The National Football League (NFL) is intending to hand out season-long suspensions to players who have broken the league’s gambling policy, according to ESPN NFL Insider Reporter Adam Schefter.
Schefter revealed it concerns players such as Indianapolis Colts cornerback Isaiah Rodgers, who is currently under investigation by the league over violations of the NFL gambling policy and acknowledges he takes “full responsibility” for his actions.
Since the repeal of PASPA in 2018, online gambling has been available for states to open its doors for regulation. However, this has also brought about several instances of NFL players being the subject of gambling on games.
Most famously, Calvin Ridley, wide receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars, became the first prominent player found to have gambled on NFL fixtures and was subsequently suspended for the entire 2022-23 season.
Since then, five Detroit Lions players active on the roster at the time, were found to have also broken the NFL’s gambling policy.
Quintez Cephus and C.J Moore were suspended indefinitely, while Jameson Williams and Stanley Berryhill will sit out six games for infringements. Shaka Toney, who was on the Lions roster during the period of the violation, now playing for the Washington Commanders, was also suspended.
Toughening its stance on gambling, the NFL recently strengthened its policy on gambling to players, outlining six key rules:
- Don’t bet on the NFL
- Don’t gamble at your team facility
- Don’t have someone bet for you
- Don’t share team ‘inside information’
- Don’t enter a sportsbook during the NFL playing season
- Don’t play daily fantasy football
With sports gambling being a hot-topic of debate in the US market right now, during last year’s SBC Summit North America event, former NBA player Randy Livingston offered his advice on how sports leagues should handle players gambling.
He said: “I think sports gambling in the US is still taboo, and they really don’t want to deal with it. So the first thing is to strike him up and to really come down hard, but he’s not the only one.
“There always should be a hotline for the players,” he said. “Whoever controls that hotline, that person has to remain anonymous so they feel safe and create a safe haven for the guys.”
