Suppose you’re still subscribed to the trope that the NFL is not as fixable as the NBA when it comes to the steady infiltration of illegal gambling into the sport. In that case, I’d invite you to sample some of the more fantastical details of the twin arrests made by the FBI on Thursday morning of Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier.
While Rozier’s was more simplistic—he had a network of co-conspirators to whom he filtered valuable information and would, for example, leave a game with a fake injury to underperform on his individual statistics—Billups was allegedly involved in a technology infused, Mafia-sponsored poker game, the likes of which we couldn’t conceive in our deepest Orwellian fantasy a few years ago. There were contact lenses that could reportedly read pre-marked cards and secret cameras hidden in card trays. And obviously, setting up a prefabricated space to bilk money off a few high-profile marks is simpler than doing so in an NFL stadium.
