Steve Kim: “I hear all the Twitter chatter about the hypocrisy of all these leagues getting involved in gambling and now guys are getting suspended for gambling… I get that argument. But a rule is a rule. With great benefits and great salaries comes certain responsibilities, and you know the rules. I just don’t understand why these athletes would even put their hard-earned money up and get into that racket given the fact there has been point-shaving. You may owe the wrong people money. I get it, there may be an online thing so there’s no ‘Vito from New Jersey’ sending a leg-breaker after you…but they are told by the Players Association, there are probably signs up on the wall saying the do’s and don’ts— they broke that covenant and now they have to pay. The media has to stop being enablers and feeling sorry for these guys that clearly break a stated rule, whether it’s illogical or not.”
Jason Whitlock: “Last week we did an interview with David Tyree, and David Tyree talked about his second year or first year after his rookie season— he's in the NFL, he's a late-round pick, he's making some nice money but he makes it up in his mind ‘man, I can be a baller, me and some of my friends are gonna sell weed.’ He gets busted and people will hear that story and be like ‘MAN, HE’S IN THE NFL, HE’S GOT IT MADE! WHY WOULD HE TAKE THAT RISK?? THAT SEEMS SO STUPID AND SILLY!’ What they don't understand is the wide disparity that exists in a 53-man NFL locker room. You got guys making $30-40 million a year, and guys that are making $700,0000-$800,000 a year who feel like because of the environment that they're in that they're making $35,000 a year compared to their peers. When you're making $900,000 and you're running around and there's a half dozen guys, maybe a dozen guys on your roster that are making more than $10-12 million a year, you feel like a peasant even though you’re making $800,000-$900,000 a year and you’re 23 years old. You SHOULD feel real good. But I understand, this is the dangerous slippery slope that the NFL has gotten itself into with embracing these gambling companies, because I just think it makes it harder and harder. The players now, because of fantasy football and the fans constantly gambling, they hear about it over social media— ‘gambling, gambling, gambling, gambling’, they feel like they're smarter— ‘I know more about football and I got friends all around the league, and I got inside information, and this is a way for me to supplement my income.’ This does not surprise me. I'm surprised it doesn't go on and doesn't get caught more often… I’m not making excuses, because trust me, it’s a mistake, it’s bad, it’s stupid, it’s a self-inflicted wound… But I think these players exist in an environment and culture – and this is really going big picture – it connects to the whole conversation we just had about Detroit Lions coach Brad Holmes and the ‘diversity officer.’ When you stuff so much BS into a business it turns people very cynical. These players can look around and go ‘this woman has THIS job, she’s some sort of executive, and she’s some sort of assistant coach…’ and they say it to themselves and amongst themselves like, ‘look at everybody eating off of us. We go out here and play the game, risk our safety, and look, Lindsay Verstegen is eating off of me? She’s the ‘diversity officer’, has some sort of big title, is getting paid $2-3$-$400,000 a year to manage our social feeds and to make sure that we’re ‘racially diverse.' And then they look around, and trust me the players know it and feel it even more so than we do as fans— they look and say ‘man, this officiating is screwy. They favor certain teams, certain players’, and they sit there and speculate ‘I wonder if this ref or that ref is gambling and we will never hear about it.’ I think if you stack your league with so many lies, and fill your league with so much corruption… And trust me, they know the whole Black Lives Matter thing, the ones that were out there kneeling know this is a gimmick and Colin Kaepernick is a gimmick, and he’s out here getting Nike commercials. Everybody just gets into that mentality ‘WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME??’ Everybody else is eating, I want to eat more…. These players may not be the brightest, but as it relates to their profession, they’ve given it a lot of thought and they can see ‘everybody is benefiting off of my risks, and my sacrifice.’ The guys making $15, $20, $30 million are good, I’m talking about the bottom 20 guys making nice money but not generational wealth. These guys get cynical and start thinking ‘WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME??’ (Full Segment Above)
Watch Jason Whitlock of ‘Fearless’ discuss his theory on why NFL players would risk their careers by breaking the golden age-old rule of no gambling on their sport, as five Detroit Lions players were just handed substantial penalties for violating the league’s gambling policy.
Check out the segment above as Whitlock explains how he’s surprised there is not actually more gambling that goes on in the sport, saying that players farther down on the totem pole of NFL rosters are going to become envious of the league’s colossal decade-long money grab that doesn’t include them.
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