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Full disclosure: These two filthy rich fraternal twins used to beat the living daylights out of me every day during varsity football practice at Patchogue-Medford back in the fall of 1984.
Dave, considered the wealthiest husband ever featured on “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” is sporting the black t-shirt and skinny jeans here. He played right tackle on offense, Rich, the taller brother with blonde hair and the George Michael shadow, was a tight end and typically lined up next to Dave.
These days, the Long Island natives are finance whizzes. Dave is the CEO of Stockcross Financial Services and the Gebbia family, which operates Siebert Financial and Rise Financial, has been scooping up multi-million dollar properties in South Florida over the last year, having shifted operations from Southern California.
In 2022, the brothers combined are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Their opulence is showcased in a playful TIkTok video below, in which they give a stranger a random tour of their just-built $6.5 million South Beach home. The post has garnered 2.2 million views.
Back in 1984, they were seniors, starters and captains for Pat-Med football. I was a 155-pound junior, second string and wannabe scout team all-star during practice.
After the first week of September, our coach, Tom Julian, tapped me as the “Scout team player of the week.” I got a Raider (our mascot) sticker for my helmet, and then a season of beatdown double teams from the Gebbias.
“Stop trying to make us look bad, Harmon,” Rich would playfully grunt, as he forearmed one side of my helmet and slugged the other side with a black padded glove he’d borrow from Dave on plays where he wouldn’t be running a pass pattern.
Dave kept on the other glove, in order to deliver the same treatment during the double-team blocking.
The poundings and all, the Gebbias served as mentors to me in their own unique way. They were bigger, stronger and, though we were separated in age by just a year, seemed so much older.
We were a long, long way from best buddies, but they did to a conservative extent take me under their wing that year. We had a blast up at pre-season football camp, at Camp Pontiac in Upstate New York, recording a special Pat-Med version of Prince’s “When Doves Cry.” We called it, “When Raiders Cry.”
“How can you just keep us running … This is what it feels like, when Raiders cry,” went our version.
Rich went on to play football at Ole Miss, where he is still celebrated for the winning 24-yard touchdown pass he caught with four seconds remaining against Tulane in 1989. Folks in Mississippi simply call it “The Catch.” Dave’s football career, as far as I know, fizzled out after playing a season at a junior college.
The twins’ dad John J. Gebbia, 81, worked on Wall Street for decades and eventually acquired a large stake in Kennedy Cabot, before buying out the partners in 1991 and moving the brokerage business to California. Rich and Dave joined him and quickly hit it big in the world of finance.
In the video posted on Wednesday, New York City-based TikToker Caleb Simpson, who labels his account as “This generations MTV Cribs” and has 6.2 million followers, gets a friendly tour of the Gebbia’s new digs.
Top photo: TikTok still.
