Shame: Donaghy to Plead Guilty

(Boulder-CO) It is being reported by the New York Daily News that disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy is expected to surrender as early as Thursday and plead guilty to federal gambling charges, sources said yesterday.

Donaghy, who has had nearly everybody who has ever known him come forward and make comments on what kind of man he was, has also been reportedly receiving threatening phone calls at his residence. According to the report, one of the calls made by a male caller told the person on the phone, "You're fired and a dead man," and "You're done, you're dead." And the reasons for the threatening calls are obvious because Thomas Seigel, chief of the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's office organized crime division, would prosecute the case and that a grand jury was expected to indict at least two mobbed-up gamblers in the scheme.

Note to Tim Donaghy: The Mob doesn’t like squealers.

The same story that quotes the threatening calls also goes on to say, “They think he'll be killed if he goes to prison, or even if he doesn't, just because he's probably talking, cooperating, and that's ratting on the mob," the source said. "I don't think (the Mafia) would take that very well."

My take is the MLB may have its own black eye of a scandal with steroids and the NFL may have its own collection of morons, i.e. Michael Vick, Tank Johnson, and Adam “Pac-Man” Jones, but to have the sacred and most integrity-based position of the game be compromised in the way that Donaghy is suspected of is an absolute shame of which there is no parallel. We have all wondered if Steve Javie really does have a personal issue with Allen Iverson or if Joey Crawford really does dislike the Spurs, but to have this kind of scandal arise is an absolutely flagrant foul; on the league, on the game, and on the sacred craft of officiating.