***SPOILERS*** During a football game at New York's Yankee Stadium star quarterback for the New York Marauders Pete Tilson, Eric Hipple, as he's about to make a pass down-field suddenly drops dead on the playing field before he's sacked by the opposing team! It turns out that Tilson was shot by someone of the 60,000 people, in the stands and on the playing field, attending the sold out football game. Mike Hammer, Stacey Keach, who as there and had a big bet on the Marauders takes a keen interest in who did Tilson in and tries to find out if he had any enemies who had something against him.
It turns out that Tilson was a big womanizer as we'll as gambler who bet on games that he was involved in-ala Pete Rose-that may well have contributed to his murder. This revelation on Hammer's part has the teams owner/manager Nick Stanton, Hugh Gillin, almost drop dead on the spot from a massive heart attack!. Not in that his All-American boy quarterback was dirty but in that it could prevent him from getting a multi-million TV contract that would prevent him from losing control of the Marauders. Hammer also finds out that the late Pete Tilson was also involved in screwing not only the Marauders cheer leaders but his fellow gamblers who were paying him to throw the games he was in that may have been the reason for his murder!
****SPOILERS**** Mike Hammer gets a bit over his head here in him involved with the crew , mostly 6 foot 4 250 pounds football players,he's dealing with in trying to work them over and getting them to talk into finding out who murdered Tilson and it's only luck, a slip in a stadium sky-box, that saves him from getting his neck rung. It turned out that Tilson's greed in double-crossing his fellow crooked gamblers that lead to his murder. As well as the murders of a number of others including top cheer leader Angelica Walters, Deborah Dalton, who was blown to bits before she could be called to testify about Tilson's actions on and off the playing field.
It turns out that Tilson was a big womanizer as we'll as gambler who bet on games that he was involved in-ala Pete Rose-that may well have contributed to his murder. This revelation on Hammer's part has the teams owner/manager Nick Stanton, Hugh Gillin, almost drop dead on the spot from a massive heart attack!. Not in that his All-American boy quarterback was dirty but in that it could prevent him from getting a multi-million TV contract that would prevent him from losing control of the Marauders. Hammer also finds out that the late Pete Tilson was also involved in screwing not only the Marauders cheer leaders but his fellow gamblers who were paying him to throw the games he was in that may have been the reason for his murder!
****SPOILERS**** Mike Hammer gets a bit over his head here in him involved with the crew , mostly 6 foot 4 250 pounds football players,he's dealing with in trying to work them over and getting them to talk into finding out who murdered Tilson and it's only luck, a slip in a stadium sky-box, that saves him from getting his neck rung. It turned out that Tilson's greed in double-crossing his fellow crooked gamblers that lead to his murder. As well as the murders of a number of others including top cheer leader Angelica Walters, Deborah Dalton, who was blown to bits before she could be called to testify about Tilson's actions on and off the playing field.