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.
Airport Bet.
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, and Rocco returns from the depths of beyond. Next day? Rocco walked into the office like nothing ever happened. Cool as a Rocky statue, like he didn’t just come this close to disappearin’ like Jimmy Hoffa. And just like that, the “Airport Bet” was born exactly a year before I met Johanna.
Dallas Cowboys Suck!
The most hated person in Philly isn’t the Mayor, isn’t the President, isn’t even your ex-wife. It’s a Dallas Cowboys fan.
As a youngster from the Philly area growing up in the 1970s and playing sports all year round, the first thing you learn is to hate the Dallas Cowboys and anyone that cheers for that team.
Back in the day, if you were a kid and put on a Dallas Cowboys jersey and walked the streets of Philly, you were begging for an ass kicking, and more times than not, you ended up with one.
From 1970 to 1977, the Eagles were one of the worst franchises in the NFL with a combined record of 36-72, while the Dallas Cowboys were winning Super Bowls with Roger Staubach at QB and becoming America’s Team.
Then in 1978, the third year of Dick Vermeil, the Eagles finally had a winning season (9-7) but eventually lost to the Atlanta Falcons 14-13 in the Wild Card Playoffs.
The next year, there was even more to cheer about as the Eagles ended up 11-5 on the season, before losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Divisional playoff game 24-17.
Then came the magical 1980 season. Philadelphia went 12-4 that year, and we ended up beating the crap out of the Cowboys, 20-7, in the NFC Championship game.
I can’t tell you what that game/victory did for Eagles fans who had suffered for so long. It felt like the Eagles were the Bad News Bears for almost a decade up to that point. We finally made it to the Super Bowl. The happiness and elation in the Delaware Valley lasted for a couple of weeks before the Eagles lost to the Oakland Raiders in the Super Bowl, 27-10.
We didn’t get the ring in 1980, but at least we could finally shut up Cowboys fans for a while.
It didn’t take the Cowboys long to win another three Super Bowls from 1992-1996, just to add more salt to the wounds of all Eagles fans.
Now that you know the history between the Philly fan base and the Dallas Cowboys, I’ll tell you how I became the most hated man in Philly sports in 2023.
I was researching the NFC East and data mining as much information as I could get my hands on during the summer of 2023 before the start of the NFL season. I kept checking off boxes, and the predictive indicators weren’t looking good for the Phila Eagles from a betting perspective.
Mind you, as a pro sports bettor, “When betting futures in the sports betting market, it’s all about the price and about the teams you feel can go deep into the playoffs, basically teams that can give you an opportunity to hedge your bet and get some free money on that wager if the ball bounces your way.”
People have to realize that when you invest in sports (bet), it’s a market like any other market—real estate, the stock market. Prices constantly fluctuate as information enters the market. Sharp money moves the market, just like it does in the S&P 500.
Netflix is currently interested in “Booked” as a series project, and it could be made into a movie.
“We’re actively talking to some movie producers now, and they recognize what we recognize that this as a phenomenal story because our main character went to hell and back more than once,” said Greg Lingo, who is involved with the “Booked” project and co-wrote and produced the movie “Last Call.” “When I read ‘Booked,’ it is one of the most amazing stories I ever encountered, and what is more amazing is that everything in it is true.”
