Jimmy the Greek
November 8, 2009
Jimmy the Greek
On Tuesday, on the last part of the ESPN 6-part documentary series 30 for 30 will feature Jimmy the Greek. The real name of Jimmy the Greek was Jimmy Snyder. Jimmy Snyder was a Las Vegas bookie and also an American sports commentator. He was best known as the host of The NFL Today from the ’80s. Jimmy was initially a gambling expert but later he joined the CBS show as professional sports analyst.
In 1988, Jimmy the Greek was fired by CBS after he made some controversial comments on the superiority of black athletes. According to Wikipedia, Jimmy the Greek said,
“The black is a better athlete to begin with because he’s been bred to be that way — because of his high thighs and big thighs that goes up into his back, and they can jump higher and run faster because of their bigger thighs. This goes back all the way to the Civil War when during the slave trading, the owner — the slave owner would breed his big black to his big woman so that he could have a big black kid.”
On April 21, 1996, he died of a heart attack in Las Vegas. He was 76 years old at the time of his death. He is buried in Steubenville, Ohio, at the historical Union Cemetery.