Domestic route with us
because our hand is too close to the flame already.
We're already risking
an undermining of the competitive Integrity, just
the overall Integrity, the sport at a big picture level. If you go
back and look at the things, Roger Goodell said about
gambling when they were fighting hard to keep it out of
the sport,
you know, before the New Jersey lawsuit
that ultimately resulted in the Supreme Court ruling that
opened the floodgates for state by state law. Elevation of
sports wagering. There was a suit in Delaware where the NFL
came out guns blazing against this thing. And some of the
rhetoric about the evils of gambling, the mere
legitimisation of wagering on Sports the problems, it can
cause. And now you've got the NFL consciously getting into
business with sports books, and I'm not saying they're doing
anything wrong. I'm just saying
in situations like this.
It makes things very murky, and maybe they feel compelled
to have a zero tolerance policy and a
Guys out of the league for a year. If they get caught.
It just seems to bonkers the pot. It seems it doesn't want
it hypocritical. It really does. It bothers me for that.
It's not Pete Rose, here. This is not somebody throwing games
or managing the game and and dictating how has played so he
can win his bet. I mean,
that's not how it is. I don't like that
and then you know, you know
being them back to the old days to your point. Mike
is just like, you know back in the in the older days really.
Until the last few years. I mean, you really had to make
an effort to place bets. It's and do things now. It's so
accessible
to me that that warrants a little more leeway in this,
especially when you can, you know, dig through it a little
bit and go. Well, nothing crucial was done here, you
know, there is a difference to me there and that's where I,
you know, you know, hopefully, they can
help this kid out a little bit and not be that harsh. Sorry,
man. I know you're about to say something. Go ahead. No. No,
you're fine. I there's so many different ways. We can look at
this. And one thing that you said earlier
reminded me that this is an important point.
Make because
I'm curious now.
Whether the NFL will just kind of sit back and wait for
stupid to land in their laps. Like they like they did
yesterday. I mean, they really didn't have to get out the big
ass. Right Sherlock, Holmes, magnifying glass
and go looking for evidence here.
They had a third party that
was aware of the fact that Calvin Ridley
Calvin Ridley was betting on NFL games on his phone.
It's not the crime of the century for the NFL to have
cracked. This one. I want to know what kind of resources are
being devoted to address something you said
because it's an easy walk around. It's an easy life hack.
I can't bet on my phone. Hey, buddy.
Hey pal. Yeah, right. Lifelong friend, right? Who I bought
a car for after. I got my first signing bonus, right? We're
gonna place my bets for me. Yeah,
and and And I'm going to cover your losses and when you'll
win, you're going to give me the money
and I'll cover your taxes and we'll handle it all between us,
because we've known each other for 25 years. That's what
I want to know whether or not the NFL is going to aggressively
Fair it out. And then Chris,
it goes beyond just betting on the game. There are so many
different ways that the NFL can be compromised by the reality
of legalized gambling. And the final section of Playmakers,
comes out a week from today, and this is not a gratuitous.
Plug this is actually useful for a change. Usually it's
fortuitous. I'll admit it. I'll admit it every other time. It's
been gratuitous. This time. There's a reason for it. The
final section of the book is about the future of the game.
And I tried to brainstorm on
all the different ways. The NFL should be concerned about how
gambling can affect the game and it's the injury reports and
reports are crap. They're useless. They're worthless and
the NFL will not do anything about it. I've had someone
from the front office say, well, you know, we probably
need to take a closer. Look at this entire system. Yes.
Because people hide injury information all the time, which
means there is inside information. Of course, if you
are in a position to go
get it, right. Tom, Brady
played all of the 2020 season with a torn MCL in his knee and
they never disclosed it once. Are you kidding me? And
the league did nothing about it? Are you kidding me?
So, if you're going to bring this one year, suspension
energy on Calvin Ridley because you did something really dumb
when he was not even part of the team, when he was in
Florida on his own.
And I don't know if he was having a few beers. I don't
know what caused him to do something this stupid right?
But if you're going to do it, then you better
be carving off some of those hundreds of millions. You're
making off a gambling to make damn sure that everything else
is in order. You can't just say, well, we periodically,
throw a head into this
town school. Yeah, where
do we mean business? Right? Well,
there's all sorts of we've tied in this subject more, more
Integrity in the NFL than this subject. Yeah. It's objective.
I hear you. I think it's a great Point. Mike. You're
right. I mean
again, I really you know, I was wondering where you were going
there with that for a minute. But right how is how is that
not? You know, reporting injuries doing stuff like that,
hiding injuries, whatever you might want to say where teams
are trying to get a competitive Advantage.
Yeah. How is that not Insider information? And yeah, taking
advantage of the Integrity of the game, which is kind of
the rules. I hear what you're saying there.
