The NFL's anti-gambling policy gives them the moral high ground to condemn sports betting while their ratings continue to soar because of it.

While sports gambling, outside of Las Vegas, is verboten in the United States there are an increasing number of fans plunking down big money to essentially bet on players as opposed to teams. It's called fantasy football and the stakes can range from bragging rights to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Somehow the NFL has rationalized that this form of gambling is okay but betting on the individual games is not. Yet NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and his cabal continue to spout the company line that the NFL does not tolerate NFL betting because they value the integrity and sanctity of the game above all else. As well they should. But to truly believe that federal legislation permitting sports gambling would mark the death knell of the NFL is both absurd and hypocritical.

The NFL has a mortal lock on America's sports appetite. It has transcended sports and permeated the fabric of our culture. Studies show there are more female football fans than in any other sport which is a big reason why the Super Bowl has in essence become a national holiday.

The average fan

NFL BettingThe NFL has done a masterful job of marketing its product as a confluence of speed, agility, brute force and splendid feats of athleticism in one slickly produced prime time package. It is the one sport that is better viewed on television than in the stadium itself and every Sunday is an event, replete with the spirited introduction of horns and trumpets blaring accompanied by a booming narration as the modern day gladiators take the field in front of a sea of adoring fans waiting for the games to begin. It has all the pomp, circumstance and pageantry of the ancient Coliseum only slightly less violent.

So why does the NFL continue to demonize something that has played, some would contend, a fairly large role in its popularity? Gambling on football games used to be confined to a regular Joe betting a few bucks with a local bookie to a full blown wise-guy syndicate getting down at every out from Vegas to Panama. But now we have office pools, knockout pools, football squares, and yes, fantasy football leagues. Essentially it's one big bonding experience and the common denominator is money. People who never bet a nickel but have a stake in a fantasy football league or an office pool suddenly elevates a nationally televised game between the Browns and the Seahawks as a game worth watching to not only those who reside in Cleveland and Seattle. This means more eyeballs on the TV sets which means bigger ratings, which ultimately translates into more advertising revenue. It's a conspicuously transparent symbiotic relationship that the NFL has with gambling but that doesn't mean that their tacit acknowledgment will culminate into their public acceptance.

So what is the problem?  

While sports gambling in this country has always carried a bit of a social stigma conjuring images of every character from The Godfather to Goodfellas, the same cannot be said in other parts of the world. In England for instance, sportsbooks are as ubiquitous as convenience stores and soccer is the sport of choice. I have not seen any evidence that soccer's global popularity has been diminished by ongoing betting scandals involving the athletes themselves. Nor has professional football, or any other major American sport for that matter, been indelibly tainted since Las Vegas was given the green light to accept sports wagers.

The entire matter is farcical and though all four major sports' leagues as well as the NCAA protest that legalized gambling may assault the integrity of their game they continue to soak up the ancillary profits of this underground economy. Can you imagine how far the ratings of college basketball would plummet if anyone caught running a March Madness pool was sentenced to life in prison? Would then anyone but the students and alumnus of the basketball powerhouses be watching? 

The very notion that the NFL, or any other league for that matter, would be concerned that their athletes would jeopardize their million dollar contracts to attempt to fix a game is both laughable and unrealistic. If they believe that the legalization of gambling, replete with federal government controls and oversights, would somehow be more detrimental to the integrity of their sport than the wild, wild west atmosphere that currently prevails than I say their logic is as flawed as their self-righteous pontificating.

The bottom line is that Roger Goodell and the NFL have the best of both worlds and they know it. There is no good reason for them to embrace the inevitability of sports gambling in this country. Certainly the only reason it has not yet been legalized is because there is no political collateral to be gained by drafting legislation to legalize it. However, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey may just have broken that mold as he is filing legislation to make sports gambling legal in his state. If that domino falls, then slowly but surely so will others. Thus, the NFL can grouse all they want about the negative impact that wagering on games will have but there is no genuine moral outrage here only feigned indignation.

Of course there is that contingent of Christian conservatives who will rail about the evils of gambling in all forms and tales of woe from men and women whose lives have been decimated by an uncontrollable impulse to bet the farm when all they had left was a few chickens. But if those legislators want to collectively rise up and denounce sports gambling based on their moral beliefs then I commend those who have the courage of their convictions. However, if they take that tact then I would suggest that state lotteries, scratch tickets, keno and any other form of gambling be banished as well. We all know that's not going to happen.

So let the federal government legalize it, tax it and the NFL can stop pretending they despise it. If fantasy football is so widely accepted, despite there being a vested financial interest in the outcome of the performances of the athletes, how far removed is that from betting on the games themselves? Not much if at all except that fantasy football is simply a new form of gambling which begs the question, why is this still an issue?