The Raiders now play a dice roll from the Las Vegas Strip, and the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball just announced they’ve signed a binding agreement to purchase land for a ballpark close to Sin City’s famous casinos.
Gambling is no longer a pariah but a massive moneymaker for the NFL, which has several lucrative sponsorships with online gambling sites and even a brick-and-mortar sportsbook at one of its stadiums.
So, is it two-faced for the league that has so embraced legalized wagering to suspend some of its players for betting on football games and other sporting events from their phones like millions of NFL fans are constantly encouraged to do?
“I think it’s hypocritical,” said former Steelers and Bears quarterback Jim Miller. “You can’t lie in bed with the devil, and not think you’re going to get burned.
“Soon, you’ll be able to make bets in (most) NFL stadiums,” Miller added. “That being said, the players are well aware of the rules. They have seminars and stuff up in the locker room to educate them.”
The trade of quarterback Aaron Rodgers from Green Bay to New York puts one of the greatest players in NFL history in a Jets uniform.
Despite a 54-year Super Bowl drought and the league’s longest active streak without a playoff appearance (12 seasons), the Jets have acquired several Hall of Fame players over the years. Some had big impacts, while others simply made a pitstop in New York on their way to Canton.
Here are some of the most notable players who joined the Jets late in their careers and ended up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame — mostly for their accomplishments elsewhere:
QB BRETT FAVRE: After 17 NFL seasons, including 16 in Green Bay, the three-time MVP and one-time Super Bowl champion was traded to New York during training camp in 2008 for a conditional fourth-round draft pick. He got the Jets off to an 8-3 start before a shoulder injury affected his performance and New York missed the playoffs. Favre retired after his stint with the Jets before returning to play two more years with Minnesota.
Jets stats: 3,472 yards passing, 22 TDs, 22 INTs in 16 games. Pro Football Hall of Fame: 2016.
RB LaDAINIAN TOMLINSON: The 2006 NFL MVP and Offensive Player of the Year was one of the most electric players in league history as a speedy and elusive double threat out of the Chargers’ backfield. After nine seasons in San Diego, Tomlinson signed with the Jets in 2010 and helped them to the AFC title game. Not nearly as dynamic a player in his two years with New York, he retired after the 2011 season.
Jimmy Butler insists that Playoff Jimmy — the moniker that he has now, whether he wants it or not — isn’t a thing.
His play shows otherwise.
He has scored 45 or more points five times in his NBA career, and three of those games have come in the playoffs — the most recent one coming Monday in a performance for all-time. Butler scored 56 points, tying the fourth-highest playoff scoring effort in NBA history, and carried the Miami Heat past the Milwaukee Bucks 119-114 to take a 3-1 lead in that Eastern Conference first-round series.
“I think this is where all the best players, they show up and they show out,” Butler said. “And I’m not saying I’m one of those best players. I just want to be looked at as such.”
Hard to imagine anyone not looking at him that way, especially right now.
He had 22 points in the first quarter on Monday, 21 more in the fourth. Over the last quarter-century, nobody had two 20-point quarters in the same playoff game and only one player — Damian Lillard, in his 71-point game for Portland — did it during this regular season.