After the draft, Giants receiver Malik Nabers blurted out that he and former LSU teammate Jayden Daniels (now the quarterback of the Commanders), had a $10,000 wager based on which one won the NFL’s offensive rookie of the year award for 2024.
They quickly rescinded the bet, given that it violated the plain terms of the gambling policy. During Thursday’s preseason conference call regarding the gambling policy, Mark Maske of the Washington Post asked about the manner in which the Nabers-Daniels situation was handled.
“The league addressed the matter directly with the NFL Players Association, with the two teams, and the two players, to ensure that they understood the policy,” NFL executive V.P. Jeff Miller said. “They received multiple education training sessions since that time, and I think we’re in a — as a result of all the work that went into it we’re comfortable with the resolution.”
The overriding lesson from the situation is simple. If you’re going to have side wagers, don’t talk about it. The NFL has been catching players primarily because the league’s sports book partners have been ratting them out. If it’s all done privately and with not digital or paper trail, no one will ever know why one guy gave another guy a $10,000 gift.
And there’s still an unresolved loophole, that the league has not yet addressed. If Nabers and Daniels had made their bet before they were drafted, would they have been allowed to honor it after they joined the NFL?
More broadly, a player could potentially make all sorts of futures bets for the coming season before he was drafted. Again, the league has not addressed whether that would be permitted.