It creates very real and useful inside information. The
question is definitely being handled, right? What does he
enter? Well, doing
to keep it from getting into the wrong hands, or keeping
people who work for teams from becoming corrupted by those
relationships. What are you doing there? What are you doing
there? Because that takes more work than having some
third-party
tattle on Calvin Ridley because he happened to use the app and
the information flowed to them and they told the NFL not that
they did anything wrong by tattling on Calvin Ridley. The
probably contractually required to do it. Another example that
a coach shared with me at one point is we're
trying to brainstorm these different ideas.
What if a guy Scripts?
This Kyle script place.
I'm pretty sure. Yes, he does, right?
Okay, let's let's say he scripted the first 15 plays. Yeah.
I'm on a whiteboard in a coach's meeting. Right? Let's
say whoever comes in to empty, the trash can seize those
plays.
How do you prevent that person from? Look at those plays and
gleaning something that could be useful not for,
you know, the 49ers minus 5, but for a prop bet, ya first
play Runner pass these properties, playing Runner
pass. Right,
right or or you know, over under the oh
over under the starting running back over under of
55 yards in the game and you see the first 15 plays. Holy
crap. They're giving it to him eight times in the first 15
plays and the game Hammer, the over.
I there are many opportunities for inside information. Within
these organizations. What is the league going to safeguard
it? Because that's the thing.
If you're going to start coming after the players
for doing something that you are pushing everyone to do
that. It's constantly in everyone's faces. Every time
you turn on the TV, every time you pull up a website and we're
Of it. I don't I understand that but my point is
if you're going to go after a guy who did something stupid
and admitted to it and wasn't using inside information and
wasn't trying to shave points and wasn't directly affecting
the Integrity of the game.
What are you doing about all this other stuff,
where there's an opportunity there
to take that information and use it in a corrupt way.
Are you erecting the safeguards
to prevent that from happening?
I don't know the answer that question. Yeah, and I think
the answer is not. Yeah, we know how the NFL operates. Yeah,
never proact. No, they're not going to do it.
Until it's a problem and they got to figure that so badly. So
I come.
I never envisioned. That would be a problem. Well, okay, you
didn't want to Envision. It was be a problem because you didn't
want to have to do anything about it until you had to.
Yeah. Well, I mean, it's another one where, you know, we
Sky judge
whatever people do.
Make sure do enforce, the proper inflation of
the football. This one, where you might, maybe they have to have
somebody in the building and all 32 buildings. You know,
that's just basically monitoring that type of stuff.
You're right, you know, monitoring the monitoring
the action. Maybe the players phones through these, you know,
sports betting, ABS. Maybe they can do that. I don't know what
they do, but you're right. There's got to be some more
safeguards because you can impose more and more problems.
It is and yes, it's not that hard. You know, it's not that
hard to get that inside and infirm information either. You
know,
I've had coaches tell me what their first play of their game
was going to be. You know. Hey, what are you going to run this
week? Oh, yeah. We're going to come out and do blah blah blah
blah to start the game.
I mean, it's out there. It's just, you know,
it's only going to take one jerk,
too. To kind of use that information the wrong way and
really put a Stranglehold on the NFL and put some pressure
on them in this type of situation. So
yeah, we'll see if they're proactive here. Going forward.
Hopefully, this is not a problem and I certainly don't see
players making this mistake a whole lot.
But you know, like you said it's just so easy and
accessible right now. It's a little scary and guys can just
look at their phone and touch a button and there you did you
place the bet it's easy.
The card is going to have a sports book in their Stadium
this year and eventually, what's going to happen in every
state. And in every home is going to be, once
the technology is in place in the homes. It's clearly in place in
the stadiums because you're there.
Once the real-time images are being sent from the stadium to
the homes. That's when play-by-play betting will
mushroom. And that's when the gambling Revenue will
go up exponentially, because it's going to be more than just
placing a periodic bet. It's going to be every play. If you
want to put five bucks on run or pass. One of the things,
I know the NFL is considered, but I don't know how they're
going to deal with it.
Who's got access to that information.
A on the sidelines. And if there is basically in-game
Casino where while people are watching the game during the 40
seconds between plays, they're locking in their bet
on what the next play is going. To be
is the backup quarterback down there.
Tugging his ear for a run and scratching his nose for a pass
signaling to his pal up in the stands. These are all things.
When you go down this path
of jumping into the water bed with
the sports books, and it's all its
A sports book or G when you got seven of them, you're getting
paid by seven of them. So
it started off as a try exclusive partnership with
three companies and exclusive is, there's three, then they
add four more, they're taking the money
in order to let them use the shield and again
in theory. That's fine. Nothing wrong with it. Yeah, you take
on an obligation to get your Affairs and your house in order
and not have these kinds of scandals
because all it takes is one. Oh, yeah, and you got Congress,
you got Congress.
You know, giving you the prostate exam.
Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Well, they'll, I mean, let's be real
here. Let's say I have a question. Dr. Florio. Let's be
real. Let's maybe we should put the rubber glove on a little
bit here
and pull it on there, a little tighter. Okay,
because they make them big enough for your head. They
might not think you have it, my not, I think you. I, but that
your finger hanging off whilst your hand, in like that.
I'll get one on my finger. Okay, either way.