N.F.L. Suspends Calvin Ridley for Betting on Games

A four-year N.F.L. veteran, Ridley had his best season in 2020 when he caught 90 passes for 1,374 yards. Last season, he played in just five games. The team exercised his fifth-year option for the 2022 season last spring.

The Falcons said in a statement that they first learned on the league’s investigation on Feb. 9, and that they “support the league’s findings and actions.”

Ridley can appeal his suspension within three days and ask to be reinstated on or after Feb. 15, 2023.

Ridley’s suspension is the first sports gambling-related penalty the N.F.L. has imposed on a player since 2019, when it suspended Arizona Cardinals defensive back Josh Shaw for the remainder of that season. Shaw, who was on the injured reserved list at the time, was suspended for the remainder of the 2019 season as well as the 2020 season. He has not played in the N.F.L. since.

Before Shaw’s suspension, the N.F.L. had not penalized a player for gambling on games in more than two decades.

The most well-known punishments for sports gambling-related infractions in the N.F.L. occurred in 1963 when Pete Rozelle, who was then the commissioner, suspended Green Bay Packers running back Paul Hornung and Detroit Lions defensive end Alex Karras for the entire season for betting on football games.

In 1946, the day before the N.F.L.’s championship game between the Chicago Bears and the Giants, the league’s commissioner, Bert Bell, was told by the assistant district attorney in Manhattan that Giants quarterback Frank Filchock and running back Merle Hapes had been offered $2,500 to throw the game.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/07/sports/football/calvin-ridley-nfl-betting.html