Reaction to “The Legend of Jimmy the Greek” was generally positive.  Mike Florio tweeted “Usually I can work while watching TV.  During this Jimmy the Greek documentary on ESPN, I have yet to write a single word.”  Fang’s Bites described it as “close to perfect on its storytelling.”  I didn’t agree, but perhaps I was not the intended audience.

When Jimmy the Greek napalmed his career, I was four years old and far from football cognizant.  For me, he was a name and a scandal.  That’s it.  For those who knew him, it may have been masterful, but hoping to comprehend, I was disappointed.

Fritz Mitchell says at the start of the film, “The story wouldn’t really be complete unless you heard from the man himself.”  He’s right, but that’s was the film’s flaw.

Jimmy The Greek was a television personality.  How could you not use live footage extensively? Thirty seconds of him being charismatic and awesome on camera, would have trumped multiple people taking ten minutes to describe it.  It wasn’t there  In the scant live footage there was, Jimmy was a side-character as we were bombared with Musburger.

Instead of seeing him, Mitchell used fake voiceovers and cheezy dramatizations.  It made the film feel like an episode of “I shouldn’t be alive.”

Attempts to contextualize him in the film felt flimsy.  Why was Jimmy the Greek important?  The argument was that he brought gambling to the mainstream.  That should have been supported with evidence, rather than taken uncritically.

Mitchell portrays both sides of his personality.  The interviewees were measured and insightful.  I thought his son particularly had poignant insights.  When asked about the money, his son says, “He went through it all.  Believe me.  He enjoyed every cent of it.”

The analysis of him, however, was perhaps not as critical as it should have been, especially when handling the racist incident.

Jimmy the Greek did not make an off-color joke interpreted harshly.  It was no borderline gaffe.  He used considered logic to argue a point that was explicitly racist.  There was neither tact nor sublimation.  It was sentiment found only in Nazi tracts or a Thomas Carlyle manifesto.

The film deflects blame from him, making the incident passive.  Fake Jimmy says, “I was branded a racist.”  One interviewee says, “We devoured him at the end because of one, unfortunate incident.”  Brent Musburger suggests Jimmy was “old-fashioned” and could not articulate what he meant properly.

His comments were not “unfortunate” they were awful.  He was not “branded a racist” by others.  He branded himself.  There’s no articulation or proper wording that would make his heinous point palatable.

Jimmy the Greek was not a victim of perception.  CBS fired him swiftly, and justly.