More gambling suspensions are coming. We don’t know how many.
Per ESPN.com, it’s a “handful.” What’s a handful, though?
We’ll find out, apparently by the end of the week. (An ideal summer bad-news dump is just two days away.) And these suspensions, coupled from the “handful” of suspensions imposed in April underscores the failure of the education process.
The league has not done a good job of making sure players know the rules. It seems the NFL prioritized harvesting signatures on policy acknowledgement forms over true and complete comprehension of the relevant do’s and don’ts.
Some teams, spotting the problems with the league-provided training, conducted their own. Some teams literally re-wrote the policy, given that it reads as if it were written by lawyers, for lawyers.
The good news is that the league seems to be trying harder, when it comes to properly educating players. The bad news is that flaws seem to remain.
And they surely will. As previously mentioned, it becomes difficult for the NFL to have true moral authority when it comes to properly enforcing “thou shalt nots” when the NFL is stuffing its pockets full of cash from those who shalt continue to lose it.
Only when the league creates a true firewall between football and wagering will the league truly be equipped to create safeguards that players can understand, honor, and accept — especially since the entire situation currently oozes with hypocrisy.
