OPINION: By embracing sports betting and helping it become mainstream, the NFL seemingly increases the odds that foul play will eventually occur.

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley might not have a gambling problem, as he claims. But he definitely doesn’t have much common sense, either. Otherwise, intuition would’ve kicked in and made him follow the first rule for NFL players wagering on NFL games:

Let someone else make your bets.

Surely there’s a cuz or homey he could’ve trusted. Ridley could’ve had them place $1,500 on three multilegged parlays involving several games last November. Instead, he did himself—on his own cell phone—and got busted. The play netted him a one-year suspension, at minimum, and cost him an $11 million salary he was slated to earn next season.

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“Your actions put the integrity of the game at risk, threatened to damage public confidence in professional football, and potentially undermined the reputations of your fellow players throughout the NFL,” commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a letter to Ridley notifying him of the suspension.

Maybe Ridley wasn’t paying attention in November 2019 when the NFL suspended cornerback Josh Shaw for betting on football; Shaw’s ban covered the rest of 2019 and the entire 2020 season for a total of 21 games. Perhaps Ridley thought his actions were OK because he picked the Falcons to win in each bet. Conceivably, he never imagined getting caught breaking an NFL taboo that’s been in place since at least the 1960s.

“I learn from my Ls,” he tweeted. Later he tweeted: “I know I was wrong But I’m getting 1 year lol.”

Ridley can afford to laugh a little. Having earned $11 million through his first four years in the league, he’s in a better position than most folks to weather an income interruption. Such isn’t the case for a rising number of gamblers with unfettered access to sports betting, with football games among their favorite play

Source: Calvin Ridley’s suspension for gambling highlights a bigger problem