Lamar Jackson doesn’t care about your parlays.
The Baltimore Ravens quarterback was asked about some of his recent pushback toward fans complaining about their bets on social media, and he said it’s not what NFL players are focused on during games.
“You gotta understand, we’re human too,” he told reporters Wednesday.
“… All our life we play football. We got to the highest level, the professional level, to win games, not to help people’s parlay. We’re not betting on the games. We can’t even bet on games. So we’re not worried about that. I don’t believe we’re going into games worried about stats either. We’re worried about the W column.”
His comments come amid the NFL’s efforts to increase gambling education and monitoring among its players and teams in 2024.
In August, Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press reported the league worked with the NFL Players Association to prepare mandatory in-person gambling policy education and training for all players that reinforces the rules stating they are not allowed to bet on NFL games or on other sports when they are with the team.
Maaddi noted at the time no players had been suspended for gambling violations in over a year, which stood in stark contrast to when 10 players were suspended the previous offseason for gambling violations.
Still, it is impossible to ignore the prevalence of betting in today’s sports world, and that extends to the social-media messages NFL players like Jackson receive during and after games.
Even with that as the backdrop, the league has largely avoided some of the major gambling headlines that have plagued other sports this year.
The NBA banned former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter for life after he violated league gambling rules, while Major League Baseball did the same for San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano after an investigation discovered the gambling activities he engaged in as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Baseball also saw Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, plead guilty to bank and tax fraud charges following an investigation that discovered he stole money from the Los Angeles Dodgers star to fund his gambling habits.
As for Jackson, his Ravens are now 2-2 following a two-game winning streak over the Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills.
Next up is a critical AFC North showdown against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
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