Five players who were suspended a year ago over violations of the NFL gambling policy have been reinstated.
The league has reinstated wide receiver Quintez Cephus, safety C.J. Moore, defensive lineman Demetrius Taylor, linebacker Rashod Berry and defensive end Shaka Toney. All five were suspended for the entire 2023 season.
Toney is under contract to the Commanders and will return to their roster. The rest of the players are free agents: Cephus, Moore and Taylor were all on the Lions, and the Lions cut all three of them. Berry was with the Colts and was cut as well.
The suspensions were part of a crackdown on gambling last offseason that saw the NFL take some criticism for failing to properly grapple with the new world of sports betting, in which players often use apps on their phones to bet and sometimes don’t realize how restrictive the rules are, such as banning players from betting even on sports other than football if the players are placing the bets while at the team facility.
The NFL has so far avoided any headlines as ugly as those in the NBA, where Jontay Porter was banned for life, or in Major League Baseball, where superstar Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter Ippei Mizuhara is facing federal criminal charges stemming from his apparent gambling addiction. But gambling remains a real concern in the NFL, even as the NFL continues to enjoy the profits generated by the league’s deals with sports books.
