Yesterday, many sports fans witnessed five NFL players get suspended for violating the gambling policy within the league.
These players faced suspensions for their crimes and were forced to either be banned indefinitely or miss multiple games in the 2023 NFL season. While no players from the Dallas Cowboys were on this list, it’s still interesting to look at how gambling has taken over these players’ careers.
Four Detroit Lions players suffered exposure to their gambling actions and are now under punishment. This includes Wide Receiver Quintez Cephus and Safety C.J. Moore who are now banned from returning this year to the sport. While they can reapply for reinstatement after one year, the Lions decided to release them after the incident.
Not only did the Lions lose two players forever, but they also lost their first-round draft pick from 2022 Jameson Williams. Williams will be out for six games in the upcoming season.
Details on NFL players suspended for betting on games https://t.co/myDOixoGzp
If you thought it couldn’t be worse, it was. The Lions then lost a backup wide receiver by the name of Stanley Berryhill who will also sit out six games.
One more player faced termination during this purge. Washington Commanders Defensive End Shaka Toney was also caught in the act and was banned indefinitely as well.
How will the NFL fix this problem in the future?
The subject of gambling will never cease to exist. It has been in the world for quite some time now and it has a certain effect on people who participate.
It’s strange how players who are making millions and millions of dollars a year decide to risk their earnings on betting. You are already living the dream, don’t juggle the career that you love up in the air!
It’s unsure how the NFL will start fixing this issue. At the moment, I’ve noticed that they have cracked down on this matter a lot more than a few years ago. This was mainly due to the Calvin Ridley incident that happened a few years back when the wide receiver was betting on NFL games and would purposefully drop catches to insure his bet holds.
In order to assure that players do not commit these crimes anymore, the NFL may have to include themselves in their lives even more such as cracking down on their internet usage and whereabouts.
Doing that would make sure that players do not do that anymore. However, the NFL would be invading their privacy to a very bad degree.
It would be nice if the players just realized how dumb it was to bet on games in the first place. People bet on sports to win more money. If you are already a rich man who gets paid for playing a game you love, then there’s no need to spend your money and time on betting
NFL players betting on sports will continue in the future, but will definitely become less common as time goes on. With the NFL cracking down on these cases a lot, fans can expect to see less of this behavior as time goes on.
Something that won’t change is the fact that every year the Detroit Lions build up enough hype with their team and players, only to be disappointed before the pre-season games.