NFL fans are accustomed to the league getting things wrong when it comes to any kind of suspension or supplementary discipline. Most will remember the Ray Rice debacle which saw the running back earn a measly 2 game suspension from the league after a violent assault on his partner.
Only after being dragged by virtually every media outlet on the planet, and rumours that the league could lose sponsors did Goodell and Co. walk back the punishment and announce he would be suspended indefinitely. Contrast that with the fact that the NFL actually took Tom Brady and the Patriots organization to court over how much air may or may not have been in footballs and it’s no wonder the public has very little faith in Goodell’s judgement.
Which is why the Calvin Ridley situation is an egregious overreaction at best, and outright laughable in the eyes of many fans and players around the league.
As it currently stands, the Falcons wide receiver is suspended indefinitely, but will reportedly sit out “at least” the entirety of the 2022 NFL season. The news deals a massive blow to the Atlanta offense, which as it currently stands is almost non-existent, and also casts a shadow over the 27 year old’s future in the league.
While most would agree that what Ridley did was foolish, did it truly warrant a season long hiatus? No.
The full list of NFL suspensions is publicly available, and reading through them in sequential order only further strengthens the case for those who claim the league has no idea what it’s doing. Putting aside the fact that Marijuana laws are changing in North America at a rapid rate, how the league can justify suspending a player for 4 games for having THC in their system, when another gets caught with half a kilo of weed and only gets 1 game is mind boggling.
Looking at the matter objectively, it doesn’t take long to come to the conclusion that the suspension is simply a draconian show of force by the league to remind players who’s in charge.
Ridley suited up for only 5 games in 2021 before taking a break for mental health reasons. This offseason, news broke that Ridley had reportedly gambled on NFL games during the course of the 2021 season. While the WR didn’t deny the matter, he alleged that they were games he was not a part of, and that the sum was a fairly trivial amount.
Other reports have indicated that the amount could be as high as, brace yourself, $3,900, or roughly 0.0003% of what Ridley would have been paid in 2022. Worst case scenario, Ridley allegedly wagered the equivalent of 20seconds worth of a paycheck on NFL games. Hardly a damning indictment of his character.
What is damning however is the fact that the NFL is literally tripping over itself to sign partnership agreements with sportsbooks and gambling sites as we speak. The league already announced that Caesars, FanDuel, and DraftKings would be the “official sports betting partners of the league” moving forward, and initial forecasts predicted a $270M windfall from sports betting deals alone.
According to a Washington Post report, that figure could grow to over $1B annually in the coming years. So what are we doing here? The league is actively recruiting viewers to place wagers on their product, and for all intents and purposes, that was what Calvin Ridley was when he stepped off the field. A viewer.
It would be one thing if he was purposely dropping balls, or attempting to shave points like the 1994 Arizona State scandal, but he wasn’t. He was at home, on his couch, with zero effect on the game whatsoever.
If anything, Ridley could make the argument that he was swayed by the fact that viewers seemingly can’t go a single commercial break without a sportsbook of some kind offering first deposit bonuses or DFS deals.
Is the argument that he could have had “insider information” regarding injuries to his teammates or other players around the league? So what? You know who else has that same insider information? ANYONE WHO FOLLOWS ADAM SCHEFTER ON SOCIAL MEDIA.
This isn’t the 1950’s here, where unless you’re physically in the locker room with the athletes you don’t know who’s dinged up. Information is readily available to anyone who plays fantasy football, has a Twitter account, or happens to read the team injury reports.
Where does the NFL draw the line? Are former players not allowed to gamble on NFL games? What about analysts or commentators? Or what about the dozens of syndicated shows, podcasts, livestreams and other forms of media devoted solely to covering sports gambling and offering props/picks for the week?
The NFL can, and does, plead ignorance on lots of things. But to think that any of the above don’t have insider information or access to players/staffers that the general public doesn’t is simply ridiculous.
If the league was trying to distance itself from gambling, great, go ahead and make a martyr out of Ridley. But to be in bed with sportsbooks, and then condemn its use by the players who make the league billions of dollars in tv deals, merchandising, licensing, and more is wrong.
Again, if it comes out that Ridley actively tried to sway the outcomes of games he was involved in, then we have a different story. But if all he did was click a few buttons on his phone at home and watched the game from his living room then who cares?
Did he injure anybody? No. Did he consume any kind of illicit substance? No. Did he affect the outcome of the games? No. So why is the NFL trying to turn Calvin Ridley into the Pete Rose of football?
If the league is attempting to protect “the sanctity of the game”, then how does it reconcile suspending Calvin Ridley for an entire season for wagering between $1500-$3900, but when it comes to billionaire Dolphins owner Stephen Ross allegedly trying to bribe Brian Flores $100K to intentionally lose games, it’s no harm no foul.
Is it money? Or is it the colour of his skin? Because it sure isn’t to protect the integrity of the sport.
BetMGM is trotting out Wayne Gretzky to help promote the launch of its sportsbook in Canada later this spring. He’s appeared in commercials, online ads, and more. And the NHL loves it. It brings more visibility to the sport as viewers naturally associate Gretzky with hockey, and subsequently create accounts so they too can wager on NHL games.
“But he’s retired, it’s different”. Is it? How is Ridley privately making wagers from his home somehow worse than the most recognizable face of a sport expelling the virtues of online gambling?
But the cherry on top of the Gretzky parallel, is that they didn’t stop with a retired legend. They went out and got the greatest active player on the planet to help promote their brand as well:
So I ask again, what are we doing here?
On April 4th 2022, the province of Ontario will grant dozens of private licences for sports books to begin offering online wagering services to residents. With a population of over 15 million, Ontario would be the equivalent of the 5th largest state in the US.
Every major sports league in North America is jockeying to lock up as many endorsement deals with casinos, sports books, and DFS sites as humanly possible. And the NFL is no different.
With those deals there will inevitably be sponsorships that trickle down to the players themselves. It’s only a matter of time until we see the Patrick Mahomes or the Aaron Rodgers of the world proudly rocking DraftKings or FanDuel gear.
Fans have come to expect poor judgement from the NFL head offices, but the Calvin Ridley situation is bordering on incompetency. In perhaps the most blatant example of “do as we say, not as we do” we’ve seen in years, the league is talking out of both sides of their mouth.
One wonders what the response would have been had Justin Herbert or Tom Brady been at the centre of a $1,500 sports betting scandal. But I think most know the answer to that question already…
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Keith Allison. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.