The season began with the commissioner blaming the Supreme Court for the NFL's current hypocrisy regarding sports betting, and it ends the same way.
On the sidelines before the Chiefs hosted the Lions in September, Roger Goodell told NBC's Mike Tirico: “When the Supreme Court overruled [the law prohibiting states from legalizing sports wagering], We have to be in this room.”
Goodell said this Monday during his invitation-only press conference as he balanced the current reality with his previous warnings about the impact of legalized betting on the public's trust in the integrity of the games.
“We haven’t made the decision” about legalizing sports betting, Goodell said. “Ultimately, The decision was a Supreme Court decision, when they legalized sports betting. We have to adapt. We have to embrace it.”
The first is true; They have actually had to adapt to a world where legal sports betting has mushroomed. However, they didn’t have to “accept” it.
They chose it because it is an easy source of income. More money for nothing. Extend your hand and get millions from a sports betting company that wants to be the exclusive sports betting partner of the NFL. Heck, you have more than just an exclusive sports betting partner. Got seven of them (the NFL once had them).
If you can pay the fee, you too can become a partner.
The NFL could have done without it. Just because something is legal doesn't mean you have to do it.
Mustard is legal and I hate mustard. Sports betting is legal and the NFL could have hated it as much as the NFL did before it became legal.
If the NFL had said, “We will work vigorously to protect our game from the influence of sports betting, but we refuse to ever profit from it,” that would have made it much easier for the NFL to have the moral authority To ban sports betting All players, team and league employees must have no connection with gambling. And that would have allowed the NFL to avoid creating a “do as we say, not as we do” environment characterized by complicated, nonsensical regulations — such as the rule that 49ers and Chiefs players cannot are allowed to play in casinos until the confetti falls on Sunday evening.
Or how about the rule that a player can place bets on his cell phone while standing in front of the team facility door, but entry is prohibited? This is like God telling Adam and Eve to eat the fruit, but make sure you stand while you do it.
Goodell knows he is being hypocritical. He does not care. Goodell set a sales goal of $25 billion in annual sales by 2027, and just as he once set a goal of becoming NFL commissioner, nothing will stop him from achieving that goal.
And the last thing that will slow this horse is the possibility that, as far as gambling is concerned, the Emperor's new clothes (bought and paid for with gambling money) are flapping in the wind.
Comments are closed.