Topline
The National Football League issued one of its harshest gambling penalties ever Friday, suspending five players, including four members of the Detroit Lions.
Jameson Williams is one of the suspended players.
Key Facts
Lions wide receiver Quintez Cephus and safety C.J. Moore and Washington Commanders defensive lineman Shaka Toney face indefinite suspensions that will last the entirety of the 2023 season at minimum, the league said in a release.
Cephus, Moore and Toney wagered on NFL games last season, according to the league, breaking the player conduct policy.
Detroit announced it released Cephus and Moore minutes after the suspensions became public.
The NFL also suspended Lions wide receivers Jameson Williams and Stanley Berryhill for violating gambling rules.
There’s “no evidence indicating any inside information was used or that any game was compromised in any way,” the NFL said.
Key Background
Gambling suspensions are extremely rare in the NFL and other professional sports leagues. The NFL did not penalize a player for betting between 1983 and 2019, but has suspended seven players for gambling violations since as the legalization and popularity of sports wagering grows. The NFL suspended star wide receiver Calvin Ridley for the 2022 season for betting and doled out a trio of season-long suspensions decades prior for similar violations. Among the other most famous instances of gambling suspensions in sports is Major League Baseball’s lifetime suspension of Pete Rose for betting on his team’s games. Williams, the 12th pick in the 2022 NFL draft, is by far the highest-profile suspended player. The University of Alabama product will miss out on roughly $400,000 in game checks due to the suspension.
Big Number
36. That’s how many U.S. states have legal sports betting.
Chief Critic
The NFL faced renewed criticism Friday for its cozy relationship with numerous sports betting companies and its strict policy on its employees gambling. “News of these NFL suspensions is brought you by FanDuel, bet on NFL games at FanDuel. Also by DraftKings, bet on NFL games at DraftKings.... Now, back to the suspensions,” the Athletic journalist Chris Burke wrote in a viral satirical tweet.
Further Reading
Calvin Ridley And The NFL’s Dangerous Bet On Gambling (Forbes)
Meet The Gambling Tech Company That Caught The NFL’s Calvin Ridley (Forbes)
