Calvin Ridley of the Atlanta Falcons has been suspended by the NFL for at least one year for betting on games in the US Football League. Many find this punishment disproportionate, as the league usually suspends offenders for much shorter periods. But the NFL follows clear principles in this regard.

Munich/New York City – Players, officials and employees of any NFL team are prohibited from betting on league games.

This taboo was broken by Calvin Ridley, wide receiver of the Atlanta Falcons, and he was punished severely. Ridley will not be allowed to play football until at least after the end of the 2022 season.

Criticism of disproportionality of NFL’s penalties

Shortly after the incident and the punishment were made public, however, critics also came forward who believe the reaction was excessive.

Their argument: other players would have received less lengthy bans for much worse offences.

Kareem Hunt, for example, was suspended eight games by the NFL for pushing and kicking a woman in a hotel corridor. For many, a far worse offence than placing bets.

Tom Brady was suspended for four games in 2016 for the so-called “Deflategate”. He allegedly caused air to be let out of balls in the 2014 AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts. This suspicion has not been confirmed to date.

Nevertheless, the league suspended him for four games “as a precautionary measure”. The message behind this is clear: the NFL wants to protect its product at all costs.

Clear rule of the NFL: Competition comes above everything

This is another reason why, in some cases, serious acts of domestic violence are punished less severely than tampering with gambling equipment or placing bets on one’s smartphone in a supposedly ill-considered manner.

The product is the games in which the worst team can beat the best at any given time. The elite league of American football is considered the most balanced sports league in the world.

And also because, unlike the NBA for example, every game is incredibly valuable, the league wants to protect the integrity of sports competition at all costs and therefore penalises bets, even if Ridley wasn’t part of the Falcons at the time, as harshly as possible.

The same goes for owners, by the way. While Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Commanders, still holds the rights to his team despite several harassment allegations, Stephen Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins, has been threatened with the forced sale of his team.

The reason for this is the accusation by his ex-coach Brian Flores that Ross offered him 100,000 dollars for each defeat.

Since the NFL has been leaving the Snyder case at “investigations” for quite some time because of non-sporting offences, it quickly became uncomfortable for Ross.

This approach has been quite consistent over the years and should also have been known to Ridley.