Getty Jameson Williams celebrates after a 2022 touchdown with the Lions.
Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams took responsibility for the sports betting that led the NFL to slap him with a six-game suspension, but admitted he was not even aware of what rule he broke.
The league may now be admitting its own role in the confusion, issuing a new guidance that more clearly spells out what players cannot do regarding sports betting. As the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport noted on Twitter, the league put out a six-point guidance stressing that they cannot ever bet on NFL games, have someone bet on their behalf, or place a bet while at a team facility — which includes hotels during road games.
Rapoport added that the league would be more proactive in teaching the rules to rookies entering the league.
The guidance has drawn new attention to Williams’ suspension, which some supporters believe is too harsh in retrospect.
NFL Under Pressure
As SI.com’s John Maakaron noted, the new guidance from the NFL was seen by some as a tacit admission that it did not do enough to clarify the rules, leading to Williams’ unwittingly falling astray. That has led some to call on the league to slash the six-game suspension to something shorter.
“As a result of the league basically acknowledging players were not fully aware of the rules or were not emphasized enough, supporters of the Lions are clamoring for a decreased suspension for the talented wideout,” Maakaron wrote.
In response to Rapoport’s tweet about the new emphasis, a number of fans shared the hashtag #FreeJamo in support of the Lions receiver. Some explicitly called out the NFL for what they saw as selective enforcement of rules that were not made clear to players.
As Maakaron added, the league has added that it would be doing more to proactively teach players. Jeff Miller, the league’s executive vice president of communications, acknowledged that the increased prevalence of sports gambling means the league must take more efforts to prevent players from improper betting.
“So, sports gambling has a great deal more presence in people’s lives than it did just a few short years ago, which means for us as a sports league — where integrity of the game is the highest single principle — that we have to be thoughtful and careful and scrutinize how we share information and educate people around the rules that govern it,” he said.
Suspension Will Likely Stand, Insider Says
Despite the pressure the league may face calls to cut Williams’ suspension, insider Jeff Risdon wrote that it is unlikely to change. The USA Today writer noted that the Lions receiver serves as an example to other players not to break the rules, “no matter how nonsensical, hypocritical and inconsistent those rules might be.”
While Williams earned some praise for taking responsibility, Risdon added that his admission of guilt makes it all the more unlikely that the league will alter his suspension.
“The NFL is not going to lay down the precedence of shortening the suspension of a player who acknowledged his own violation of the rules,” he wrote. “They don’t do it with performance-enhancing drugs; they certainly won’t with something they’re heavily emphasizing now like gambling.”
