How 5 Famous Crimes Are Connected to Florida Gators Football 1. Jimmy Hoffa’s Disappearance As the legend goes, Jimmy Hoffa is buried under the one of the end zones at Giants Stadium. Hoffa disappeared between the 1974 and 1975 NFL seasons, just as the New Jersey stadium was being constructed. Guess who was on the New York Jets at that time? None other than former Florida Gators safety Steve Tannen. Is Tannen the man who killed Hoffa and put him in the cement that would one day become his team’s new home? It’s definitely possible. Another interesting fact: Tannen never played in the NFL again after Hoffa’s disappearance, as he was likely on the run. 2. Serial Killer Ted Bundy Ted Bundy was one of the most notorious serial killers in American history. Among his 30+ killings was an attack at a Florida State sorority house in January 1978. Yes, Florida State University: Florida’s big rival … and the team that had drubbed the Gators 37-9 less than two months earlier. Was Bundy hired by someone in the Florida Gators football department? We’ll never know. Bundy was executed in 1989 … at a prison facility just 25 miles from the Florida campus. Forever silenced. 3. The Unsolved Murder of Tupac Shakur Late on the night of September 7, 1996 in Las Vegas, rapper Tupac Shakur was shot dead by an unknown assailant. Earlier that day, the Florida Gators crushed Southwestern Louisiana, 55-21. Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel left that game early. Did Wuerffel then fly to Las Vegas and murder Tupac Shakur? It is very possible. Consider: in Wuerffel’s 2004 book, “Tales of Gator Football: Reflections of Faith and Football,” he writes the following on Page 104: It’s clear to see that Wuerrfel was a big fan of Biz Marqee, and East Coast rapper. Tupac was a West Coast rapper. No doubt Wuerffel hated Shakur … and he had a big hole in his schedule on September 7th after leaving the Southwestern Louisiana game. Also of note, Florida didn’t play another game for two weeks, giving Wuerrfel plenty of time to cover his tracks before slipping back onto his team as though nothing had happened. 4. General Crimes Increases Over Time A look at national crime statistics shows that crime increases wherever Florida Gators go. Take a look at just one state and one player: the State of Colorado from 2010 to 2011, the time period covering Tim Tebow’s tenure with the Denver Broncos. The crime statistics show the following: Violent crimes: up 0.2% Property crimes: up 0.2% Murders: up 15.5% Rapes: up 15.5% Robbery: up 4.4% Chilling. And that’s just one state containing just one Florida Gators player from just one year to another. There’s no way to now how many crimes — from petty theft to billion dollar international crime rings — are connected to Florida Gators football. 5. The Disappearance of Hijacker D.B. Cooper On November 24, 1971, a man using the alias D.B. Cooper hijacked a flight between Portland and Seattle. He was able to extort $200,000 in ransom and then parachuted from the plane, never to be seen again. Some 24 years later, the Florida Gators recruited a high school WR/DB named Cooper: Riley Cooper. DB-Cooper. Did D.B. Cooper decide that the best way to get away from his Pacific Northwest hijacking was to hide out in Florida, at the complete opposite corner of the country? And then did he raise a son with a position and name intended to be a clever clue to his crime? What does it mean that Riley Cooper has stolen more than $1.4 million from the Philadelphia Eagles in his career? Was he trained by his infamous father in the arts of high-stakes thieving? The more questions you ask, the more it seems likely.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 00:29:58 +0000
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