NFL owes Buccaneers rival and league an explanation
By Rob Leeds
While the Buccaneers can be happy at not having the face Calvin Ridley this season, the reasoning should pose some questions.
While the Deshaun Watson news is a little shocking, the piece of this story that is far more difficult to believe is how the NFL handled Buccaneers rival Calvin Ridley by comparison.
By now, most people have learned that Watson is currently set to miss six games for the ordeal that has been going on over the last year. Six feels light when compared to the allegations, but there is still a chance that the NFL comes in with a suspension of its own.
There is an appeals process to this, something Buccaneers fans have seen first-hand with Jameis Winston, but it seems unlikely that anything is going to change from this rule.
In light of this news, many people are wondering how the Hell the NFL can agree to a six-game suspension for this and then suspend Calvin Ridley for a full season after betting on his team to win during a game that he wasn’t on the field for?
The NFL has already shown itself to be extremely pro gambling. Almost every talk show discusses spreads, reporters talk gambling with a high frequency, and the league has shown an overall support of the money that it gets from the massive business that is sports gambling.
Should Ridley have bet on a game? Probably not. The context is relevant here considering he bet on a win. It is the opinion of some that players should always be within their rights as players to bet on themselves to win. Still, this is a slippery slope, and if the NFL wanted to shut this down, there was a better avenue than how they handled it.
A full season for an offense like this is silly. While Buccaneers fans probably don’t really care about not having to face Ridley, this shows a strange decision from the league given the other crimes and slip-ups that get less attention.
If Deshaun Watson is playing football in 2022, Calvin Ridley absolutely should as well.
The NFL should have a lot of explaining coming up as these stories continue to unfold in tandem, and while Ridley and the fans do deserve more of an explanation, it doesn’t seem like we will get it.
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