The NFL on Friday suspended five players for violating the league’s gambling policy, three of whom were banned for at least the entire 2023 season, the largest group of penalties for gambling violations in 60 years.
The announcement confirms that the NFL, the nation’s richest and most popular sports league, will encourage gambling through its relationships with sports betting companies, while ensuring that football games are not stigmatized and the huge sums of money wagered. It is done while trying to maintain public confidence that it will not be affected by on them.
The league did not release details about how the bets placed by these players or the violations were discovered, but its investigation found that “inside information was used or the game was compromised in some way. It said it found no evidence.
After a league investigation, Detroit Lions receiver Quintess Cephas and safety CJ Moore and Washington Commanders defensive end Shaka Tony were suspended indefinitely for betting on last season’s NFL games. received. Players can apply to return to the league after the 2023 season.
Two Lions players, receivers Stanley Berryhill and Jameson Williams, were each suspended six games for other gambling violations, including betting from NFL facilities at other sporting events.
An NFL spokesman said Friday that the penalty will take effect immediately and is no longer subject to appeal.
Tony’s agent, Andy Sims, declined to comment when contacted on Friday. “Jameson would never knowingly jeopardize the integrity of the game he loves.” said the agency.
Representatives for the other three players and representatives of the NFL Players Union did not respond to requests for comment.
Shortly after the suspension was announced, the Lions cut Cefis, who spent part of the past two seasons on the injury list, and Moore, whom the team signed as an undrafted free agent in 2019.
“These players demonstrated decisions that were not consistent with the values of the organization and violated the rules of the league,” Lions general manager Brad Holmes said in a statement. We stand by the findings and actions.” Tony will remain on the team’s roster.
The penalties imposed on Friday included former Atlanta Falcons receiver Calvin Ridley, who was suspended mid-season in 2022, and former Atlanta Falcons receiver Calvin Ridley, who was suspended until the end of the 2020 season in November 2019. It follows the one given to Arizona Cardinals defensive back Josh Shaw. Both players were penalized for gambling in NFL games.
The first recent suspension in decades came after the NFL overturned its longstanding opposition to sports betting. In 2017, team owners voted to approve the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas, and a major turning point came in 2018. The Supreme Court has overturned a 1992 law banning sports betting in nearly every state. Since then, the NFL and other American professional leagues have forged partnerships with major gambling companies and casinos.
The last cluster of NFL gambling penalties of the same magnitude as those announced on Friday occurred in 1963, when Green Bay Packers running back Paul Hornung and Lions defensive lineman Alex Karras (then two of the league’s biggest stars) person) has been suspended for the season. Betting on NFL games: Five of his other players were also fined for betting on the 1962 championship game.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell declined to comment on Friday’s suspension, but NFL staff will gamble at football games when Ridley’s suspension is announced in 2022. It said it justified “the most substantive sanctions” because it endangered the “integrity of the game”.
Details of the five players’ offenses were not released by the NFL
For Ridley, he used a gambling app to place three parley bets while in Florida and away from the team in November 2021. Genius Sports, a company hired by the NFL to provide a “comprehensive integrity service to monitor bets,” has warned the NFL that a player may have placed a bet, saying the league’s We have started an investigation.
An NFL spokesman said the league annually notifies officials of its policy prohibiting or encouraging betting on NFL games, practices, or other events such as the draft. You can bet on any sports, but you may not gamble at work or while working.