You Want To Bet Atlanta Falcons Wide Receiver Calvin Ridley Is The Only NFL Player Who Gambles On Games?

To hear the NFL tell it, there is nothing else to see here regarding the suspension Monday of Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley for betting on a tiny collection of games last November.

Such gambling is a no-no in the league.

Never mind NFL officials announced last August they signed deals with FOX Bet, BetMGM, PointsBet and WynnBET to become what NFL.com called “Approved Sportsbook Operators for the 2021 NFL season.”

It doesn’t matter the NFL formed a United States sportsbook partnership last April with Caesars Entertainment, DraftKings and FanDuel.

Just forget about this: The Raiders have gone from Oakland to Los Angeles to Oakland and now to Las Vegas, where their players, coaches, team officials and those of other NFL teams are supposed to pretend they see only wedding chapels, cheap buffets and advertisements for Wayne Newton shows along The Strip.

Hmmmm.

The following sounds familiar.

Which isn’t good, by the way.

Let’s start with the NFL cops announcing Monday through a statement they saved “the integrity” of the league by discovering Ridley only gambled on games over a five-day stretch in November 2021 when he said he was suffering from mental health issues while on the non-football injury list.

In sum, here’s the rest of what ESPN.com and other news agencies reported those NFL cops as saying: The league’s investigation uncovered no evidence that Ridley used inside information or “that any game was compromised in any way.” In addition, the NFL said it concluded there was no evidence that any of the Falcons’ coaches, staff or players were aware of his betting activity.

Now let’s return to November 2019, when the NFL suspended Arizona Cardinals defensive back Josh Shaw for betting on league games.

According to The New York Times back then regarding Shaw, who was the last player and just the fourth one overall up to that point in the 102-year history of the NFL ever suspended for gambling on games, “The league said its investigators found no indication that Shaw used inside information or compromised any game, and his coaches and teammates were unaware that he was placing bets on NFL games.”

Wait.

Was that referring to Shaw or to Ridley?

Actually, it also was about Art Schlichter.

In May 1983, Schlichter was the NFL player suspended before Shaw for gambling on games, and the Baltimore Colts quarterback was the third one overall. According to The Washington Post back then, the league said of the Schlichter situation, “A highly placed NFL source also indicated that the investigation of Schlichter did not uncover gambling by other players in the league.”

Then there was the following in that Washington Post article from then-NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle regarding Schlichter: “I accept his statement that he has never bet on or against his own team, attempted to improperly affect the outcome of any games or accepted money or anything of value from those who might have been interested in doing so.”

Do I dare tell you Rozelle’s words in 1963, when he delivered the NFL’s first suspensions for gambling among players to future Pro Football Hall of Famers Paul Hornung of the Green Bay Packers and Alex Karras of the Detroit Lions?

Rozelle lifted his 11-month suspension of Hornung and Karras in March 1964, and The New York Times said back then of the commissioner, “As he had when the suspensions were first made, Rozelle emphasized yesterday that there was no evidence that either Hornung or Karras ‘ever bet against his own team or performed less than his best in any football game.’ ”

That Times article never quoted Rozelle as saying he cleared the teammates, the teams and the peers of Hornung and Karras of gambling issues.

Even so, the commissioner’s 1964 declaration that the rest of the league was as pure as the ice on The Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field was understood.

Anyway . . .

Just five players caught gambling on NFL games in 102 years?

Uh huh.

You’ve guessed it: When it comes to NFL players and gambling — especially as the league does everything nowadays shy of placing betting slips into the hands of anybody who has heard of the Super Bowl — NFL officials channel Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Sweep.

Just run the same play over and over again.