Let's all tip our caps to the National Football League and the governing bodies of the other major professional and college sports for taking a principled stand against Delaware's decision to add sports betting to its state lottery system.
Yes, of course, I'm joking.
The NFL, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and the NCAA joined together to file a lawsuit to stop Delaware's new sports betting plan, which would allow single-game wagering at the state's three racinos. Though a judge denied them an injunction to immediately halt the state from tapping this new revenue source, the case could go to trial later this year.
We could get bogged down in all the technical stuff right here, but I'll try to keep it simple. Delaware is one of four states that is exempt from a federal law prohibiting sports gambling (Oregon, Montana and Nevada are the others) because it experimented with parlay wagering on sports before the federal statute went into effect.
Now, with the state facing a major budget crisis, Delaware's legislature approved a new sports betting plan that has the entire American sports hierarchy convinced it will hasten the end of civilization as we know it.
I'm chuckling to myself, but before I laugh out loud, I want to make sure you know that I'm not taking lightly the many societal problems associated with gambling. I suppose, in a perfect world, there would be no legal gambling or cigarettes or alcohol to tempt and corrupt us, but this isn't about the well-known horrors of addiction.
This is about the well-known horrors of hypocrisy.
The NFL and the other major sports are right to make strict rules against gambling and associating with the purveyors of it. The integrity of the competition is paramount, and there are thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue that depend on the players, coaches and officials being above any gambling-related suspicion.
Baseball learned that the hard way with the Black Sox scandal.
Football has had its share of gambling-related disciplinary situations.
The NBA's image recently took a big hit when referee Tim Donaghy was arrested for betting on games and passing information to a professional gambler. Even the fresh-faced athletes of the NCAA have not been immune to the occasional point-shaving incident.
