THE COUCH SLOUCH
NFL, Goodell's stance on betting is a losing proposition
Dec 9, 2019, 6:54 am
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Before going any further, let's briefly summarize Couch Slouch v. The National Football League on a key, burgeoning issue:
-- I remain pro-gambling (as in it should be legal) while encouraging most people not to gamble.
-- The NFL remains anti-gambling (publicly) while maneuvering (privately) to make truckloads of more cash from gambling.
So with bemusement and a pinch of salt, I watched the NFL recently call out and suspend Arizona Cardinals cornerback Josh Shaw through at least the 2020 season for betting on multiple NFL games this year.
Naturally, Shaw – who has been on injured reserve all season – had to be disciplined; it is very, very bad for business to have your own players betting on your own product.***
But it was the manner the league ran Shaw up the morality flagpole and occupied its faux high ground that made me roll off my NFL-licensed beanbag chair with snort-filled laughter.
Let's start with the official response of NFL Commissioner Roger "I'm Shocked, Shocked to Find That Gambling Is Going On in Here" Goodell:
"The continued success of the NFL depends directly on each of us doing everything necessary to safeguard the integrity of the game and the reputations of all who participate in the league. At the core of this responsibility is the longstanding principle that betting on NFL games, or on any element of a game, puts at risk the integrity of the game, damages public confidence in the NFL and is forbidden under all circumstances. If you work in the NFL in any capacity, you may not bet on NFL football."
Have you ever noticed that whenever Goodell makes a public statement, he uses "integrity" multiple times? To borrow from Inigo Montoya, "Mr. Goodell, I don't think that word means what you think it means."
(*** I'd love to be more sympathetic to Shaw, but according to ESPN, he was betting a three-team second-half parlay last month and he was betting against his own employer. Parlays are fools' gold – it's hard enough getting one game right; trying to get several games right for a rip-off payoff is professional gambling malfeasance. Plus Shaw's Cardinals might stink, but they're actually quite good against the point spread this year. Don't bite the hand that feeds you if it's a winning hand. Geez.)
Anyway, let me see if I understand this correctly:
All NFL employees are banned from betting on the NFL in any manner, and this prohibition includes fantasy football leagues with a payoff higher than $250. So beyond players, coaches and front-office types, what are the chances that no other NFL wage earners besides Shaw – we're talking team trainers, game officials, personnel at the league offices in New York, nfl.com, NFL Network, et al – are breaking the NFL's gambling statute?
Uh, I would say the chances are ZERO PERCENT.
DraftKings is the league's official daily fantasy sports partner – Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft each has invested in the company – and between DraftKings and its chief competitor FanDuel, the two have sponsorship agreements with nearly every NFL team.
And as gambling becomes more mainstream in the aftermath of the 2018 Supreme Court ruling allowing states to authorize sports betting, clearly more money will flow to the leagues and gambling sites and all the losers will be sports bettors. Hypothetically, in fact, if we all live to be 800 years old, everyone gambling eventually will go broke.
So I get tired of hearing Goodell peddle his integrity-of-the-game patter as he reaches deeper and deeper into his fan base's pockets.
Heck, if the NFL truly cared about its gambling customers, it would open its own sports book, offering no vig and the best parlay odds anywhere.
In the meantime, while Josh Shaw is suspended from the league, I'll take his action.
Ask The Slouch
Q. You were labeled a pessimistic and unfaithful alum because you questioned Maryland's wisdom of hiring a 3-31 head coach to rescue its football program. Now that the Terps have finished yet another losing season with regression at nearly all levels, have your detractors issued an apology? (Randy Waesche; Thurmont, Md.)
A. I'm still waiting for an apology for the mediocre higher education I received in College Park while Norman Esiason was given an athletic scholarship.
Q.Golfer Patrick Reed was caught on camera improving his lie in a sand trap, but he says he wasn't cheating. Not guilty or guilty? (Jaclyn Ramirez; Houston)
A. When reached in Ukraine, Rudolph W. Giuliani said Reed had done nothing wrong and will continue to do it.
Q. Aaron Rodgers last week mentioned he can see the 18th hole of his career. Can you see the 19th hole of your career? (J. Jackson, Dunkirk, Md.)
