With sports gambling legal in 36 states and Washington, D.C., the line between sports and wagering is as blurred as ever.
Editor’s note: This is part of an extended Q&A with Charles Woodson that will run in Sunday’s online edition.
Southfield — Amid the recent boom of legalized sports betting, there’s been a lot of debate about what’s appropriate and what isn’t when it comes to professional athletes plopping down wagers.
For Charles Woodson, the Michigan legend and Pro Football Hall-of-Famer, there isn’t much to debate.
Place your bets — with just one exception.
“Nah, I’m not even against them betting on NFL games,” Woodson said, speaking of NFL players, in an interview with The Detroit News. “I don’t think you should be able to bet on your team or the team you’re playing. But if I want to bet on the Dolphins playing the Raiders and I’m in the NFC, I don’t care about what they do over there, you know what I’m saying?”
That’s one of the boldest takes we’ve heard on the sports-betting topic, coming from Woodson, one of the boldest players in recent football history.
Most who’ve chimed in on the hot topic, and who fall on the side of players being allowed to gamble, do so with the caveat that it not include betting on your own league — for fear of compromising the integrity of a sports competition, given the potential availability of inside information.
“Look, I get all that,” Woodson said. “Look, I get it. I’m not here to say what should happen or what shouldn’t.”
Woodson, 46, offered his opinion just days after gambling suspensions hit the NFL, and the Lions.
On April 21, Lions second-year receiver Jameson Williams was suspended for the first six games of the 2023 season, as was fellow receiver Stanley Berryhill. Lions receiver Quintez Cephus and safety C.J. Moore were suspended indefinitely, and then cut by the team. Williams and Berryhill were given the six-game bans because they bet on sports (totally legal), but did so while on official team grounds, which includes practice facilities, stadiums, team planes and team hotels while traveling (the NFL doesn’t allow that). Cephus and Moore were given the indefinite bans because they bet on NFL games.
In 2022, Atlanta Falcons receiver Calvin Ridley was suspended for the season for betting on NFL games.
At least 36 states and Washington, D.C., now allow legal sports betting, including Michigan, where it went into effect early in 2020. Online sports betting became legal in Michigan early in 2021. Prior to the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Nevada owned the monopoly on legal sports betting. That’s why for so long, Las Vegas always was a rare major market without a professional sports team: to keep the entities apart.
More: Former Heisman winner Charles Woodson still same man from Michigan — but all grown up
“I get everybody’s conundrum about it, because I come from a time when we never thought there would’ve been a sports franchise in Vegas, and now there’s gonna be a third,” Woodson said, talking about the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders and NHL’s Golden Knights, perhaps soon to be joined by MLB’s (Las Vegas?) A’s. “And possibly the NBA will come at some point and there’ll be four. So gambling is a huge part of what the big sports leagues are now. Now, do I think that players should be able to get on the sports-betting app and bet? I certainly do. … My stance is, I think guys should be able to bet on games. I don’t think you should ever be able to bet on your team or the team that you’re playing, but I do think you should be able to partake in whatever app you have, to be on Alabama vs. Clemson, if you want to.
“Hey, man, I should be allowed to have my fun and put my $20 or $30 in and bet whatever, as long as I’m not betting on my team or the team I’m playing.”
Woodson won a Heisman trophy and a share of the national championship at Michigan before going on to an 18-year career in the NFL, with the then-Oakland Raiders and Green Bay Packers. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021. Since his playing days, has found a home on TV, first on ESPN, and now on Fox Sports, which, of course, is flooded with ads for gambling apps, particularly during pro and college football season.
Professional teams and leagues have cashed in big-time amid the legal boom, too. The Lions have a partnership with BetMGM (the Tigers, Red Wings and Pistons are aligned with PointsBet) and the NFL signed deals with Caesars Entertainment, DraftKings and FanDuel. Even some colleges have signed deals with sports-betting companies, though Michigan State is reconsidering its deal with Caesars.
The lines are as blurred as ever.
“They’re raking in so much money with the gambling,” Woodson said of the teams and leagues.
“If you want to gamble on a few games, I really haven’t a big issue.”
In April 1963, about 60 years before the Lions’ Williams was suspended, one of the biggest NFL betting scandals was brought to light, when Packers legendary running back Paul Hornung and Lions great defensive tackle Alex Karras were suspended for placing $500 bets with bookies on NFL games. They were not accused of betting against their own teams, and were reinstated the next year. Not reinstated, however, is baseball’s hit king Pete Rose, who bet on games when he managed the Cincinnati Reds in the 1980s, received a lifetime ban and hasn’t been eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rose has denied betting on his own team. Just this week, Alabama fired its head baseball coach, after gambling regulators flagged as suspicious two large bets placed on Alabama-LSU baseball.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tonypaul1984