I love it. I’m becoming more of a Saquon Barkley fan every day, especially after he “broke bettors’ hearts” and slid on what most likely would have been a sure touchdown against the Packers yesterday, toward the end of the game.
He’s a mature enough player to have assessed the situation and not rubbed it in the Packers’ faces. But more than that, I prefer to believe there’s a pretty good chance he didn’t give a flying you-know-what about all the people who had money on him to score a touchdown.
This is as it most certainly should be.
Such undue influence by people who don’t matter should never have a chance to find its way into any athletic contest. The fact that Barkley slid instead of scored need not even be newsworthy beyond a reflection of the man’s professionalism and situational awareness. The fact that he disappointed bettors isn’t really a headline, beyond the fact that various media made it so, though it is icing on the cake, somehow.
Ooh… now that I think about it, could he instead have been trying to preserve the point spread…?!
Anyway, this is what people get for wagering and parlaying in the first place. It’s the chance they take—that athletes have integrity and give no thought to anyone who has money on a game, as if all these “adventurous” risk-takers who are so willing to part with their cash are somehow becoming stakeholders.
The NFL is aligning itself with an enterprise, a habit– an addiction– that got Pete Rose banned from baseball for life. But they’re the NFL and they apparently can do whatever they want.
3 Cents' 