boys figured Washington bad to win. They laid 13 to S on Washington Wash-ington and gave seven points. The Giants won again. And there was nothing shady about their 31 to1 7 victory. The gamblers' throughout the country took their biggest whipping whip-ping of the season, and all because they figured there was something crooked about the -previous upsets. As matters now stand, Elmer Lay-den, Lay-den, commissioner of the league, and George Preston Marshall, owner of the Redskins, are on record with' requests for legitimate Information about any gambling cases involving players. Marshall has offered to' pay $5,000 reward to anyone who can prove that any of his players have been betting on professional football games. Both Layden and Marshall said that they had investigated the rumors ru-mors of collusion between gamblers' and players. They were unable to find any evidence of players even associating with gamblers. And when Layden says be could find no evidence, he means exactly that. He Is to professional football what Lan-dis Lan-dis is to baseball. He is thorough, honest and reliable. All the loose talk came after the Giants won their first game with the Redskins 14 to 10. Little was said when they repeated their victory by a one-sided score. Physical Beating But sports writers who saw the first game are on record as being fully convinced of the honesty of the affair. The Redskins took a bad physical beating from the Giants, with key men like Willie Wilkin, Andy Farkas and Wilbur Moore suffering suf-fering injuries. As this is being written Washington's Washing-ton's record is six victories, two losses and a tie. And remember that the Redskins are holdover champions. cham-pions. There isn't anything particularly particu-larly unusual about this record for the leader of the Eastern division of the league. The National Football league was split into two divisions in 1933. Since that time the Eastern division winner win-ner has lost at least two games a season on eight occasions. 'Ugly Rumors Marshall said he had heard "ugly, unfounded reports" early in the season sea-son that his players were gambling and frequenting liquor bars. Marshall Mar-shall reported that he had asked the District of Columbia chief of police to investigate, but that his men had found no evidence to support the charge. Marshall said that he had quizzed his men individually and thai all, except four in the hospital, at so-lutely so-lutely denied that they had paint ic on themselves or other prvUsii" . teams. i |