Say this for the National Football League, it’s the clubhouse leader in professional sports hypocrisy.
The latest reminder came Monday when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced the suspension of Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley for the 2022 season. The violation was betting on league games last November while away from the team on Atlanta’s non-football illness list tending to mental health concerns.
Ridley admitted to betting a total of $1,500 on three-, five- or eight-team parlays (each leg has to be right to collect), all of them including a Falcons win.
He made his wagers through a betting app on his phone and, ironically, was turned in to the league by the sports book that took the bets.
Why?
Sports wagering platforms don’t want even a hint that results of games might be manipulated by inside information, or worse, participants themselves. That might just discourage bettors.
In a letter to Ridley, notifying him of the suspension, Goodell wrote:
“There is nothing more fundamental to the NFL’s success — and to the reputation of everyone associated with our league — than upholding the integrity of the game. This is the responsibility of every player, coach, owner, game official, and anyone else employed in the league. Your actions put the integrity of the game at risk, threatened to damage public confidence in professional football and potentially undermined the reputations of your fellow players throughout the NFL.
”For decades, gambling on NFL games has been considered among the most significant violations of league policy warranting the most substantial sanction. In your case, I acknowledge and commend you for your promptly reporting for an interview, and for admitting your actions.”
The NFL found inside information wasn’t used, that no game was compromised by Ridley’s bets and that there weren’t any Falcons’ players, coaches or members of the administration who were aware of his wagers.
BUT HERE’S where the hypocrisy comes in.
The league has been fixated on problems created by gambling for over 70 years. In 1963, then-commissioner Pete Rozelle suspended both Packers running back Paul Hornung and Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras for a full season due to betting on games, the former up to $500 per wager and the latter $50 to $100.
In 1982, quarterback Art Schlichter, the Colts’ first-round draft choice, gambled away most of his signing bonus, was ultimately suspended by the NFL, had a short return, then spent subsequent years in and out of prison, courtesy of stealing to feed his gambling addiction.
Two years ago, Cardinals defensive back Josh Shaw was suspended after a Las Vegas casino reported he bet on football.
The concern over fixed games is apt.
In the early 1950s, seven colleges, including Kentucky and CCNY, were implicated in a basketball point-shaving scandal to cover a game’s spread. Years later, Northwestern, Boston College and Tulane were similarly charged.
In baseball, Pete Rose, MLB’s all-time hits leader, will likely never make the Hall of Fame because he bet on his team while managing the Reds after retiring as a player.
And, the NBA, in 2007, had the most damaging and embarrassing gambling scandal in pro sports history. Tim Donaghy, an official for 13 seasons, was involved in a wagering ring in which he was betting on games that he officiated and had a hand in deciding the outcome.
Nobody questions that players, coaches, officials and administrators being involved in wagering on games, or worse, trying to manipulate their result, are absolutely fatal to credibility.
That said, starting this past season, the NFL, despite all its tsks-tsks about gambling, partnered up with 11 betting sites certified to take pro football wagers. Indeed, in ESPN.com’s story about Ridley’s suspension, one of the pop-up ads was for a sports book.
Admittedly, while not averse to gambling, the introduction of sports betting via app made me uncomfortable. It was too easy. A couple of strokes on a smartphone or laptop and a wager could be made in seconds even for in-game situations. That seemed too much temptation for problem gamblers.
And, as expected, the number of calls to self-help sites from troubled wagerers have dramatically proliferated since the inauguration of online betting.
To be sure, Ridley knew the rules and deserved a punitive response from the NFL, though its biggest potential scandal has been minimized, almost ignored.
The most unsettling story in pro football over the last month-and-a-half isn’t a wideout with mental health issues betting on his own team while not even on its roster, it’s the fired coach of the Dolphins claiming his team owner offered $100,000 for every loss in order to improve the Dolphins draft position.
Talk about a galling blow to the NFL’s carefully-crafted integrity image.
Oh, well, at least it punished Ridley’s misdemeanor.
(Chuck Pollock, an Olean Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
