What Happened in Vegas

A.K.A. The wrong response to investigative journalism by someone with a Masters in Public Administration

Photo by David Vives on Unsplash

Jeff Pearlman is one of my favorite journalists. The author has written several New York Times’ Bestsellers about a sports team at a particular time and each one I’ve read. In particular, I loved his book, Football for a Buck, on the USFL in the Eighties. While a certain real estate man turned President commanded the attention in the book, I loved learning about Clinton Manges and the San Antonio Gunslingers who played at Alamo Stadium right next to Trinity University. More specifically, I loved the story that told that players would race each other to the bank to see which of their checks cleared first. It seems for being an oil baron, Manges was not as liquid as needed to be a professional sports team owner.

Courtesy: USFL

Boys Will Be Boys on the 1990s Dallas Cowboys is probably my favorite Pearlman book. It’s shocking and funny. Reading about the Michael Irvin then to the Michael Irvin you see on ESPN’s First Take seems similar to the Saul to Paul conversion, and yes, I’ve driven by the infamous “White House” off of Valley Ranch.

However, I wanted to talk about Pearlman’s book on the 1980s Lakers, “Showtime.”

If you like Adam McKay or HBO, you probably saw that they produced an adaptation of it earlier this year entitled “Winning Time.”

In the book and the show about the book, there’s a moment that ends up to be shocking.

It didn’t take place in Los Angeles but took place in Sin City: Las Vegas.

It prevented Jerry Buss from hiring Jerry Tarkanian from the UNLV Running Rebs to his Lakers.

I’ll let you buy his book to figure out what happened.

Vegas is obviously known as Sin City. We know what goes on in there ideally should stay at there. It’s a city that celebrates gambling so much that even the local collegiate football team builds a slot machine to celebrate getting a turnover takeaway or making a big play. Hi, Shelby!

We also know that that is a marketing slogan akin to not messing with Texas. That people get more excited getting there than leaving should also let you know that Vegas is undefeated.

In college, I met a guy from there. He would tell me and others that people actually lived there and that off the strip, it was a normal town.

That was further underscored when the Las Vegas Golden Knights came to town. In a smart move, they built their practice facility in suburbs so that their players could live and work there while their opponents stayed on the Strip. I bet their home record reflects that.

That’s where this story begins and ends. In Clark County, investigative journalist Jeff German of the Las Vegas Review Journal was found stabbed to death this past weekend.

It’s harrowing to hear any journalist being stabbed to death. To hear it happened in not only this country but this past week only adds to the shock.

When I first saw this story, I immediately thought of the anecdote from Pearlman’s book. I thought, “Wow, Vegas is Vegas. He must have been very close to uncovering corruption in the Vegas Mob Scene.”

However, what happened next was worse. Las Vegas Police arrested Clark County Administrator Robert Telles on suspicion of murder on Wednesday Evening. According to them, German’s reporting on Telles’ corruption and bullying contributed to Telles’ loss in his primary in May.

Apparently, German was pursuing a follow up to Telles that was a little to uncomfortable.

In an interview video from this spring, Telles tells a camera that he’s a good guy.

I’m sure the guy who held up that camera, German, would beg to differ if he could.

German was 69.