- Back in 1963 the NFL suspended Paul Hornung and Alex Karras, two of the league’s premier, highest-profile players, for betting on games and associating with known gamblers. In 1976, former Commissioner Pete Rozelle said that “Legalized gambling on sporting events is destructive of the sports themselves and in the long run injurious to the public.” Here’s Commissioner Roger Goodell’s 2012 take on the biggest threats to the game’s integrity: “Gambling would be No. 1 on my list.” That was then. This is not.
In April, the NFL announced its first sportsbook partnerships—multi-year agreements with Caesars Entertainment, Draft Kings and Fan Duel as the league’s “official betting partners.” Then more recently the NFL announced that FOX Bet, BetMGM, PointsBet and Wynn-BET became approved sportsbook operators for the 2021 season. Call it the new normal, pragmatic business decisions or a blatantly hypocritical sell out.