As two other major gambling scandals shake up professional sports, the NFL has reinstated five players who had been suspended indefinitely for violating the league’s betting rules.
Shaka Toney, Rashod Berry, Quintez Cephus, C.J. Moore and Demetrius Taylor were officially reinstated by the NFL. The latter four are all free agents, while Toney remains with the Washington Commanders.
Cephus and Moore were members of the Detroit Lions in 2022, but the team released both of them almost immediately after their punishment.
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The NFL logo on the field before a game between the Tennessee Titans and the Indianapolis Colts at Nissan Stadium Dec. 3, 2023, in Nashville. (Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
Detroit wide receivers Jameson Williams and Stanley Berryhill were both suspended six games last season, and Williams played a big role for the up-and-coming Lions late in the season, when the team reached the NFC title game.
Last year’s gambling suspensions weren’t the NFL’s first. Calvin Ridley missed the entire 2022 season after it was discovered he bet during a five-day period on NFL games in November 2021 when he was away from the team and on the non-football illness list. He played last season with the Jacksonville Jaguars and signed a four-year deal with the Tennessee Titans this offseason.
The reinstatement of the players comes just days after the NBA imposed a lifetime ban on Jontay Porter. The league said an investigation discovered before “the Raptors’ March 20 game, Porter disclosed confidential information about his own health status to an individual he knew to be an NBA bettor.
Jontay Porter of the Toronto Raptors fights for a rebound with Lindy Waters III of the Oklahoma City Thunder during a game in Toronto March 22, 2024. (Zou Zheng/Xinhua via Getty Images)
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“Another individual with whom Porter associated and known to be an NBA bettor subsequently placed an $80,000 parlay proposition bet with an online sports book, to win $1.1 million, wagering Porter would underperform in the March 20 game.”
Porter only played three minutes in the March 20 game, claiming to have been sick. The $80,000 prop bet was frozen and not paid out.
The NBA said it found that, from January to March of this year, while Porter was either with the Raptors or its G League team, Raptors 905, he placed “at least 13 bets on NBA games using an associate’s betting account.”
In Major League Baseball, Shohei Ohtani has found himself wrapped in a gambling controversy, but authorities say he may be a victim of fraud of over $16 million.
Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara of the Los Angeles Dodgers during a press conference at Dodger Stadium Dec. 14, 2023, in Los Angeles. (Rob Leiter/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
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His ex-interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, is facing 30 years in jail after allegedly stealing money from Ohtani to pay off a bookie. However, with changing stories, there is still speculation Ohtani knew about, or was personally involved in, the gambling, although there has been no evidence produced to suggest he was.
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