Daily News’ Stan Hochman Blisters NFL Over Sports Betting
Legendary Philadelphia Daily News sports columnist Stan Hochman (who is also a big Stephen Sondheim fan, a huge plus in the Beast Who Sings ‘Send In the Clown’s book) skewers the NFL over what he maintains was a counterproductive lawsuit against Delaware:
The NFL says it’s worried about the integrity of the game, fans grumbling about botched plays late in a ballgame that get people to look at players suspiciously. Hogwash.
Why does the NFL publish an injury report on Thursdays? To give the average guy the same information the wiseguys have before making their bets. Why give weather reports during the pregame show unless you’re trying to help the bettor on his over/under wagers? Why does Al Michaels say “this game is far from over” when a Sunday-night 12 1/2-point favorite is leading by 14 with 4 minutes left?
It’s been explained many times, that legal betting in Nevada acts as a watchdog for the league. The guy running the sports book has the league office on speed-dial and doesn’t hesitate to call when he’s hit with a suspicious flood of money on one team.
In other words, legalized betting protects the integrity of the game b/c betting, legalized or otherwise, is an essential element in the massive interest in the NFL.
Which raises the question, why does the NFL protect illegal betting with bookies at the expense of legalized and regulated betting on the games?
Tags: NFL, sports betting, Stan Hochman
Further, I saw a segment during the game last night where Swoop and (I think) Dave Spadaro on the sideline advertising PA’s new scratch-off game between plays. Swoop, who appeals to children, advertising this new lottery may be akin to a life-size Joe Camel showing up to hand out candy cigarettes to kids.
Does the NFL have an issue with that? Nope, the owners voted unanimously to allow this for all teams in the off-season.
This is an excellent article and I had not heard the POV that legal betting acts as its own watchdog.
I was also interested in his idea to make the parlay bets more interesting by ditching the parimutuel format and go to playing against set (house) odds.
Yep, Hochman has always loved to play the ponys. So, he’s a legit resource for exotic betting options.
I think the set odds are a reality. The cards have to be printed with a spread on them, and it would be difficult to change the odds unless they had extras around with different spreads.
Very interesting article. Thanks for hightlighting it.
Stan loves betting so much that he spent substantially all of April and May of 1985 at newly-reconstructed Garden State Park, even as the Sixers went to the EC Finals, the Flyers headed to the Cup Finals and the Phillies had their worst start in 14 years.
Sportswriters tend to like Runyonesque characters. Leagues try fitfully to keep gambling from interfering with their competitive integrity and public image.
Stan is one of the greatest sportswriters the City has ever seen. Yet, I’d enjoy reading the much different view that Frank Dolson or Mark Whicker would take on this topic.