The NFL trotted out the ultimate bad-news dump on the Friday before Christmas weekend, leaking to its own in-house media outlet the news that Jets receivers coach Miles Austin has been suspended for betting on sports other than football.
The information was available before Thursday; Austin didn’t coach in the team’s game against the Jaguars. The league kept it all under wraps until today, when it would necessarily get less attention.
The suspension will last at least one year.
“The NFL suspended Miles Austin for wagering from a legal mobile account on table games and non-NFL professional sports,” attorney Bill Deni said in a statement. “Miles did not wager on any NFL game in violation of the Gambling Policy for NFL Personnel. He has been fully cooperative with the NFL’s investigation. He is appealing his suspension.”
The policy, by its terms, isn’t limited to football. “All NFL Personnel other than Players are further prohibited from placing, soliciting, or facilitating bets on any other professional (e.g., NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA, USTA, MLS), college (e.g., NCAA basketball), international (e.g., World Baseball Classic, World Cup), or Olympic sports competition, tournament or event,” the policy plainly states.
So, basically, Austin’s appeal is a Hail Mary.
ESPN.com reports that Austin made online bets at the team’s facility, and that the league tracked Austin’s activity digitally.
According to ESPN, Austin has been absent from the team’s facility since Tuesday. This underscores another potential issue for the NFL, as it relates to gambling. Someone surely knew that Austin was out, which necessarily impacted the Jets on a short week of preparation for a game against the Jaguars. By keeping the truth concealed until Friday, the NFL necessarily created a situation in which someone knew the truth and potentially acted on it, betting on the Jets to lose the game.
