The NFL is going out of its way to inform and educate anyone involved with the game, close to the game, or a follower of the game about its gambling policy — which is positive. Nothing is more vital to the long-term success of the league than the universal acceptance that everything is on the up-and-up during games. That said, there are things about the policy that make little sense, beginning with having different rules for players and non-players.

Coaches and staff are prohibited from betting on any sport at any time. Period. Exclamation point. End of story. But when it comes to players, they are permitted to wager on any sport other than their own, as long as they do so on their own time and away from league premises. There are other stipulations — like, they can’t have someone place a bet for them, or share “inside information,” or enter a sports book during the NFL playing season, or participate in daily fantasy football — but beyond that, they’re free to parlay up.

The common sensical approach would be to have one rule for everyone employed by the NFL, particularly when there is nothing preventing the league from doing so. The gambling policy is not collectively bargained, which under the NFL constitution theoretically means the league could take a one-size-fits-all approach. In fact, I have yet to receive pushback from anyone associated with the league or the players association when I’ve asked if the NFL could impose such working conditions on the players.

“I don’t know if I know the answer to that,” Jeff Miller, the NFL executive vice president of communications, public affairs & policy, said Tuesday during a Zoom call with reporters. He added: “The distinction there with players, which is where the question comes in, is largely based on conversations with the players association over the years. That distinction has existed for quite a long time; the difference now, of course, is the accessibility of betting on sports. It used to be the case that you would have had to go to Las Vegas to bet legally on sports, and now it’s in the palm of your hand depending on where you live, and legal depending on where you live.”

Everything you need to know about the NFL’s Player Gambling Policy from NFL Executive VP of Communications and Player Health and Safety, Jeff Miller pic.twitter.com/1TgwQbkdo3

— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) June 15, 2023

I still don’t understand what that has to do with the existence of two sets of rules. If integrity of the game is paramount and the goal is to eliminate all gray areas, impose a policy that prohibits anyone who receives a paycheck from the NFL or one of its entities from betting on anything. It’s not complicated. But the league has not (will not?) do that perhaps because it doesn’t want to fight that fight with the players association at this time. Instead, it’s much easier and cheaper to pick off players, one by one, who violate the policy, as it did in April when it suspended five players.

Washington Commanders defensive end Shaka Toney and Detroit Lions wide receiver Quintez Cephus and defensive back C.J. Moore were suspended through at least the end of the 2023 season for betting on league games in 2022 — Detroit subsequently released Cephus and Moore — and Lions receivers Jameson Williams and Stanley Berryhill were suspended six games each this season for what the team said were “other gambling policy violations, including betting from an NFL facility on non-NFL games.”

You don’t have to put your ear too firmly against the NFL ground to hear rumblings that more suspensions are coming. The league wants that message out there as a deterrent to everyone involved with the game that it takes the matter seriously. So seriously that Sabrina Perel, the league’s vice president and chief compliance officer, said during the Zoom call she does not foresee the policy ever allowing non-players to bet on non-NFL events, despite those outcomes having nothing to do with the results of NFL games.

“If integrity of the game is certainly paramount, if that is the rule that applies to them, is there need to change it?” she said. “Does it protect us further by not changing it? … So many people who either have insider information or have access to insider information — we just kind of feel like to have them gambling in any regard it’s a little counterproductive to what we’re trying to do.”

If the concern about coaches and staff betting on non-NFL events is that significant, shouldn’t it be just as high with players? This is where the NFL tends to get itself into trouble, when it contorts itself in hopes of making the nonsensical make sense. The simple and correct action is to make the rules the same for everyone, but we know better than that. It has never made sense for a league that professes to care about the integrity of the game to allow its owners to partner with gambling sites. Make it make sense: Players are not allowed to enter a sports book during the season, which runs from the Hall of Fame game through the Super Bowl, but beginning this year teams can have sports books inside their stadiums.

This comes as little surprise because league decisions have always been heavily influenced by money, and the American Gambling Association estimated that legal gambling could increase the NFL’s annual revenue by $2.3 billion per year. Perel stressed that the NFL was the last of the major professional sports leagues to jump deeply into the gambling pool and that the process was long and meticulous, with the league receiving “integrity protections” from the sites. One involves notifications whenever a league or club employee, including players, registers on a site or places a bet.

“It’s just a little bit of apples and oranges in terms of having the right process to enter into the commercial arrangements which ultimately benefit the fans, right? That’s really at the end of the day what that’s all about,” she said about the perceived hypocrisy of owners being able to take profit from those who bet on the NFL but not allowing players or employees to wager themselves. “It is bringing in new fans, keeping fans engaged, giving them the opportunities to engage in these things versus what we all do personally and what we should not be doing to protect integrity.”

The best way to protect the integrity of the game is to have no association with gambling on any level. The second-best way is to have one set of rules for everyone. That would eliminate a lot of the confusion we have seen to this point.

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(Photo: George Rose / Getty Images)