Lto NFL decided to suspend Calvin Ridley on Monday for participating in sports betting. The receiver will not be able to play the 2022 season after break established policy.
The sample of what happened with Ridley is one more example of the long history of athletes who violate the betting rule, where the facts are not isolated. Now in MARCA Claro USA, we will review some of the most notorious scandals.
Before Riddley, the last antecedent in American football had corresponded to Josh Saw in 2019. The cornerback had been accused of betting on NFL games for which he was suspended for the rest of the season.
Art Schlichter has also starred in another of the emblematic cases within gambling problems. The former Colts quarterback received a one-season ban in 1983 for gambling during his rookie year. His problem with gambling has been recognized, he was even in jail for selling fake tickets to sporting events. The money he got he used to gamble.
Another notorious case was that of Kieran Tripper. The player received a sanction from the English Federation after breaking the statute regarding sports leagues in 2019. Although the punishment was announced at the end of 2020, as a result he had to stay away from football for 10 weeks.
A footballer with this kind of background is Jordan Stevens. The then Leeds United man was suspended for six weeks after breaking betting rules from 2018 to almost mid-2019.
In the MLS there have also been cases of this type. One of the examples is the Colombian Felipe Hernández, who last year was sanctioned by US soccer for gambling-related problems. Hernández acknowledged at the time that he was addicted to gambling and accepted that he was receiving treatment.
Former baseball player Pete Rose has suffered one of the most important punishments, who was banned for life, after an investigation led by Commissioner Bartlett Giamatti. Rose was gambling from his playing days and his career as manager of the Reds was interrupted in 1989. That controversy has cost him to enter the Hall of Fame and return to the Major Leagues.