NFL: News and transactions

BigSoxFan

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May 31, 2007
47,090
Such a dumb rule for the non-NFL piece but these guys are so dumb for doing this and throwing their careers away after what the NFL did with Ridley. Like, you can’t run it through one of your friends?

I wonder how it got discovered.
 

Marciano490

Urological Expert
SoSH Member
Nov 4, 2007
62,312
I love the NFL suspending guys for betting on other sports after turning the league into a giant advertisement and inducement for betting. Whatever, I guess you can’t drink on the job at Coors.
 

snowmanny

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Dec 8, 2005
15,667
I love the NFL suspending guys for betting on other sports after turning the league into a giant advertisement and inducement for betting. Whatever, I guess you can’t drink on the job at Coors.
True

“Beginning next Monday, Coors, the nation's third-largest brewer, after the Anheuser-Busch Companies and the Miller Brewing Company, will restrict employees' on-site beer consumption to two 12-ounce beers within 30 minutes after their shifts end, and in designated areas.

Under the brewer's old policy, employees were permitted to drink Coors beer during breaks and during lunch. And while Coors encouraged employees to drink responsibly, the interpretation of responsibly was left to the employees.”

https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/07/business/company-news-changing-the-rules-at-coors-a-time-to-make-beer-and.html

NYT 10/7/1994
 

Marciano490

Urological Expert
SoSH Member
Nov 4, 2007
62,312
True

“Beginning next Monday, Coors, the nation's third-largest brewer, after the Anheuser-Busch Companies and the Miller Brewing Company, will restrict employees' on-site beer consumption to two 12-ounce beers within 30 minutes after their shifts end, and in designated areas.

Under the brewer's old policy, employees were permitted to drink Coors beer during breaks and during lunch. And while Coors encouraged employees to drink responsibly, the interpretation of responsibly was left to the employees.”

https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/07/business/company-news-changing-the-rules-at-coors-a-time-to-make-beer-and.html

NYT 10/7/1994
Haha that’s so random, I just got tired of trying to remember how to spell Anheuser so switched to Coors.
 

Bowhemian

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Nov 10, 2015
5,698
Bow, NH
I worked at the AB brewery for a short time in 2000. The story was that in prior years, employees could drink on break. Guess why that ended?
There were potential legal issues, you can probably guess why. After I started, we were given 30 packs of choice but couldn’t consume on site. Color me disappointed in 2000.

BTW, that job sucked.
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
SoSH Member
Oct 31, 2013
72,432
I worked at the AB brewery for a short time in 2000. The story was that in prior years, employees could drink on break. Guess why that ended?
There were potential legal issues, you can probably guess why. After I started, we were given 30 packs of choice but couldn’t consume on site. Color me disappointed in 2000.

BTW, that job sucked.
Why, did they make you clean up the Clydesdale shit or something?
 

Kenny F'ing Powers

posts way less than 18% useful shit
SoSH Member
Nov 17, 2010
14,425
For years, one if the larger concerns with moving a team to Vegas was the perception of gambling impacting results. As gamblings reach expanded, obviously that concern shrunk, but I'm sure the NFL is hyper aware of the perception. So, while I think getting in trouble for gambling on other sports is dumb, the rules are in place for a semi-understandable reason.
 

Cellar-Door

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Aug 1, 2006
34,460
For years, one if the larger concerns with moving a team to Vegas was the perception of gambling impacting results. As gamblings reach expanded, obviously that concern shrunk, but I'm sure the NFL is hyper aware of the perception. So, while I think getting in trouble for gambling on other sports is dumb, the rules are in place for a semi-understandable reason.
Except what makes it really dumb is this... he got suspended because he made the bet from a team facility. If he steps across the parking lot it's fine.
 

Kenny F'ing Powers

posts way less than 18% useful shit
SoSH Member
Nov 17, 2010
14,425
Except what makes it really dumb is this... he got suspended because he made the bet from a team facility. If he steps across the parking lot it's fine.
Jesus. That is fucking dumb.

Almost like filming from the field is against the rules, but filming from the front row isnt...
 

Spelunker

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Jul 17, 2005
11,862
Except what makes it really dumb is this... he got suspended because he made the bet from a team facility. If he steps across the parking lot it's fine.
The NFL would never bring the hammer down for doing an allowed to thing from a arbitrarily disallowed location.

