FBI investigated Packers star McGee for gambling

Hard-partying Green Bay Packers receiver Max McGee, who scored the first touchdown in Super Bowl history, had a gambling habit that the FBI tracked after his career ended, newly released records show.

Agents investigated McGee for about a year, from late 1972 through September 1973, before dropping the case for lack of evidence, according to records released to The Associated Press under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Information in the late player's file appears to show the FBI thought he was a bookmaker but determined he wasn't, said I. Nelson Rose, a professor at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, Calif. Given that there are no federal laws against making a bet, the FBI wouldn't have had anything to charge McGee with, Rose said Friday.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Sunday he did not know about the FBI's probe of McGee. "You know he was betting. Everybody knows that," Kramer said Friday from his home in Boise, Idaho. "I kind of thought it was more of a social thing than serious gambling."

McGee's widow, Denise McGee, said she had no idea about the FBI investigation but did not meet him until after the probe was closed.

"I was with him for 26 years, and he is the most honest and loyal person I ever met," she said. "Did he like to bet on football games? Yeah, a lot of people do."

McGee played for the Packers from 1954 to 1967, helping them win five NFL championships, including the first two Super Bowls. He became part of team lore when he admitted staying up all night to party with three stewardesses on L.A.'s Sunset Strip before the first Super Bowl, then hauling in a pass from Bart Starr for the first touchdown in the championship game's history.

-- Associated Press