© Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The NFL may be starting to realize that allowing players to gamble is not such a good idea.
The NFL recently suspended five players — including four Detroit Lions — for their sports betting activity. An Indianapolis Colts player was also investigated for his “pervasive” sports betting.
But nothing may be worse than one story that is just receiving attention this week.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reported on Wednesday that one NFL player lost $8 million from gambling in 2022.
Florio did not disclose the identity of the player — it’s possible he wasn’t even told who it was — but that may not be as important as the underlying issue.
Professionally sports leagues used to keep sports betting as far away from the product as possible for integrity purposes. MLB took a particularly strong stance against sports betting (just ask Pete Rose) in response to the Black Sox scandal more than 100 years ago. None of the leagues would allow a franchise to be located in Las Vegas. Now all the leagues have not only partnered with sports betting companies, but are investors in them. There are advertisements all over sports leagues promoting wagering as well as sportsbooks inside stadiums.
We have seen coaches lose jobs, players get suspended and college athletes investigated over sports betting issues.
Now we’re hearing about an NFL player who lost $8 million.
Charles Barkley has always said that gambling is “not a problem if you can afford it.”
All we can say is that hopefully the player can afford it, because losing that kind of money on gambling is not a good thing. It’s something that should cause the leagues to reevaluate their stance on sports betting.
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