How utterly despicable this whole thing is. Predictable, too. The NFL waited until we’re all on the road for Fourth of July weekend to tell us what we already knew: Their idiotic, money-grubbing relationship with a fleet of sportsbooks has turned up three more players who placed bets on NFL games and, because of that, were suspended indefinitely Thursday.
I care far less about the gravity of these year-long suspensions than the fact that the NFL doesn’t even feel like a sport anymore. As wonderful as it is to sit back on some weekends and see people display the peaks of their athleticism and talent, they are an opening act to this absurd and crooked reality show constructed by this pack of mosquitoes intent on sucking every bit of life from America’s game.
Every major NFL headline over the past two decades has been nothing more than the direct result of some unforeseen side effect of irresponsible, avaricious growth. Of course players were going to bet on football games. Gambling is addictive. A gambling company’s ability to make its product more addictive is directly related to the platform they were handed when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell invited them all into his bedroom. Explain the nuances of these absolutely labyrinthine rules, dictating when and where and how players are supposed to bet? Nah. Instead, let’s pop these players for a suspension so we have something to leak to our NFL insiders on our fledgling television network. All attention, after all, is good attention. Once those crooks figured it out, there was no turning back.
