Tim Hasselbeck/Fantasy Football is Gambling Time Bomb for Players

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/1997/Jul-25-Fri-1997/sports/5778474.html



Friday, July 25, 1997


Boston College continues to sort out mess from gambling scandal


Associated Press
NEWTON, Mass. -- Two Boston College players have been reinstated and three others were given additional suspensions by the NCAA for their parts in the biggest gambling scandal in college football history.
The school suspended 13 players for the final three games of the 1996 season after an investigation into gambling on the Eagles football team. One has since suffered a career-ending injury, four were allowed to complete their coursework and three had their scholarships revoked.
Of the remaining five, the school said, two players have had their eligibility reinstated, two are suspended for the first two games of the 1997 season and one will sit out the first four games.
The school did not identify which players received which punishment, and a spokesman declined further comment.
Football coach Dan Henning resigned at the end of the 1996 season, due mostly to his 16-19-1 record. Basketball coach Jim O'Brien also left the school after a falling out with the admissions office over the rejection of three recruits just days after the football scandal broke.
Last week, athletic director Chet Gladchuk left to take over the same position at Houston.
The 8,800-student school was at the center of a point-shaving scandal in 1982 when Rick Kuhn was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for his role in fixing six basketball games during the 1978-79 season.
Initial reports pointed to a similar problem this time. Rumors of point-shaving first surfaced after the Oct. 26 Syracuse game, in which the Orangemen trailed 14-7 before rallying for 17 points in the final 1:43 of the first half.
After a 20-13 loss to Pittsburgh several players were confronted by Henning and the team's student captains.
Thirteen players were eventually suspended by the school, the most players ever implicated in a gambling scandal. After a nine month investigation by Middlesex County District Attorney Tom Reilly, six men were indicted last week in connection with the gambling ring -- none of them current BC athletes.

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http://www.lostbet.com/news_fantasy.aspx

Fantasy Football is Gambling Time Bomb for Players

Giants backup quarterback Tim Hasselbeck remembers all too well the dark cloud that descended over the Boston College football program a decade ago. And it had nothing to do with the fickle New England weather.
"I was in the locker room with guys betting against our team. It's not pretty," says Hasselbeck, who with his older brother Matt, was a member of the 1996 Eagles squad enveloped in the biggest gambling scandal in college football history. "It's an ugly, ugly situation."

Thirteen Boston College players were suspended for gambling infractions including two players - Jamall Anderson and Marcus Bembry - who bet against BC in a lopsided loss to Syracuse that season. The Eagles finished 5-7, while the school suffered a year-long backlash of negative attention - everything from revelations of BC student bookies to ties with organized crime. "An ugly situation," Hasselbeck repeats.

But Hasselbeck has a different take on the fantasy football craze in America, where an estimated 15 to 20 million sports fans - including Colts linebacker Cato June and Redskins tight end Chris Cooley - get to act as faux general managers, create their own teams, draft and trade real players and try to accumulate the most points each week based upon different statistical categories. Participants scrutinize NFL game stats with the intensity of a pro football general manager.

When asked if players participating in fantasy leagues could lead to another gambling scandal like the one he experienced as a BC undergraduate, Hasselbeck smiles.

"I know a lot of (football players) do play. And a lot of these fantasy football leagues are based on points and not necessarily money," Hasselbeck says. "But I'm sure there are plenty of them that revolve around money, which is essentially gambling. Anybody that I know who plays is playing for fun. But there's some criticism of the dangerous, slippery slope that it could possibly lead down."

The NFL may already be heading down that precarious path. June and Cooley went on the record about their fantasy football passion, with June boasting about his fantasy "Juneimus D" team featuring starting QB Tom Brady. "Playing New England, I can't be happy with him throwing a TD pass, but in the back of my mind, I'm like, 'Yeah, I just got six points in my fantasy league,'" June told ESPN a couple of weeks ago.

If it sounds like the NFL and its new commissioner Roger Goodell should be alarmed at comparisons that may be drawn between fantasy football and illegal gambling, think again.

Not only is the league not preaching concern about its players' fantasy league participation, the NFL itself promotes fantasy leagues through its own Web site - an estimated 1.3 million fans play via NFL.com - complete with grand prizes and runner-up gifts for the winners.

"It is not gambling and it is ludicrous to suggest an NFL player would give his fantasy team a higher priority than his NFL job," says NFL spokesman Greg Aiello.

Goodell, who has been on the job just over three months, echoed Aiello's remarks in a recent interview with the Daily News.

"We've been talking about that a little bit," Goodell said when asked about NFL players, fantasy leagues and possible fears of gambling. "They're not wagering on them. They're paying a fee to participate. At this point, no, it doesn't concern me, but I think it's something we'll keep an eye on - that if any way it even leads to a perception that it should concern us, we will address it."

Las Vegas gambling experts, however, see fantasy leagues in the same vein as your everyday casino patron placing a bet at the blackjack table. It's gambling, pure and simple.

"I do have a problem when the league sees gambling as this terrible thing and then they say fantasy football is this wonderful thing," says Wayne Allyn Root, the chairman and CEO of Winning Edge International, a publicly traded sports handicapping Web site. "It's the same thing. You're betting money, you're gambling, wagering, investing on the performance of players and teams, not whether they win or lose.

