The NFL has recently begun cracking down on violators of its league-wide gambling policy, slapping several players with six-game suspensions for betting on non-NFL sporting events while on team property. And it sounds like the players aren’t too happy with the sudden enforcement of those rules.
This week, an anonymous NFL player told The Athletic that “any one of us” could have been given a six-game suspension given how little education the players were given and how widespread sports gambling is throughout the league.
“That’s bogus because straight up, that’s not talked about like that. That could have been any one of us. They might have talked about it for a brief second, but do you know the player was present at the time you guys talked about that? ‘Oh, well it’s in the handbook.’ So you’re gonna tell a player to read 1,000 pages of nonsense and to recall everything? … You could make the argument for everybody, because people are betting during rivalry week — Florida is playing Florida State, Ohio State vs. Michigan — everyone is betting on that. Could all those guys get in trouble?
If sports gambling is truly as widespread as this player suggests, it’s safe to say that there could be more players hit with suspensions before the start of the 2023 NFL season.
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