Former Ohio State Buckeyes defensive end Joey Bosa is generally expected to be one of the top picks in the 2016 NFL Draft. He's basically NFL royalty, following in the footsteps of his father, John Bosa, and uncle, Eric Kumerow, both of whom were first-round selections.
Joey Bosa’s great-grandfather was once Al Capone’s bodyguard and a Chicago crime boss
Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Jeanna Kelley has been covering the Falcons for The Falcoholic since 2011 and the NFL for SB Nation since 2015.
But one thing many people don’t know about Bosa is that his great-grandfather, Tony Accardo, was a Chicago mob boss for more than 40 years.
Accardo wasn’t just some random low-level mafioso, either. Accardo, known to his mob associates as “Joey Batters,” or just “Joe B.” for short, was a heavy hitter in Chicago, figuratively and literally. Al Capone gave him the nickname after Accardo allegedly killed two guys with a baseball bat.
Accardo, who died in 1992 at the age of 86, never spent a night in jail.
When his home was broken into in 1978, Accardo’s alleged retribution against the burglars was swift and furious -- and graphic.
The Chicago Tribune published an article in 1984 about Accardo's reign as the kingpin of the Windy City. According to the article, his retaliation against the professional thieves who broke into his home was quite gory:
“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.”
Accardo may have been involved in one of the most notorious mob attacks in history
It’s been speculated that Accardo, who also worked as Capone’s bodyguard, had a hand in planning the bloody 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre that left seven members of the Bugs Moran gang dead. In his book, Accardo: The Genuine Godfather, Former FBI agent William F. Roemer Jr. said it was possible that Accardo was a machine gunner. The case, of course, was never solved.
NFL teams were worried about Accardo’s reputation when Kumerow was drafted
When Bosa’s uncle and Accardo’s grandson, Eric Kumerow, was going through the pre-draft process, NFL teams were concerned that Accardo might try to influence the outcome of games. Bosa’s mother, Cheryl, told the Chicago Tribune that it was Roemer who told them that Accardo had far too much integrity to put his grandson in that situation.
Joey Bosa never got to meet his great-grandfather, but he wishes he had.
“I’ve only heard amazing things about (Accardo),” Bosa said via the Chicago Tribune. “Wish I could have spent some time with him before he passed.”
Accardo would have surely liked to know Bosa, too. In his later years, according to the Tribune article from 1984, the organized crime kingpin spent his free time watching his grandchildren play Little League ball and attending their school functions.
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