Famed Writer Says NFL Should Embrace Delaware Sports Gambling

Hallowed Sports Illustrated writer Frank Deford said in a series of interviews that sports betting has been huge for decades, and the NFL should be glad some of that money will be diverted to taxes from mob accounts.

Award-winning sportswriter Frank Deford says the NFL's posture on the looming Delaware sports betting lottery is the reverse of what it should be. The longtime Sports Illustrated scribe thinks the football league should be ecstatic over the new gambling program because Delaware players will be helping the state rather than organized crime.

Speaking in interviews to National Public Radio and the Delaware News-Journal, Deford spoke of the reality that sports betting occurs by the billions of dollars, and the fact that the NFL and its games draw the most public gaming interest.

"People already bet on pro football games, don't they?" said Deford. "It's something that already exists and the NFL is doing quite well under those circumstances. So why should the chance for people to bet in Delaware be any more of a detriment?

League spokesmen have claimed any legal sports wagering will hurt the integrity of game results and do damage to the NFL's reputation and product.

But Deford says gambling already happens, just in a criminally-dominated black market because the laws force the action there. "Frankly, I would rather have that money go via taxes to the citizens of Delaware as opposed to a bunch of gangsters."

If sports betting were harmful to the NFL, Deford suggests, decades of enormous amounts of illegal gambling would have shown that effect. Instead, the league has blossomed and thrived.

"It's idiotic to stop something that people want to do and, if they can't do it legally, will do illegally," Deford noted. "More money is bet on the NFL than anyplace else. Their popularity is in large part accounted for by betting. For them to be against it is the height of hypocrisy."