The Family

The Gambino Family maims the Bandits

CAHABA, AL - The Gambino (pronounced Gamˈbiːno) crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominated organized crime activities in New York City and the United States within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. "The Family" went through five bosses between 1910 and 1957 and was ultimately named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963, when the structure of organized crime first gained public attention. The assassination of President Kennedy one month after the hearings took a lot of steam out of Robert Kennedy's war on the Mafia. Just saying. The group's operations extended from New York and the eastern seaboard to California. Its illicit activities included labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, fraud, hijacking, and fencing. The family was one of the five families that were founded in New York after the Castellammarese War of 1931. For most of the next quarter-century, thet were a minor player in organized crime. Its most prominent member during this time was its underboss Albert Anastasia, who rose to infamy as the head of the underworld's enforcement arm, Murder, Inc. He remained in power even after Murder, Inc. was smashed in the late 1940s, and took over the family in 1951 after murdering the family's original founder Vincent Mangano and then the group became known as the Anastasia crime family. The rise of what would become the most powerful crime family in America began in 1957, when Anastasia was assassinated while sitting in a barber chair at the Park Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan. Experts believe that Anastasia's underboss Carlo Gambino orchestrated the hit to take over the family. Gambino then partnered with Meyer Lansky to control the gambling interests in Cuba. The family's fortunes continued to grow through 1976, when Gambino appointed his brother-in-law Paul Castellano as boss prior to his death. Castellano infuriated upstart capo John Gotti, who orchestrated Castellano's murder in 1985. Gotti's downfall came in 1992, when his underboss Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano cooperated with the FBI. Gravano's cooperation brought down Gotti, along with most of the top members of the Gambino family. Beginning in 2015, the family was headed by Frank Cali until his assassination outside his Staten Island home on March 13, 2019. Since then, Biloxi's Dixie Mafia has been pulling the purse strings for the Gambino family. In Week of the 2023 BDFL season, the Gambino family paid a visit to the Birmingham, Alabama designated market area (DMA), more importantly Vestavia Hills, to stake a claim to the newly proposed casino and resort on the banks of the Cahaba River. When met with resistence by local and State politicians, the Gambino family's hitman (known only as Guido) decided to take it out on one of the locals. The Gamblers mained the one-armed Bandits inoperable (49-11) in another embarrassing loss on Alabama soil this past weekend.

Everyday People by Sly & The Family Stone (1969)

Final Scores

The WORM Hole

The WORM Rule is back for a 3rd season

TITLETOWN - The BDFL's patented WORM Rule will be back for a third season. WORM is an acronym for Weekly One Roster Move. It means each team in the BDFL is free to drop and add one player per week during the season from Week 1 to Week 12. The defending and two-time consectutive BDFL Champions (Magic City Mayors) were the most active team to utilize the WORM Rule last season making seven roster upgrades out of the 12 weeks allowed. Interestingly enough, these seven WORM moves only involved three roster positions (QB3, RB3 & WR4) where the Mayors were in constant need of trying to improve their overall roster. There was a ton of value found in the ol' proverbial "Worm Hole" last season with players like Pacheco, Kmet, Mostert, Pinerio, McLaughlin, Drake, Purdy, Badgley, Cook, Foreman, Wright and others all coming into the BDFL during the regular season to help contribute to rosters via the WORM Rule. Look for even more WORM value this season when teams need an in-season roster boost. The BDFL has already had eight (8) WORM Hole moves for the 2023 season with probably more to come in Week 2. Email Iron Hand prior to the weekly starter deadline to make your WORM move. Typically, the weekly WORM Hole window is open each week from Monday at midnight until the starters are due on Thursday.