Bleeding Green Nation
Steve Maltepes, known as “The Philly Godfather,” lived an unfathomable life, which is now a compelling book about the son of a Greek immigrant who kept reinventing himself and developed into a national level gambling pundit. Maltepes’ book, entitled, ironically, “Booked,” was released a few weeks ago, tells his story and is among the top sellers of new releases on Amazon.
Maltepes, a regular gambling contributor to Bleeding Green Nation during the NFL season, grew up an Eagles fan in the Delaware County suburb of Upper Darby and persevered over considerable obstacles—some of which were self-imposed. The book has some interesting gambling anecdotes that involve the Eagles and NFL gambling in general.
Maltepes is an eighth-grade dropout who became one of the largest gambling touts in the country. It is very much a Philadelphia story about an underdog whose parents came from Greece with $200 in their pockets, scraping themselves up from the bottom by washing dishes and sowing, while his father built a lucrative business as a hot dog vendor on a Philadelphia street corner in University City. Maltepes’ father was better than everyone else at it, creating his son’s work ethic and life ethos.
The story is based in the Philadelphia area, doing Philadelphia things, involved with Philadelphia teams.
On October 3rd, 1993, the “Airport Bet” was born—and only in Philly could this happen. Rocco started chasin’ bad numbers that year, bettin’ his own games, and before he knew it, he was $350K deep in the hole with Philly bookies. And back then, these weren’t your friendly neighborhood sportsbooks—these were Mafia-run operations. He was playin’ with fire, no doubt.
Rocco was usually the second guy in the office after Rooster, but that Sunday in October? He was nowhere to be found. At precisely 1 p.m., just as the NFL games kicked off, Rooster’s phone rang—it was Rocco. He was at the airport about to watch the Eagles game; get this, he tells Rooster he doubled down on the Eagles +1 against the Jets with every bookmaker on the East Coast, a grand total of $350,000 riding on the line to try to get back to even.
“If the Birds don’t cover,” Rocco said, “I’m gone—hopping on a plane, outta here for good.”
The game? Classic Philly chaos. Randall Cunningham gets knocked out, and in comes the backup QB Bubby Brister—yeah, Bubby freakin’ Brister. Rich Kotite is coaching on the sideline, looking like a fish out of water. Birds are down 21-0 at halftime. At that point, we’re all thinkin’ Rocco’s dead meat, finished. But in true Philly style, Bubby rallies and ties it up 28-28. Then, the Jets get a safety, go up 30-28, and start drivin’ like they’re about to ice the game with less than a minute left in regulation. I guess we will never see Rocco again.
*That’s when Eric Allen steps up. Boomer Esiason drops back, and Allen picks him off—94 yards to the house. Birds win 35-30, cover the spread,...