Edit: dammit
 

67YAZ

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SoSH Member
Dec 1, 2000
8,729
Absolutely horrific. Heartbroken for them.

The CDC says drowning is the #1cause of death for children 1-4 and #2 for 5-14, just after motor vehicle deaths. Tell this to everyone you know with kids. Pool fences & swim lessons are two reasonable steps that will save lives.

When I was a kid (8 of so) I watched my aunt jump into the deep end of a pool when someone noticed that her toddler daughter was at the bottom. Miraculously, they revived her. But just the sheer panic scarred me for life.

again, tell everyone you know with kids to be vigilant, only visit homes with fences, use floaties, and invest in swim lessons. This doesn’t have to happen.
 

Senator Donut

post-Domer
SoSH Member
Apr 21, 2010
5,500
Such a dumb rule for the non-NFL piece but these guys are so dumb for doing this and throwing their careers away after what the NFL did with Ridley. Like, you can’t run it through one of your friends?

I wonder how it got discovered.
View: https://twitter.com/aaronwilson_nfl/status/1653056138957533185

It looks like FanDuel was audited by Michigan to look at “prohibited gamblers” and that’s how the Lions staffers and players were caught. The implication being that otherwise FanDuel would not be ratting out NFL employees.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
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Sep 9, 2008
42,273
AZ
View: https://twitter.com/aaronwilson_nfl/status/1653056138957533185

It looks like FanDuel was audited by Michigan to look at “prohibited gamblers” and that’s how the Lions staffers and players were caught. The implication being that otherwise FanDuel would not be ratting out NFL employees.
And Michigan told the NFL? Weird.

There are probably 200 panicked NFL players right now. I wonder what the NFL does if it was a superstar. They were lucky they found some not-massive star players to make an example of to try to nip this in the bud.

Gambling scandals are a huge threat for sports leagues. The idea that they can keep a lid on it after jumping in with both feet to partner with gambling seems naive. We will see.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
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Oct 1, 2015
24,375
And Michigan told the NFL? Weird.

There are probably 200 panicked NFL players right now. I wonder what the NFL does if it was a superstar. They were lucky they found some not-massive star players to make an example of to try to nip this in the bud.

Gambling scandals are a huge threat for sports leagues. The idea that they can keep a lid on it after jumping in with both feet to partner with gambling seems naive. We will see.
Yep. You actually PARTNER with gambling institutions, it seems like it's opening Pandora's Box.
 

Senator Donut

post-Domer
SoSH Member
Apr 21, 2010
5,500
And Michigan told the NFL? Weird.

There are probably 200 panicked NFL players right now. I wonder what the NFL does if it was a superstar. They were lucky they found some not-massive star players to make an example of to try to nip this in the bud.

Gambling scandals are a huge threat for sports leagues. The idea that they can keep a lid on it after jumping in with both feet to partner with gambling seems naive. We will see.
Either Michigan told the NFL or it was obtained by the Michigan equivalent of FOIA, which is my best guess. The only impacted parties were five Lions players, four Lions employees, and one Washington player who played an away game in Detroit last season.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2008
42,273
AZ
Either Michigan told the NFL or it was obtained by the Michigan equivalent of FOIA, which is my best guess. The only impacted parties were five Lions players, four Lions employees, and one Washington player who played an away game in Detroit last season.
So, five Lions players. Either one believes there is a special problem in Detroit, or you can extrapolate that you would probably find something roughly similar in all clubs and Detroit is just the place we know about because of the audit.

Which would be 150 players. And I doubt the other sports are different.
 

