If you bet Troy Aikman, Terry Bradshaw and other NFL TV personalities would make like Jimmy the Greek this football season, you lost money.
Despite the legalization of sports betting in some states, the topic of gambling has been almost completely absent on NFL game telecasts from Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN and NFL Network this season.
Sources told Sporting News that the moratorium on sports betting through Week 3 also extends to NFL pregame shows such as Fox's top-rated "Fox NFL Sunday," CBS' "The NFL Today," NBC's "Football Night in America" and ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown," as well as weekday programming, such as ESPN's "NFL Live."
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John Entz, executive producer of Fox Sports, confirmed the topic will be verboten as Fox kicks off its new "Thursday Night Football" package with tonight's telecast of Vikings vs. Rams.
"To this point, gambling on any sport has not been a topic for our announcers live during games and I don’t expect that to change much this NFL season," said Entz in a statement to Sporting News.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling earlier this year, states such as New Jersey, Delaware and West Virginia have rushed to legalize sports wagering. At stake is an estimated $100 billion jackpot as sports bettors, who were forced to bet on NFL games through street corner bookies or offshore websites, now wager on games legally at sports books, casinos and racetracks.
Given the rapid legalization of sports betting, some of the NFL's TV partners thought the league might relax or even eliminate its long-time restrictions on talent talking about betting lines and point spreads. They thought wrong.
When these TV executives asked their NFL counterparts whether they could openly address sports betting this season, the answer was the same: No. Would the NFL consider it down the road if sports betting is legalized across most states? Maybe. But that's not happening this season.
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Fred Gaudelli, executive producer of NBC's "Sunday Night Football," indicated during a conference call in late August that the NFL's TV partners might not have much leeway when it comes to discussing point spreads.
"In all the broadcast deals, there's specific language about gambling," Gaudelli noted. "Obviously the deals were done before (legalization in some states) ... but, at this point, we're going to honor the deals, and there won't be any specific gambling messages on our air this year."
During CBS' NFL preview day, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus made a similar point to Jimmy Traina of Sports Illustrated. "We're not going to be doing it in our NFL coverage right now. The ruling has only affected a small handful of states so we don't think it affects the audience greatly, so right now we're not going to be talking about point spreads with our NFL coverage," McManus said.
That doesn't stop some NFL announcers such as NBC's Al Michaels from slyly slipping in references to gambling references in their game coverage. As Michaels said on the conference call: "I've had a lot of fun with this through the years coming in a back door, a side door or whatever, different ways to use the English language. People know what I'm talking about."
It's an unusual position for the NFL given how gambling is part and parcel of football's DNA. The point spread has made the NFL the most popular sport for gamblers. During blowout games, it's often die-hard sports bettors and fantasy sports fanatics who keep NFL TV ratings high. In 2020, the Oakland Raiders will relocate to Las Vegas, the mecca of gambling known as Sin City.
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The league's venerable ownership families such as the Rooneys (Steelers) and Maras (Giants) have their own colorful histories with book-making, horse racing and gambling, noted the New York Times. Urban legend has Art Rooney Sr. founding the Steelers after winning a parlay at Saratoga racetrack. Not to mention players such as Paul Hornung and Alex Karras being suspended by late Commissioner Pete Rozelle for betting on games.
However, the NFL has always taken the hardest line among the Big 4 pro sports on everything from gambling to ads on uniforms. The NFL is No. 1 in TV ratings, revenue and popularity. Like Walmart or Amazon, the NFL doesn't have to compromise. If the TV networks that pay the league billions in rights fees to televise live games don't like the league's anti-gambling policy, that's too bad.
Still, legalized sports betting looks like it's here to stay. Virtually every sports TV network is planning a new sports betting-themed show or studying how to address point spreads and betting lines on existing programming.
Fox was first out of the gate with FS1's new weekday show, "Lock It In," with Rachel Bonnetta, "Cousin Sal" Iacono, Clay Travis and Todd Fuhrman (4:30-5:30 p.m. ET).
Chad Millman's new Action Network recently hired rising NBA media star Rob "Worldwide Wob" Perez. He will be writing, podcasting and creating videos and other content for the subscription service, which caters to sports bettors and fantasy players.
The NFL declined to comment for this story.