Since 2018, sports gambling has been a major source of revenue for a growing NFL, but what happens when those very ideals make their way into dangerous parts of the game?
For the NFL, sports gambling has been one of its biggest money makers since states started to repeal the ban in 2018. All across the league, one would be hard pressed to make it more than five feet before being hounded by advertisements from Caesars, MGM Grand, FanDuel, and many more like them to start placing bets on the NFL.
Less than four days ago, five NFL players were named as part of a mass suspension levied out by the league office as having engaged in gambling on football games– three of which directly placed wagers on NFL games. The NFL was determined to crack down on intra-league gambling operations, but doing so puts them at a precarious, and arguably hypocritical position when it comes to one of their most lucrative revenue streams.
The league made the bold move to announce the indefinite suspension of two Detroit players– Quintez Cephus and CJ Moore. A third also was added to the group from the Washington Commanders, Shaka Toney was hit with the suspension for the foreseeable future while the Lions’ 2022 1st round draft pick in Jameson Williams along with Stanley Berryhill were only punished with a six-game ban.
“As a result of an NFL investigation, it came to our attention that a few of our players had violated the league’s gambling policy,” general manager Brad Holmes said. “These players exhibited decision making that is not consistent with our organizational values and violates league rules. We have made the decision to part ways with Quintez and C.J. immediately. We are disappointed by the decision making demonstrated by Stanley and Jameson and will work with both players to ensure they understand the severity of these violations and have clarity on the league rules moving forward.”
This very scenario might’ve been what the league feared as way of a massive exodus of anti-gambling laws from the books in 2018. The NFL faces deja vu from an uncanny situation a year ago, where Falcons’ flagship receiver Calvin Ridley was also banned indefinitely for placing a $500 wager on an NFL game. While the three players that were suspended as part of the most recent ban did gamble on professional football, the two that received lighter sentences were only indicted by the league for placing bets at a team facility– a long standing rule that has been in place for over a decade.
Yet, throughout the past five years, the NFL has eagerly welcomed what it once used to vehemently inveigh for decades. Sports gambling.
The estimated $91 billion industry first started getting its foothold in the league after a 2018 victory in Murphy v. NCAA where New Jersey challenged the federal government’s oversight over gambling– directed towards sports. As soon as the gavel touched the sound block, the floodgates opened. Or in the NFL’s case, possibly a Pandora’s box.
Precedent has started to take hold as the league starts walking the razor-thin line between gambling being a major cash cow and the idea popping into fans’ heads that games might be fixed. The latter has no place in the league, and fixing games poses a huge detriment to the league. The league has had two cases in recent history that have brought up the seemingly contradictory enigma. In 2019, Josh Shaw of the Cardinals was suspended– and ultimately had his career ended by way of him going to Vegas and including Arizona in a parlay. The NFL caught wind and was swift to take action.
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The league assumed they had sent a shot across the bow to all of its constituent players, however the issue flew under the radar until 2022 where aforementioned star player Calvin Ridley saw an ad on TV during a mental health hiatus from the team and was enticed enough to put money down. The NFL also laid down an iron fist in his case– not showing much mercy with an indefinite suspension. This truly was the home run ball the league needed to hit with its suspension policy– sending shockwaves across the football world. However, it brings up another interesting contradiction.
Sports gambling has weaseled its way in everywhere across every facet of the sports universe. Long gone are the days of Pete Rose’s stigma. Now, it’s $20 in free bets if you refer someone else. The gambling industry incentivizes newcomers and ends up leaving people hooked– a dangerous game on both ends. Yet, the NFL embraces the opportunity years after lobbying against.
Up until the Supreme Court decided it was a state’s matter– the NFL fiercely fought against gambling within its product. From 1991 when then-NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue testified to the US Congress that, “we should not gamble with our children’s heroes.” Fast-forward to only 11 years ago and Roger Goodell reinforced Tagliabue’s notion by stating himself that, N.F.L. cannot be compensated in damages for the harm that sports gambling poses to the goodwill, character and integrity of N.F.L. football.”
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All this continues to bring up the fact that as long as companies and the dark underworld of sports betting have a grasp on American consumers and viewers of our beloved sports– there will always be a disparity between what is ethical and what comes off as just being a human being with a hobby.
As Calvin Ridley wrote in a piece for The Players’ Tribune, “one day, I saw a TV commercial for a betting app, and for whatever reason, I downloaded it on my phone. I deposited like $1,500 total, literally just for something to do. I was going to bet like $200 on some NBA games that night, but then I just added a bunch more games to a parlay. I put the Falcons in on it. I was just doing it to root on my boys, basically. I didn’t have any inside information. I wasn’t even talking to anybody on the team at the time. I was totally off the grid.”
The NFL has yet to draw a line, practically because there is none for the league. Gambling in nearly every sense for its players puts the multi-billion dollar league against a corner. Sure, the NFLPA might be ecstatic about more lax rules, but the majority of their fanbase sees it as a gateway to a legal form of game-fixing. A lose-lose for everyone involved.
Sports gambling punishments have been one of very few aspects of the league’s judicial system that have been somewhat consistent. Indefinite suspensions have been the norm for betting on NFL games, at least so far. The sports gambling issue is still in its infancy stages when it comes to enforcement, while the industry advances at an exponential pace. In the name of expanded profits and an alternative source of cash flow, the NFL doesn’t seem to fully digest what it has gotten itself into.
In today’s day and age, it’s distance yourself from gambling in some form. While the age old adage of “everything is a risk” stays true– our point is proven in the ways in which gambling can sneak up on the population. Trading cards, which have blown up in volume and popularity since the Covid-19 pandemic have a form of gambling with pack odds, video games entice viewers with pay-to-win monetization methods along with ‘loot boxes’ which are a simple risk in and of itself. The entire idea that gambling hasn’t squeezed into the most overlooked part of our lives is null, and the NFL’s current issue only brings it to light.
For now, the league still walks a razor-thin tightrope, hoping to eventually subside the problem altogether. The solution? Keep doing what its doing now, make sure there is no legal gray area, despite there being obvious ethical ones. Gambling poses an inherent risk to the sport’s integrity, and the NFL by way of ruling with a gavel and a hammer has shown the league the punishments and repercussions of gambling on the sport.
