The month before he was suspended for violating the league’s gambling policy, Tennessee Titans right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere said he didn’t believe the league did a good enough job explaining things to players.
Petit-Frere, who spoke with Nick Suss of The Tennessean last month, stated that he didn’t feel like he had a clear handle on things, and that he wasn’t alone in feeling that way.
Here’s the full quote:
“I’ll be honest with you: there wasn’t really a lot of teaching from the NFL and things like that,” Petit-Frere said. “I was actually one of the people who asked the most questions when it came to fantasy football and things like that. I just wanted to make sure I learned as much as I could.
“When we heard about those suspensions and things like that, I’ll be honest, a lot of the guys felt like there just wasn’t a lot of teaching in general about this offense. I just feel like that’s something the NFL should kind of harbor a little bit more and understand these guys are making mistakes that they didn’t even know was a thing.”
“It’s tough,” he continued. “None of us ever want to do anything that jeopardizes the shield, that jeopardizes the NFL. Our mission, every single day, and we’re blessed to do this, is to play this children’s game. We’re getting paid to do it. Not only that, we get a lot of great experiences from not only the teams that we build but the players we’re a part of and also the fans. I would say I feel like the outlook of it is that it is something that should be more visited by the NFL and looked into more as a teaching moment than really a moment of coming down hard. Because in all honesty, if you ask guys, they weren’t taught this.”
I spoke to #Titans OT Nicholas Petit-Frere about the NFL's gambling policy last month and he had a lot to say about feeling the league didn't properly teach the rules to its players pic.twitter.com/qRWEsUHdKm
— Nick Suss (@nicksuss) June 29, 2023
If we want to throw on the old tinfoil hat, one would say perhaps NPF knew of his violation and impending suspension when he said this and was just getting out in front of it, but we can’t say for sure.
If that isn’t the case (again, we can’t know for sure at this moment), it’s clear Petit-Frere genuinely didn’t have a sufficient understanding of the policy.
Another thing we can’t say for sure is if the Titans and the league did a good enough job teaching its players, unless it’s confirmed there is a widespread misunderstanding from players, as NPF suggests here.
Regardless, these players have the resources (money and connections) to go out and seek the answers they’re looking for. I don’t necessarily think they should have to do that, but they do have options nonetheless.
All of this is not to say I think this policy makes sense.
No, players should not be able to gamble with impunity when it comes to betting on their own sport or team, as such a policy would jeopardize the legitimacy of the sport.
But suspending a guy six games simply because of his location while betting on other sports like NPF did is silly.
And that’s especially true when you consider how much the NFL is raking in via contracts with sportsbooks and whatnot. Adding to that, players caught using performance-enhancing drugs get less time (four games) than NPF.
But none of this matters now. Clearly the NFL is not changing its stance on this policy, and now the Titans will be without their starting right tackle for six games, which just stinks, no matter where you want to place the blame.
