ESPN Day for Covert ...

The Covert book tour rolls on to Bristol, CT today. A lot of stuff in the works, including an appearance on "First Take," and "ESPN News," among others.

ESPN.com launche a huge Page 2 spread on the book yesterday. Here is a peak and the link is available by clicking on the ESPN Day headline above...

Delaney's life as a whistle-blower
By Sam Alipour
Special to Page 2

NBA referees have had a rough go of late, beginning with Joey Crawford's suspension for his exchange with Tim Duncan during the 2007 playoffs, through the ongoing drama surrounding Tim Donaghy, who is about to be sentenced for fixing games in a gambling scam.
Media Blitz
In this vocation, any publicity is bad publicity, and bad publicity is seemingly everywhere. But the league's officiating corps is more accurately represented by Bob Delaney -- a man of unquestionable integrity who once logged countless hours as an undercover trooper with the New Jersey State Police task force on organized crime. Delaney lived to tell his tale -- and now write it, too -- so while his anonymity will soon perish, that, for once, is a very good thing. In his profession's darkest hour, maybe Delaney can help light the way out.

In "Covert: My Years Infiltrating the Mob," the former trooper-turned-striped shirt recounts (with Dave Scheiber) his nerve-rattling days as the principal undercover agent in Project Alpha, the '70s-era investigation into the Genovese and Bruno crime families that resulted in over 30 convictions, greatly disrupting the Mafia's operations in America.

For Delaney, the investigation, however fruitful, came with a heavy price. Throughout his three-year ordeal as Bobby Covert -- an executive at a fictitious trucking company using the mob to circumvent union interests -- and for many years later, Delaney struggled with the emotional and physiological ramifications of his harrowing work, which included stress-induced bouts of vomiting and diarrhea.

In returning to the hard court, Delaney, who hooped for Jersey City State College, would find a haven from his internal storm. The highly respected veteran, now in his 20th year as an NBA whistle-blower, turned to officiating because, as he explains, "I'd seen so much bad, I needed to surround myself with good." That was the case for a while, anyway.

Delaney, 56, recently took some time to talk about his book (due this week from Union Square Press), his work in the groundbreaking investigation and how his background prepared him for his current occupation as well as the proverbial black eye Donaghy would inflict upon it. Alipour: What was your motivation in writing this book?

Delaney: It's not just a story about the mob. There are lessons in it. I still teach at the federal law enforcement training center in Glencoe, Ga., as well as many state and local training academies, and I know the psychological and emotional hardships of my experience spoke to the officers in the audience who were going through the same thing -- undercover local, state, federal and military officers. We don't like to speak about things that are looked upon as less than brave for someone in law enforcement. People in these investigative situations need help to become whole and return to who they are. It's like grieving. You get in a room with others and realize, "I'm not the only one going through this." I wanted to get society to understand the dedication these people are giving to this country, and the physical, emotional and psychological injury that goes with it. Undercover work is the greatest investigative tool we have in law enforcement. But there's a price we pay for it.