Comments on: The NFL – The most protective league, attempting to control the uncontrollable

By: Top Sports Star

Top Sports Star — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 06:48:19 +0000

The National Football League is one of the oldest sports organizations in the U.S. right now. The league is not just part of the history of sports in America, it has become part of the daily American consciousness and that of the American culture.

By: Football Guy

Football Guy — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:53:52 +0000

I love betting on Football. The crappy part is that I’ve lost about $ six this month. I think the most enjoyable part is doing the research and using research to find holes in the odds.

By: Denis

Denis — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:10:18 +0000

I was going to make some sort of joke about how Belichick could use YouTube to make his cheating more efficient, but after losing to the Jets this weekend I feel Pats fans have suffered enough .

Every time I read these policies, I can’t help but think that the interests of Vegas must play a fairly large part…

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:45:05 +0000

Good stuff. It is a tricky situation for the NFL, and one reason I think they are so concerned is that the NFL is a huge market for gambling. Good article in the WSJ: The NFL Doesn’t Want Your Bets (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124511421029417367.html). Some data from that article:
Bettors wagered $81.5 million in Nevada’s sports books on the 2009 Super Bowl; $1.1 billion was wagered on football, both college and pro, in Nevada over the 12 months ending in April 30; “Analysts estimate that tens of billions more are wagered on the NFL at offshore casinos.” If information were divulged even inadvertently that affected gambling lines, there could be real blowback. There are hundreds of NFL players, so a slipup by any one of them could be very problematic for the integrity of the competition. That’s also true for other sports, but as the article says, “there is no question that the NFL is the nation’s most popular gambling sport.”

By: Laura M. Carrillo

Laura M. Carrillo — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:09:38 +0000

Very true. I had not even thought about the implications of players’ unions on the different leagues. Perhaps one of my future posts will look at how MLB is enforcing or not enforcing diligent use of social media by the players. Thanks for the idea.

By: Wally

Wally — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:32:10 +0000

That was Awesome! The funny thing I notice is that if you look into the player’s unions of each pro sport, they play a major role in all this stuff! The baseball players association is one of the top unions in the world. The NFL is much more dominated by the owners. Hence the salary cap and drug policy that have been in place for a long time. Baseball doesn’t have a salary cap and just now has a drug policy in place. Reason being is that the players association is so strong it wouldn’t allow for either one! If the MLB tried to enforce strict twitter or facebook policies the player’s association would have a field day with them!