Online Gambling Insiders Smile as PTI Calls Out the NFL
The National Football League's issues with control extend beyond online gambling or Delaware sports betting, creating the environment that has led to the nickname No Fun League. Wednesday, on the popular ESPN television show Pardon the Interruption, hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon ridiculed the NFL for its obsession with controlling and regimenting players, employees, and fans.The two did not mention the NFL's campaign to block regulation of online gambling that doesn't even involve sports, or its lawsuit to prevent Delaware from joining Nevada in offering sports betting even though it has no presence in Delaware. However, the new issue of forbidding players to Twitter arose.
The NFL has told players they will be fined the maximum possible for Twittering while at team events. This means not only during games, but from the locker room, at ceremonies, and any other time the NFL can claim as work-related.
Kornheiser noted that the NFL has a desire to control all things, and to drum out individualism. Players are forbidden to remove helmets while leaving the field, uniforms are inspected down to the smallest detail, and fans are encouraged to follow teams, not players.
"The NFL tries to tell players which nights they can have sex with their wives," Wilbon pointed out.
Whether it be online gambling at an Internet casino that doesn't offer sports wagers, sports betting in a state that doesn't have an NFL team, or Twittering by players after games or practices, the NFL is determined to control all aspects of events only marginally related to it. Perhaps corporate success has brought paranoia and compulsive disorders to NFL executive offices, but isn't it time to let a little reality in?
