NFL gambling policy is simple if players just say ‘No’
Before we address the hypocrisy, confusion, and posturing associated with yet another NFL policy, let’s understand that no innocent was harmed. A handful of careless players broke explicit, collectively bargained rules regarding gambling — rules about which they were repeatedly warned. The players fully deserve the disciplines they received.
Much outrage and hand-wringing and indignation has followed in the weeks since the suspensions. Why? Enough with the outrage. These players weren’t tricked.
The NFL’s gambling rules aren’t as much behavior policy as much as they are an I.Q. test. So far, 10 players have proven themselves to be momentary morons.
This is newsworthy in this moment because, incredibly, nine players are currently serving suspensions that never should have happened. Why is this incredible?
Because all nine knew that former Falcons receiver Calvin Ridley bet on NFL games in 2021 and, in March of 2022, was suspended for the 2022 season (Ridley has returned to the NFL with the Jaguars). Of the nine players suspended this year, seven bet on NFL games, just like Ridley.
That’s why this also is relevant. NFL games begin again in 3 1/2 weeks.
The other two players currently suspended were suspended for betting on non-NFL games but doing so while present at team facilities. This is more understandable, considering the lameness of the law... but still. Come on, guys.
Five of the nine currently suspended players were Lions. Two were Colts. This indicates a lack of clear communication to players by those teams, but then, it’s not the teams’ responsibility to babysit grown men. If you can read a playbook, the you can read a rules update.
After all, it’s a pretty simple policy: Don’t bet on any sport while on team property (including hotels, buses, planes, etc.), and don’t ever bet on NFL football. The NBA, Major League Baseball, and NHL also forbid betting on their own sport, with varied penalties for betting on games involving their own team versus betting on unrelated games. The “team property” caveat is unique to the NFL, but then, so is the “keep your socks pulled up” rule.
Any NFL player who violated this policy are either a helpless gambler, a helpless fool, or both. At least there’s treatment for one of those afflictions.
Both sides of their mouth
The simplicity of the rules doesn’t make them any less hypocritical. Since 2021, the NFL has entered into agreements with no less than seven different online gambling operators. Revenues generated by these partnerships help pay the salaries of the players who play the games on which the betting is done. The interests could hardly be more conflicted, but the NFL isn’t to blame. The Supreme Court is.
Since online sports betting was legalized in 2018, 35 states have allowed the practice. The Court’s decision opened a Pandora’s box, and let’s not be naïve. If an NFL player wants to gamble on any sport, including the NFL, all he has to do is call a friend or a relative and have them do it by proxy.
Further, NFL players can’t endorse betting concerns. The other three sports’ participants can, to some degree.
The NFL policy includes another aspect of asininity: The players are the only NFL employees allowed to bet on any sport. For example, Brandon Graham can bet on the Phillies from his car, as long as it’s not on the Eagles’ lot, but Josh Riley, the guy who fixes the Eagles’ lawnmowers, cannot.
There’s an easier fix.
Cold turkey
There’s the appearance of integrity, and then there is absolute integrity. If sports wants to achieve absolute integrity then NFL players, and all professional athletes, should not be able to bet on any sport, at any time. Period.
Like playing a pro sport, wagering isn’t a right, it’s a privilege. Players often are prohibited from plenty of legal behaviors open to common folk like you and I, such as riding motorcycles, skiing, and, to some degree, smoking weed.
NCAA athletes can’t bet at all. If the NCAA — long the bellwether of cannibalistic stupidity — has figured out the logic of banning all betting, then any league that sees to restrict wagering should be ashamed at its own comparative duncery.
Look, if Sean Payton, the chronic foot-in-mouth coach of the Denver Broncos, can simplify the situation, it really can’t be that hard.
“You can’t bet on NFL football, ever, ever, ever,” Payton told USA Today last month. “I don’t give a (expletive) what it is. The other thing is, it’s the same as the gun policy. You can’t bet on nothing if you’re at your facility, your hotel, your airplane. So, wherever you can’t carry a gun, you can’t place a bet.”
Here’s an even better idea:
Never do either while you’re in the NFL.
