Sports

S.I. Publishes Incredible Profile On Nick Bosa’s Great Grandfather And Legendary Mob Boss Tony Accardo

Tony Accardo (Credit: WikiCommons/Public Domain/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Accardo#/media/File:Tony_Accardo_1960.jpg)

David Hookstead Sports And Entertainment Editor
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Nick Bosa’s great grandfather Tony Accardo doesn’t sound like a man you wanted to mess with back in the day.

Sports Illustrated recently published an incredible profile on the great grandfather of the 49ers 2019 first round pick, and it’s an incredible read. In fact, it’s so great I pretty much mass texted it out to everybody I know interested in history today. (RELATED: Arizona Cardinals Select Kyler Murray First Overall In The NFL Draft)

Following Al Capone’s fall from power, Accardo took over the Chicago mafia and remained in power for six decades. He allegedly planned the St. Valentine’s Day massacre and allegedly killed two men planning a coup against Capone with a baseball bat, which earned him the name “Joey Batters.” It only gets crazier from there.

S.I. wrote the following when explaining Accardo’s alleged retaliation to his California house being broken into.

Using his connections to identify the thieves, he betrayed no mercy. Within the year, 10 men were dead. According to the Chicago Tribune, “Each was found with his throat cut; one was castrated and disemboweled, his face removed with a blow torch, a punishment imposed, presumably, because he was Italian and should have known better.” As another account in The Guardian put it, Accardo “avenged insult with interest.”

There’s much more. Apparently, Accardo can be thanked for the Chicago mob’s massive expansion. S.I. explained with the following:

Under Accardo the Chicago Outfit moved from bootlegging and assorted acts of violence to more sophisticated ventures. (As Ricca once put it, “Accardo had more brains for breakfast than Al Capone had in a lifetime.”) By penetrating labor unions, expanding gambling ties and establishing a beachhead in a newly minted city of sin, Las Vegas (with an equity stake in the Stardust Hotel), the Chicago Outfit came to resemble a conventional business. And Joey Batters was the unquestioned CEO. When mob historians refer to him as perhaps the most powerful American underworld figure of the 20th century, it is not hyperbole.

This is something straight out of Hollywood stuff. How wasn’t this talked about constantly during the draft? I don’t endorse death, but Accardo sounds like Capone on steroids, and he never even spent a night in jail, according to the S.I. profile.

That’s downright absurd. If I was Nick Bosa, I would without a doubt think this was the coolest part of my family history.

 

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His great grandfather was a reported mafia kingpin and got away with it from start to finish. If that’s not awesome, then I don’t know what is.

The craziest part about this Accardo figure is that he did most of his work allegedly behind the scenes, and never generated the attention Capone did, which is probably a major reason why he stayed out of a jail cell.

You know Nick Bosa’s teammates are going to have a field day after reading this profile in Sports Illustrated. No way they don’t.

I’d talk about it constantly if I were in the locker room. I’d have so many question. There’s nothing that gets a person’s interests going like a guy who allegedly had 10 people taken out in response to a robbery. That’s big time gangster stuff.

Seriously, go read the entire profile from start to finish. It’s one of the most fascinating things I’ve ever read.

H/T: Barstool Sports

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