Managing partner?
*Coach he hired and confidant indicted on interstate gambling ring, racketeering, money laundering - not to mention well known ties to Bruno Scarfo family in Philly
*General Manager (former Gretzky AGENT) made bet through Tochet
*Former Phoenix players linked to gamblies
*His wife betting $500K during limited investigation period
He knew of this, and aided and abetted. He has not done what is best for the team and his co-owners (assuming they are not part of syndacite too)
This may swiftly pass you must step down to YOUR FIRED
Olympic Ice Hockey News
A Great, big messBy Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports | February 10, 2006
Gretzky: 'I've done nothing wrong'
TURIN, Italy – They are coming fast now, wiretap leaks and anonymous district attorney office comments, faster and more furious than Wayne Gretzky circling the net.
They are coming in waves, allegations and rumors, capable of overwhelming hockey, here in the first fledgling season of its professional return, here on the eve of the Winter Games that was supposed to market the sport to the masses.
And in the middle is Gretzky, the way he has been for nearly three decades. The greatest and most famous player the sport has ever known –
the part-owner, full-time coach of the Phoenix Coyotes, the executive director of gold-medal favorite Team Canada – finds himself the focus of a quickly expanding gambling/crime scandal.
Just a day after Gretzky claimed he wasn't involved in a scheme where
his close friend and assistant coach, Rick Tocchet, was facing charges of promoting gambling, money laundering and conspiracy, and Gretzky's wife, actress Janet Jones, was said to have wagered $500,000, new questions arose.
Friday's Newark Star-Ledger, citing sources inside the local district attorney's office, said in a wiretap conversation Gretzky and Tocchet "discussed what authorities knew about the gambling operation, how they knew it and how they and Jones could stay out of trouble."
The Tocchet operation, authorities said, has ties to the Philadelphia-based Bruno-Scarfo organized crime family.
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Of great concern for the already teetering NHL is that a fast-growing number of
players are being implicated in placing bets with Tocchet, including, the newspaper reported, Jeremy Roenick and Travis Green.
What's next has consumed the Olympic Games here, as Gretzky is set to arrive Sunday to watch the Canadian team which he restored to the sports pinnacle in Salt Lake City go for consecutive gold medals.
His arrival will be a media circus, not just in Canada, where he is a near incomparable hero, but around the globe.
It is the last thing hockey needs.
It is the last thing the Olympics needs. It is the last thing anyone wants.
But the questions are as enormous as they are serious, and while Gretzky has not been charged with anything, he will be required to speak.
Where did his wife get half a mil to gamble? Residuals from "Police Academy 5"?
How believable is it that a former Hollywood starlet-turned-suburban-homemaker is the high-stakes sports gambler and not her ultra-competitive husband?
How could Gretzky's wife and friend be caught and he not be involved?
Just as Tocchet and Gretzky allegedly asked about the authorities, Gretzky will now be asked himself what he knew about the gambling operation, and how (and when) did he know it?
Without question, hockey wishes there was a simple answer. Gretzky has always carried himself as the classiest of stars – down to earth, simple, humble, heroic. It is almost impossible to find anyone with anything negative to say about Gretzky, anyone who hopes this is all but one big mistake, one big nightmare, one big false allegation.
There is nothing in his public persona that would make you think this could happen.
But it is happening. And it is happening at the worst possible hour.
As symbolic and headline-grabbing as the Gretzky name is, though, maybe Janet just got out of control and Wayne is, indeed, innocent.
But who knows how many players are involved? The names are being leaked by the day. Rumors are flying about the biggest names in the game. We're talking all-stars and MVPs.
There are stories of Philly mobsters sitting in Eric Lindros' Flyers comp seats. There is significant evidence of Russian players being linked to the Russian mafia, a charge the league never wanted to investigate and, realistically, never properly could.
While it is difficult to imagine hockey games were compromised due to the limited gambling interest in the sport in the United States, a few days ago it was difficult to imagine a gambling scandal swirling around Wayne and Janet, yet here it is.
Understand a couple of things about how bookmakers work.
It is almost impossible for an assistant hockey coach and a New Jersey state trooper (Tocchet's partner, authorities claim) to operate a large-scale, multi-state gambling book without being tied to some kind of organized crime.
Often your corner bookie cannot stay in business as an independent, and he certainly isn't taking alleged $75,000 Super Bowl bets from Mrs. Wayne Gretzky. 
Organized crime families are in all sorts of, uh, businesses, and gambling is often used as a hook, a chance to control a powerful person through blackmail. If a crime family wants someone, it finds a way to get them under their thumb, whether it's gambling, drugs or extramarital affairs – whatever the vice, whatever it takes.
They know there is almost no financial gambling hole a professional athlete cannot pay his way out of, just as there is almost nothing one of them might do to avoid being publicly linked to the mob.
The FBI will tell you one of the great fallacies of game fixing is the concept that athletes – college or pro – do it for the money. They usually do it as a result of blackmail, the cost of career, reputation, marriage or NCAA eligibility.
Gretzky and Tocchet discussed how to "stay out of trouble." Heaven knows what the answer was.
But that is a question that needs to be asked in a controversy that is gaining speed, Gretzky-through-center-ice style, and
showing no signs of slowing down.
Coming soon "Dirt Nap" starring Janet Gretzky Jones
Dan Wetzel is Yahoo! Sports' national columnist. Dan is the author of two new books.
"Glory Road", with Don Haskins, is about the legendary coach of 1966 NCAA champion Texas Western, whose decision to start five black players was instrumental in integrating college teams in the South. A Disney movie of the same name is now playing in theaters.
Also on sale now is "Runnin' Rebel: Shark Tales of 'Extra Benefits,' Frank Sinatra and Winning It All" with colorful former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian.
Send Dan a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
Updated on Friday, Feb 10, 2006 12:07 pm EST
