Calvin Ridley Is Losing $11 Million In Salary After Placing $1,500 In Bets

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Hey Friends,

Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley has been suspended for at least the entire 2022 NFL season after the NFL caught him betting on games during the 2021 season.

The case against him is pretty cut & dry — here’s what we know:

1. Ridley downloaded and created an account on the Hard Rock Sportsbook mobile app (Florida) in November 2021 — he used his real name.

2. Ridley placed three, five, and eight-game parlay bets over five days.

3. These parlays included bets that the Atlanta Falcons would win.

The NFL was then alerted by their official sports betting data provider, Genius Sports, that Ridley had placed the bets, and the sportsbook confirmed the information.

The Falcons were made aware of the investigation on February 9th, Ridley admitted his actions in an interview with the league and participated promptly, and the NFL finalized the decision yesterday, suspending the star wide receiver indefinitely.

Here’s the official statement from the NFL:

And here is Calvin Ridley’s response on Twitter when the suspension went public:

Now I think it’s important that Calvin Ridley doesn’t become the victim here.

Sure, he was taking personal time away from the Falcons when he placed the bets, and he allegedly only wagered $1,500 in total, but still, the NFL makes it explicitly clear that players can’t bet on games, and everyone in and around the league knows the risks.

The easiest way to think about it is that Calvin Ridley is an employee of the NFL. That comes with a hefty paycheck, but also rules, and when you don’t follow those rules, you run the risk of getting in trouble, regardless of whether you think it’s fair or not.

But that also doesn’t mean we can’t criticize the optics that the NFL has self-created.

The discipline for a first offense DUI in the NFL is a suspension without pay for 3 games. The discipline for a first offense PED violation in the NFL is a suspension without pay for 4 games, and the discipline for a first offense domestic violence incident in the NFL is a suspension without pay for 6 games.

Former NFL running back Ray Rice was caught on camera punching his wife and dragging her unconscious body out of an elevator, and he only received a two-game suspension from the NFL before public backlash made Roger Goodell reconsider.

My point is that when you add context, Ridley’s 17-game suspension looks out of place.

But this is a problem that the NFL has self-created. They famously fought sports betting for decades. They spent millions of dollars in court and promised that a team would never be placed in Las Vegas, only to back peddle when PASPA got repealed, and sportsbooks opened up their overflowing vault with billions of dollars in cash.

Now the real question is what the league office does from here.

The sports purist in me would argue that the integrity of the game is paramount—the revenue, reputation, and product risk of NFL games being fixed far outweighs the public outcry that comes with an inbalance of suspension protocols.

But when you aggressively implement a strategy that creates billions of dollars in new revenue, directly in the face of potentially creating a national gambling problem, these are the types of questions that you are forced to answer.

Only time will tell how this plays out. I am an optimist by nature, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to envision a world where sports gambling doesn’t become a national problem—just look at Europe!

Of course, I hope it doesnt play out that way, and I think the NFL should be doing everything in their power to get ahead of it while they still can.

Remember, things that are in motion tend to stay in motion.

I hope everyone has a great day. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

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