The ongoing suspensions of NFL players for violating the gambling policy means that either teams are failing to properly educate players or players are ignoring the proper education they are receiving.
Whatever the explanation, more work needs to be done.
On Tuesday, Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles addressed with reporters the work he plans to do, and when he plans to do is.
“We have gambling policy rules that we go over every year -- probably once in the [summer] once everybody gets here,” Bowles told reporters on Tuesday, via comments circulated by the team. “You don’t really do it in the spring because [player attendance] isn’t mandatory, so you don’t reach everybody. Next week in mandatory minicamp, we’ll sit down and have that meeting and we’ll discuss it. They’ll know exactly what they can and can’t do.”
It still shouldn’t wait until everyone is there, frankly. Under the league’s policy, players attending voluntary workouts can land in an involuntary jackpot by placing bets on, say, the NBA playoffs from the locker room.
Given the significance of the penalties and the bizarre disconnect between the permissibility of placing bets at home on non-NFL sports and impermissibility of doing so at work, every player should get a reminder of the rules as soon as he walks in.
Why not put a sign in the players’ entrance to every facility and in every locker room? Something like this, in big letters.
STOP. DON’T DO IT. DON’T BET ON SPORTS ON YOUR PHONE OR TABLET OR COMPUTER WHILE IN THE BUILDING. YOU WILL BE CAUGHT. YOU WILL BE SUSPENDED.
Make it clear. Make it bold. Make it part of the fabric of the workplace experience. At least anyone who does it can’t claim they didn’t know.