Commentary
Over the past two years, the National Football League (NFL) has suspended 10 players for gambling. Seven players have been banned for full seasons for having bet on NFL games; three others received partial-season suspensions for gambling on sports events other than NFL games while on the premises of NFL team properties.
It’s easy to understand why the NFL has adopted a hard line against gambling. The league has a brand to protect. Years ago, the NFL surpassed major league baseball as the country’s most popular team sport. Fans are absolutely passionate about football. A key ingredient of that popularity is Americans’ love for a fair contest, a devotion to the creed of “let the best team win.” It would be a devastating blow to the sport and probably to our national psyche, too, if the perception of a fair fight were to be shattered by a revelation that a player or players threw a particular game. Memories of the 1920 Chicago Black Sox scandal in baseball still haunt our country’s professional sports leagues….