"If I bet on the Redskins plus-3 or plus-8, then I'm not betting on them to win. I'm betting on them to cover the point spread and the league frowns upon that. But if I'm betting on a certain Redskins player to gain 100 yards today and that's my wish in the fantasy football league, it's the same thing. I don't care if the Redskins win. I'm cheering for that one player to get yards and whether the team wins or loses means nothing to me. There's no question in my mind it's a hypocritical stance on the part of the NFL."

Adds Ed Looney of New Jersey's Council on Compulsive Gambling: "Fantasy football is like an interlude, like a stepping stone to sports betting."

Jimmy Vaccaro, a Vegas veteran who has run sports rooms for several hot spots over the last few decades and now does public relations for American Wagering, a company that owns and operates over 50 race and sports wagering locations throughout Nevada, says flatly that there is no difference in playing fantasy football and laying down a bet.

"Fantasy football is gambling," Vaccaro says. "The IRS expects you to report the money you win, end of (f------) story. I'd like to see how many IRS 1029 forms are filled out when fantasy football winners pick up their cash winnings. ... Pete Rozelle is probably turning over in his grave."

Giants running back Tiki Barber doesn't see it that way.

"I don't see anything wrong with it because most people do it for fun," Barber says. "I'm sure some people would construe it as a form of gambling, but again, since most of the fantasy leagues are friends playing together I don't see why it's a big issue.

"Unless they're putting money on it. But I don't think that's happening."

The NFL is not alone in condoning fantasy football. Both Major League Baseball and the NBA say they have no issue with their athletes morphing into mock GMs and playing with fantasy sports teams.

"We have no problem with players participating," MLB spokesman Rich Levin says. "We're not concerned."

A Division I football coach who bet with friends in an NCAA basketball pool three years ago wasn't as lucky. Rick Neuheisel, then the University of Washington football coach, was fired for participating in the pool (the NCAA prohibits betting on illegal activity). Neuheisel later won a $4.5 million settlement in his lawsuit against the NCAA and the university, when it was revealed that a university compliance officer had E-mailed Neuheisel and permitted the coach to participate in the pool.

"I understand the reasoning behind (Neuheisel's dismissal)," says Tim Hasselbeck. "But, I mean, if you could really tell me that Rick Neuheisel being in an office pool with the NCAA basketball tournament - how that affects him coaching the Huskies... Really, let's be honest. Was anything wrong really going on there?"

At least the NFL and gambling experts seem to agree on one aspect of fantasy leagues: With teams providing up-to-date injury reports throughout the week, every week, there is little chance that fantasy league enthusiasts would be able to glean insider information ahead of someone else.

"Injuries don't mean a thing," says Vaccaro. "You're better off making one straight bet on that team for the weekend. There are 10 other players on that fantasy team that can score or not score."

That doesn't stop fantasy fans from trying to get a step ahead of their competitors when the opportunity presents itself. Hasselbeck says he thought there was something unusual about the number of Seahawks fans suddenly popping up in New York City earlier this fall. Following Seattle's Oct. 22 loss to Minnesota, Hasselbeck was deluged with inquiries about his brother Matt, who had sprained his right MCL and had to leave the game.

"A lot of people asked me, 'How's your brother doing?' And I'm thinking, 'Gee, that's nice of them,'" Hasselback says. "Then as the conversation goes along, I realize, 'You know what? They're not asking me because they actually care.' They want to know because they're trying to figure out, 'Is (Matt) playing next week or do I have to draft someone else?'"

http://min.scout.com/2/654896.html
Boyd Blasts NFL

By Viking Update Staff

Posted Jun 27, 2007


Former Viking guard Brent Boyd was among the former players to speak in front a Congressional sub-committee Tuesday about the failings of the NFL's policy of granting former players disability and helping them with the loss of productivity and normalcy of life due to their playing careers.

Brent Boyd, a Vikings offensive lineman from 1980-86, was among the former players who spoke to a Congressional committee Tuesday about the problems retired players have in getting pension benefits from the league and the mounting health issues that plague former players.

Boyd spoke before the House Judiciary subcommittee, along with several other players. Curt Marsh, who played with the Raiders from 1981-87 and spoke about having more than 30 surgeries, including a leg amputation, said he was denied disability payments for years despite his long track record of surgeries and complications from surgery. Boyd, a single father, discussed being homeless for extended periods as well as suffering brain damage as the result of multiple concussions.

The league countered that $1.1 billion has been set aside for a disability/pension fund and that more than $20 million in disability payments are paid out each year. To hear Boyd describe it, however, it is very different.

“Now that they have put the lipstick on the pig, I want to tell you what reality is,” Boyd told the sub-committee, adding that the league’s retirement policy has the unofficial mantra “delay, deny and hope I put a bullet in my head.”

“The NFL was hoping I would go away and die,” Boyd said.

Among the others to speak were Mike Ditka and an attorney for the late Mike Webster, who was denied full disability before his death in 2002.

The committee cited that just 317 players are currently on full disability with a payout of $20 million, prompting Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), whose husband is a former NFL player, to question how so few players can be receiving full benefits.

“In one of the most dangerous sports in the history of mankind, only 317 are receiving disability?” she asked.

Ditka made an impassioned plea to the sub-committee to put pressure on the NFL to recognize those who helped build the game and paid for it with their own long-term health. At the end of the meeting, Boyd gave Ditka a hug and said, “Thanks, Coach.”

The thought of a Vikings player and a Bears coach being on the same side of an issue would strike a lot of people as strange, but, as more of these horror stories emerge in the comings weeks and months, the strange bedfellows banding together for a mutual cause might become a much more common scene.