FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – When Dave Williams was killed while coaching a Fort Lauderdale Hurricanes youth football team, the team's former reputation for high-dollar gambling resurfaced.
About four years ago, the dirty money game got former Fort Lauderdale Hurricanes' president Brandon Bivins, now 40, arrested. He was accused of being the ringleader of an illegal gambling scheme involving bookies.
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Broward Sheriff's Office deputies' "Operation Dirty Play" also netted other football coaches from the Deerfield Packer Rattlers, the Lauderhill Lions and the Northwest Broward Raiders on felony bookmaking charges.
Bivins, the former owner of a barbershop in Fort Lauderdale, had a criminal record that included aggravated armed assault, cocaine possession and grand theft. Detectives found a fully loaded Ruger .357 double action revolver and a box of .357 Magnum bullets, near to about $19,000 in cash, at his place.
In a sport meant to keep children away from crime, detectives learned a single mother with a talented son could get about $10,000. They also found her son's success on the little league football field could pay as much as $30,000 per game through gambling.
The evidence against Bivins also included wager tally sheets, payout documents, betting receipts, and a floor safe with about $37,000 in cash.
"Bivins wasn't in it for the kids, he was in it for the money," former Sheriff Al Lamberti told Local 10 News in 2012.
Some disagreed. In a neighborhood where poverty prevails, Bivins supporters argued it is possible to be in it for both. After "Operation Dirty Play," the Fort Lauderdale Hurricanes left the South Florida Youth Football League and joined the Florida Youth Football League.
Tramar Dillard, better known as rapper Flo Rida, founded the FYFL, which now has some 14 teams. The 37-year-old recording artist was born and raised in Miami Gardens' Carol City neighborhood. He attended the University of Nevada in Las Vegas and Barry University in Miami Shores.
Flo Rida and his FYFL league didn't acknowledge Williams' death on social media.
Those who remembered Williams on social media said he was a reliable father, a caring football coach and a businessman who created jobs at his car wash on Sunrise Boulevard. A man alleging he was a former employee shared about 30 minutes of grief on Facebook. The video got about 4,900 views.
"It all started at the car wash. That [Williams] when I didn't have nothing; that [Williams] put some money in my pocket. That [Williams] put money on a lot of [people's] pockets," the man said. "That [Williams] helped a lot of [people]."
Police were asking anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477, or Sgt. Orlando Almanzar at 954-828-5546 or Detective Mark Breen at 954-828-5708.
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