A. I only play miniature golf, so I can see the whole damn course (and the bar).
Q. The World Anti-Doping Agency recently proposed handing Russia a four-year ban from global sports. Should they instead be investigating Joe and Hunter Biden? (Joe Salo; Latham, N.Y.)
A. Pay the man, Shirley.
You, too, can enter the $1.25 Ask The Slouch Cash Giveaway. Just email asktheslouch@aol.com and, if your question is used, you win $1.25 in cash!
They’ll be watching in Canada, not just because of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, though the NBA’s scoring champion and MVP favorite who plays for Oklahoma City surely helps lure in fans who are north of the border.
They’ll be watching from Serbia and Greece, the homelands of Denver star Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo. Alperen Sengun will have them watching Houston games in the middle of the night in Turkey, too. Slovenian fans will be watching Luka Doncic and the Lakers play their playoff opener at 2:30 a.m. Sunday, 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Los Angeles. Fans in Cameroon will be tuned in to see Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers. Defending champion Boston features, among others, Kristaps Porzingis of Latvia and Al Horford of the Dominican Republic.
Once again, the NBA playoffs are setting up to be a showcase for international stars.
In a season where the five statistical champions were from five different countries, an NBA first — Gilgeous-Alexander is Canadian, rebounding champion Domantas Sabonis of Sacramento is from Lithuania, blocked shots champion Victor Wembanyama of San Antonio is from France, steals champion Dyson Daniels of Atlanta is from Australia, and assists champion Trae Young of the Hawks is from the U.S. — the postseason will have plenty of international feel as well. Gilgeous-Alexander is in, while Sabonis and Daniels (along with Young, obviously) could join him if their teams get through the play-in tournament.
“We have a tremendous number of international players in this league,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this season. “It’s roughly 30% of our players representing, at least on opening day, 43 different countries, so there’s much more of a global sense around our teams.”
By the end of the season, it wound up being 44 different countries — at least in terms of countries where players who scored in the NBA this season were born. For the first time in NBA history, players from one country other than the U.S. combined to score more than 15,000 points; Canadian players scored 15,588 this season, led by Gilgeous-Alexander, the first scoring champion from that country.
Gilgeous-Alexander is favored to be MVP this season. It'll be either him or Jokic, which means it'll be a seventh consecutive year with an international MVP for the NBA. Antetokounmpo won twice, then Jokic won three of the next four, with Cameroon-born Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers winning two seasons ago.
“Shai is in the category of you do not stop him,” Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said after a game between the Raptors and Thunder this season.
In other words, he's like a lot of other international guys now. Nobody truly stops Jokic, Antetokounmpo and Doncic either.
And this season brought another international first: Doncic finished atop the NBA's most popular jersey list, meaning NBAStore.com sold more of his jerseys than they did anyone else's. Sure, that was bolstered by Doncic changing jerseys midseason when he was traded by Dallas to the Los Angeles Lakers, but it still is significant.
The Slovenian star is the first international player to finish atop the most popular jerseys list — and the first player other than Stephen Curry or LeBron James to hold that spot in more than a decade, since soon-to-be-enshrined Basketball Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony did it when he was with New York in 2012-13.
“We’re so small, we have 2 million people. But really, our sport is amazing,” fellow Slovene Ajsa Sivka said when she was drafted by the WNBA's Chicago Sky on Monday night and asked about Doncic and other top Slovenian athletes. “No matter what sport, we have at least someone that’s great in it. I’m just really proud to be Slovenian.”
All this comes at a time where the NBA is more serious than perhaps ever before about growing its international footprint. Last month, FIBA — the sport's international governing body — and the NBA announced a plan to partner on a new European basketball league that has been taking shape for many years. The initial target calls for a 16-team league and it potentially could involve many of the biggest franchise names in Europe, such as Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City.
It was a season where four players topped 2,000 points in the NBA and three of them were international with Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and Antetokounmpo. Globally, time spent watching NBA League Pass was up 6% over last season. More people watched NBA games in France this season than ever before, even with Wembanyama missing the final two months. NBA-related social media views in Canada this season set records, and league metrics show more fans than ever were watching in the Asia-Pacific region — already a basketball hotbed — as well.
FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said the numbers — which are clearly being fueled by the continued international growth — suggest the game is very strong right now.
“Looking around the world, and of course here in North America," Zagklis said, "the NBA is most popular and more commercially successful than ever.”