Justthetippett

New Member
Aug 9, 2015
2,391
Honest question: what is the best way for the NFL to get its arms around the gambling stuff? Clearly what they did here isn't it, but is it some kind of tracking of bets made by all players/team employees? Clearer guidelines on bets that can be made and ones that can't? Percentage of the partnership revenue with the betting sites goes to the players? I don't know the answer but if they don't get it sorted I fear we are going to get a major scandal.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2008
42,273
AZ
Honest question: what is the best way for the NFL to get its arms around the gambling stuff? Clearly what they did here isn't it, but is it some kind of tracking of bets made by all players/team employees? Clearer guidelines on bets that can be made and ones that can't? Percentage of the partnership revenue with the betting sites goes to the players? I don't know the answer but if they don't get it sorted I fear we are going to get a major scandal.
I mean, at this point what's done is done. We aren't moving backwards. It's a billion dollar industry and the NFL and the other leagues are all in. They could do stupid stuff like pay lip service to problem gambling, or whatever, but that stuff is a fig leaf. I suppose the NFL could try to get the sports betting sites to limit some of the bets that are probably the most tempting for scandal. Point shaving is hard. It's a team game. But player props, etc., can be manipulated pretty easily. That said, I cannot imagine that Draft Kings would agree to limit player props, and so it would need to be legislative. I think the likelihood of the NFL asking states to limit bets proactively is about as high as the likelihood that I'll ever play QB in the NFL. It certainly could happen reactively -- in the wake of a major scandal -- but it's not going to be proactive.

One thing that may be happening behind the scenes is coordination between the league and the gambling sites. I mean, the gambling sites are some of the most sophisticated data analytics companies in the world. Their business and their profits depend on information. I don't think it would be hard for them to identify a large bet on an under 6.5 catches that wins because of a drop at the end of the game, or to find other trends and to share that information with the NFL. Whether the NFL or the NFLPA would be amenable to stuff like that is unclear and you could certainly see pushback. It's the fucking NFL -- you already know the playbook. Put your head in the sand, wait and see, and then work the problem with the greatest disaster recovery business unit in sports.

All you can really do is make your rules as clear as possible, publicize them, and punish the people you catch really hard and hope that it has a deterrent effect. But I suspect the NFL's resolve on that would be seriously tested if one of the faces of a franchise were to make a bet in a parking lot and they found out about it.
 

joe dokes

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Jul 18, 2005
30,238
I mean, at this point what's done is done. We aren't moving backwards. It's a billion dollar industry and the NFL and the other leagues are all in. They could do stupid stuff like pay lip service to problem gambling, or whatever, but that stuff is a fig leaf. I suppose the NFL could try to get the sports betting sites to limit some of the bets that are probably the most tempting for scandal. Point shaving is hard. It's a team game. But player props, etc., can be manipulated pretty easily. That said, I cannot imagine that Draft Kings would agree to limit player props, and so it would need to be legislative. I think the likelihood of the NFL asking states to limit bets proactively is about as high as the likelihood that I'll ever play QB in the NFL. It certainly could happen reactively -- in the wake of a major scandal -- but it's not going to be proactive.

One thing that may be happening behind the scenes is coordination between the league and the gambling sites. I mean, the gambling sites are some of the most sophisticated data analytics companies in the world. Their business and their profits depend on information. I don't think it would be hard for them to identify a large bet on an under 6.5 catches that wins because of a drop at the end of the game, or to find other trends and to share that information with the NFL. Whether the NFL or the NFLPA would be amenable to stuff like that is unclear and you could certainly see pushback. It's the fucking NFL -- you already know the playbook. Put your head in the sand, wait and see, and then work the problem with the greatest disaster recovery business unit in sports.
When Draft Kings or the like starts to think that *they* are getting screwed because players are messing with prop bets, the NFL will act because its players are costing a big sponsor money. And that's pretty much all the league cares about.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2008
42,273
AZ
When Draft Kings or the like starts to think that *they* are getting screwed because players are messing with prop bets, the NFL will act because its players are costing a big sponsor money. And that's pretty much all the league cares about.
Good point. They probably also have to be concerned with the optics of cooperating with the league or with anyone for that matter to out their customers' activity. So there are a fair number of moving parts.
 

joe dokes

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Jul 18, 2005
30,238
Good point. They probably also have to be concerned with the optics of cooperating with the league or with anyone for that matter to out their customers' activity. So there are a fair number of moving parts.
A marketing opportunity.."We wont tell on you...."*


*unless required by law
 

rodderick

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Apr 24, 2009
12,751
Belo Horizonte - Brazil
I just love that Aaron Rodgers' buddies are these washed players like Mercedes Lewis and Randall Cobb. It'd be like Brady going to the Bucs and demanding they sign Ryan Izzo and Phillip Dorsett or something.