The NFL’s current gambling policy prohibits players from betting on sports while at a team facility or on road trips – even if those bets are on a sport that isn’t NFL football. And it doesn’t sound like the players are in favor of that rule.
During an NFL Players Association press conference ahead of the Super Bowl earlier this month, Atlanta Falcons defensive end Calais Campbell, who is a member of the player’s union’s executive committee, called for the elimination of that rule.
“I feel like the rules are outdated,” Campbell said according to Bill King of Sports Business Journal. “There was a time where it made sense, but now with technology and being able to bet on baseball or basketball on your phone, I don’t understand why just because I’m in a locker room or on a Wednesday or whatever, that I can’t pick up my phone and [bet].
“Nobody wants to have a guy betting on football. That’s not OK. But, you know, with technology the way it is and you can tell exactly what people are betting on, and you know it has nothing to do with the integrity of the game, why not give us this opportunity to be able to make money when we’re doing that as a league?”
We’ll have to see whether or not the league decides to make a change to this controversial rule.
