We all know the NFL puts its players at the bottom of its priority list.
That’s why it recently added a 17th game to the schedule and allows teams to play two Thursday games in short weeks. It’s the same reason some NFL stadiums have gambling houses. The owners care about making piles of money, which is why the league decided it was ok to earn tens of millions off gambling.
Everything else is secondary.
But let’s not blame the NFL because it suspended four players Thursday for violating the league’s gambling policy. That’s on the players.
The league announced the suspensions of kick returner Isaiah Rodgers and defensive end Rashod Berry of the Indianapolis Colts, Nashville Titans’ lineman Nicholas Petit-Frere and free agent Demetrius Taylor.
Rodgers, Berry, and Taylor were each suspended indefinitely. Petit-Frere was suspended for six games. The Colts subsequently waived Rodgers and Berry.
In April, the league suspended five players, including four from Detroit.
Each suspended player made a dumb decision. We’ve all done it — every one of us. Guess what? We’ve all paid penance for our mistakes, and they will too. Hopefully, they’ll learn from it and move on.
The league has been pretty clear about its gambling policy. The best way not to violate the policy is not to gamble while playing this game, which can lead to 10-digit salaries.
The simple rules of gambling in NFL
If you want to gamble, which is every American’s right, do it at home. Or if you’re hanging with your boys, your significant other or family, do it at their home. Or wherever you’re hanging. Otherwise, don’t gamble. Then you don’t have to worry about the NFL’s hypocritical rules.
The rules seem pretty basic.
Here are the rules:
- Don’t bet on the NFL.
- Don’t gamble at your team facility while traveling for a road game or at a team hotel.
- Don’t have someone bet for you.
- Don’t share team “inside information.”
- Don’t enter a sportsbook during the NFL season.
- Don’t play daily fantasy football.
Rookies must attend mandatory sessions on the gambling policy.
League officials will also make visits to team facilities to address the league’s “key rules.”
Just so you know, the league’s gambling policy prohibits team staff, league staff, and players from placing bets on any sport at any league facility, including stadiums that have sportsbooks, or while traveling with their teams.The league allows players to bet on other leagues as long as they don’t do it at an NFL facility.
Earlier this month, the league held a video conference to explain its gambling policy. There are 1,696 players in the NFL and another 384 on practice squads.
That’s 2,096 players. Nine players have been suspended, which is less than one percent. We can agree one player is too many, but this hardly represents the end of the NFL as we know it.
As grandma used to say, “Common sense ain’t common.”
Players paying the price for mistakes
There will always be players who skirt the rules or don’t read the fine print, or play on their phones while the league holds video meetings or sends reps to discuss the gambling policy.
Life is about decisions and consequences. And it’s about accountability. It shouldn’t be about excuse-making.
These nine players screwed up, and they’re about to pay a hefty financial penalty.
Some guys won’t play in the league again because they’re fringe players. That’s tough, but it’s the consequence of poor decisions.
The NFL rules, at one level, are dumb because the rules for players differ from those of staff and coaches.
There should be one universal set of rules. But the rules aren’t complicated. Hypocritical Absolutely.
Unfair? Maybe. Crystal clear? Yes.
More than 99 percent of the league followed the rules. Let’s not overreact and make excuses because a few didn’t.
Jean-Jacques Taylor is an NFL Insider for Sportsnaut and the author of the upcoming book “Coach Prime“, with Deion Sanders. Follow him on Twitter.