NFL sports betting policy leaves loopholes for former coaches, team personnel
The NFL's gambling policy, which limits the ability of league officials and staff, players, coaches and team personnel to place bets on sporting events, has made a lot of headlines recently due to numerous players violating the policy.
The NFL is looking to better educate the roughly 17,000 people who fall under its gambling policies. The policy allows such individuals to participate in sports other than the NFL outside of work. The document prohibits them from betting on NFL games.
The league recently signed Tom Brady to appear in a public service announcement that teams are required to display to their players and staff discussing the dangers of participating in sports betting and the potential dangers of violating gambling policies.
U.S. Rep. Deena Titus (D-Nev.), co-chair of the Congressional Gaming Caucus, also asked the NFL to provide details on how to communicate its sports betting rules to players and league staff.
Mike Florio, one of the most popular and respected NFL reporters, founder of PFT (ProFootballTalk) and contributor to NBC's "Sunday Night Football," this week Concerns again raised over league's gambling deal.In a letter to PFT, Florio said nothing in the gambling policy would prevent a former coach or team employee from gambling while not employed by one of the NFL's 32 teams case betting on NFL games.
Coaching Gap
There are just 79 days left until the start of the 2023/24 NFL season. However, the NFL’s sports betting regulations remain confusing.
Florio noted that the NFL can still prohibit players who are not under contract with a team, also known as free agents, from betting on NFL games because players are unionized through the NFL Players Association (NFLPA). The NFLPA's collective bargaining agreement requires its members to comply with all NFL rules, including those regarding personal conduct.
Because coaches, managers and team personnel (such as trainers and equipment managers) generally do not belong to unions, NFL gambling policies may not apply to them when they lose their jobs. Florio provided a compelling example of how this could jeopardize the integrity of the league and its game.
Florio discussed the 2019 firing of Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores. Flores later accused team owner, billionaire Stephen Ross, of asking him to sit out midseason so the team could be ineligible for the NFL and improve its draft ranking.
"What if the coach refuses and the owner makes it clear that he will find an interim coach to do what the owner wants? As long as the fired head coach doesn't accept another job in the NFL or one of its teams, he can Zhou placed bets with his former team without violating the NFL's gambling policy," Florio explained.
The benefits are too great
Florio believes that if the NFL really wants to protect the league from sports betting, it should "totally and completely" refrain from participating in any gambling and sports betting. This includes benefiting from team sponsorships and partnerships with casinos and sportsbooks as well as advertising during league broadcasts.
"The NFL takes gambling seriously. But not seriously enough. How could this be? Since so much money is made at sports betting and the owners actually own part of the sports betting companies, there is an inherent hypocrisy that inevitably undermines proper enactment, education and Some motivation for the process of enforcing the rules,” Florio continued.
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Source: www.casino.org
