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The National Football League along with the NCAA and the other professional sports leagues in the United States have filed suit against the state of Delaware (on July 24, 2009) to prevent legal sports betting from taking place. The state of Delaware had passed a law (on May 12, 2009) giving the state the right to allow and accept legal sports wagers. The law’s affect would make Delaware the 4th state in the U.S. to allow legal wagering on major sporting events. However, the NFL has led other sports organizations in legal battles opposing the state of Delaware’s legislation. The NFL claims that sports betting “would irreparably harm professional and amateur sports by fostering suspicion and skepticism that individual plays and final scores of games may have been influenced by factors other than honest athletic competition.” The actions from the NFL and the magnitude the league has implemented in opposing this new law has escalated into a nationwide debate. Many people question why the NFL would spend millions of dollars tackling an issue as large as sports betting when preventing it would perhaps jeopardize their popularity amongst fans.  Other sports writers and fellow bloggers across the web have voiced their displeasure in the NFL’s actions, stating that the league’s actions are extremely hypocritical.  

The NFL has long been the leader of major sports in the United States. However, their firm stand opposing legal sports betting has produced a lot of mixed emotions. Most people would question why the league would contest the sports betting industry when it promotes so much attention to the NFL. The NFL states that the intentions behind their actions are to keep illegal favoritism out of pro football. However, their stance is an unfair assumption to connect that type of illegal activity with the sports betting industry as a whole.  Wouldn’t legalization and more regulation make it easier to spot the cheats and scandals in their game?  One would think that a computerized system taking bets would be more likely to notice a fix or irregular betting patterns then many illegal bookies.  The National Football League is perhaps worried that some of the gambling issues that have risen in sports like baseball and basketball will carry over into the NFL. Over the past few years there have been cases where players, coaches, and referees have wagered on sports, meaning their actions may have threatened the true outcome of the game. If that were to happen in professional football, it would have a much bigger impact on the sport. However those instances where unfair favoritism has been questioned in sports have been very rare occurrences and most of those instances were related to illegal sports betting operations rather then a legal and regulated type of sports betting.

The NFL’s fight against legal and regulated sports betting also shows less faith in the league own governing body and the people that are hired to make sure the game is “on the up and up.” Does the NFL really think that referees that they hire would show favoritism in any relation to sports betting? If a referee or any other type of league official were subject to some type of influential favoritism, then perhaps they should have never been given that opportunity or job in the first place.  Instead of spending millions on legal teams to fight online gambling, perhaps the league could put their money toward hiring and testing full-time officials that work all year round to improve the game.  If the NFL wants to spend millions cleaning up the “integrity of the game,” perhaps they could put that money toward hiring better referees and actually improving the screening and testing that these officials are put to.  I am sure most would agree that there many more productive ways to spend millions of dollars toward improving the quality and integrity of the game then to spend it on bunch of lawyers. 

The reason the NFL may be in a losing battle here is because they are contesting not only an industry that allies their own popularity, but they are also taking on issues like personal rights. Most people would agree, whether you approve or oppose sports betting, that any type of gambling should be a personal right that one can participate in by choice. Along with personal rights, the NFL is trying to prevent policy that could generate billions in revenue for the states, which in turn would help a dire economy; taking money away from illegal betting operations, turning them into regulated and control business enterprises.  Again, most would also agree that legal and regulated businesses are much less open to corruption then illegal bookmaking operations.  Does the NFL really have the power and money to prevent an industry from legally flourishing that could create millions of jobs and revenue for the state and federal government?

People must abide by governing laws, but the National Football League is suggesting that even legal types of sports betting are wrongful by nature and negatively impacts all sports by producing the possibility of “unfair competition”.  However, these issues are even questioned in games over the past few years with favoritism perhaps being shown to teams with larger fan bases.  Many people have raised the “fair competition” issue after games where there public is clearly betting on one side and the opposite side seems to win on what many would call “unfair” and “skeptical” calls by officials.  An example of this would be in last year’s regular season Chargers/Steelers game (on 11/16/08) where a backdoor cover was taken off the board without an explanation by the officials (video).  The result of the call, which the NFL stated was a mistake by the officials after game, ended up being the opposite side of the most bet on team of the day, generating tens of millions of dollars for the Vegas casinos and illegal bookmakers.  Assuming a regulated and legal form of sports betting would increase this type of behavior may be an unreasonable and hypocritical speculation.  Again, the NFL and many sports leagues could spend their money and time increasing regulation in their sport, in effort to prevent cheats and scandals behind sports betting, but an overall opposition to the legalization of sports betting seems to baffle the NFL’s fan base with any knowledge on the subject. 

For the most part, the NFL has done a good job throughout their history at keeping instances of cheating and unfair types of competition from evolving.  It is very unlikely that the legal and controlled sports betting industry could change those values; not to mention how the NFL may be making their fans who actively participate in legal betting feel by suggesting all types of sports gambling is frowned upon. I am not trying to enter the debate on whether or not betting on sports in general is morally right or wrong, but new legalization laws should not give the NFL the right to give their own preference towards the gambling industry. 

This particular story has grown into a much bigger issue and debate than just the state of Delaware. If the NFL opposes the Delaware sports betting legislation, does that mean they oppose all other states that allow sports betting? Why don’t they feel the need to oppose the sports betting laws in Las Vegas? Why release injury reports a week before the game to the general public? If sports betting as a whole were to cease existence as of today, the National Football League would feel a tremendous impact. The NFL television ratings would take catastrophic drops.  Think of all the sports bettors that tune in every Sunday to games after making a wager or filling a parlay card in hopes to make a few bucks. One thing sports’ betting provides is an uncontested excitement to the games, whether the wager is a large or small one. Those who live for and appreciate that very excitement would not have nearly as much interest in the NFL every Sunday. However, I believe the real issue lies in the NFL’s stance to prevent a person from making their own choice in the sports betting industry. The National Football League should not have the right to insist that there is any wrong doing for those that do participate in sports betting.

For any free-thinker, this entire issue and debate has to raise other questions. Are there, perhaps other motivations behind the NFL’s fight to stop legal sports betting in the United States?  Why would the NFL care if Delaware legalizes betting similar to the type of sports wagering that goes on in Las Vegas and other legal venues?  Why doesn’t the NFL put all the money they are using on lawyers into increasing the league’s own conduct and integrity?  There are also much bigger issues that the NFL could be focusing on rather than blurring the lines of such a personal issue that would most likely have no impact on the actual game. Of the biggest focuses, the league should be on keeping their athletes safe off the field. In the last year, we have lost two big NFL stars in Sean Taylor and the retired Steve McNair from murders. Also, NFL players are consistently in the headlines everyday for criminal activity. Does this mean the NFL is now trying to control their fans when they can’t even control their own players? The NFL attempts to tackle a legislative issue in order to prevent their fans from participating in a safe, legal activity when they can’t even keep their own employees from criminal, unlawful, and harmful behavior. Is it really worth the time and money to go to a legal war with an industry that has helped make the NFL the leading sports association in the world when the league has so many other big problems?  I don’t think so. What do you think?  Let the Bankroll Sports staff and other NFL fans aware of your thoughts on this major issue by leaving your comments below…

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