NFL gambling is serious, but I can’t make sense what Titans’ Petit-Frere did wrong | Column

I’m not much of a gambler. I can say for certain that I’ve never made a bet on a sports-betting app while at the Tennessee Titans’ headquarters, a place I routinely frequent as a part of my job.

Legally in this state, though, I could have. And I’d have had no clue – until recently – that doing so would have set off all sorts of alarm bells. Given the location tracking used by betting sites, they’d have probably looked into it and figured out I wasn’t a Titans player or employee. But how can you know? Could have caused real problems.

A hypothetical, but that’s beside the point.

Point is, I didn’t know.

And that means I can’t help but feel for Titans offensive lineman Nicholas Petit-Frere.

On Thursday, the NFL revealed the Titans’ starting right tackle will be suspended six regular-season games “for betting on non-NFL sports at the club facility.” Indefinite suspensions were announced for three other players, except those players were found to have bet on the NFL. Harsh punishments made sense in those instances.

With Petit-Frere, though, it’s more difficult to see what he did wrong.

He is allowed to bet on sports as a resident of Tennessee. He is allowed by the NFL to bet on sports outside of his own league. It’d be OK in the league’s eyes for him to do that at home or at nearly every location in Tennessee. He just isn’t allowed to do it at the Titans’ facility or while traveling with the team.

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It’s a distinction so seemingly arbitrary – and a violation so careless in nature – that you’ve got to believe Petit-Frere when he says he didn’t know he was breaking the rules.

“I have always strived in every stage of my life to follow the rules,” he said in a statement to ESPN. “I did not knowingly break the rules. Even after attending a league presentation, I was unaware about the specifics around placing bets from a team facility.”

If true, that’s on the NFL – and also the Titans – for failing to educate players about its rules.

I don’t know Petit-Frere away from football, but he has struck me as an especially intelligent and thoughtful person since being drafted last year by Tennessee. He very much seems like he’d pay attention to important information. Someone who looks before leaping.

And that’s exactly what Petit-Frere expressed to The Tennessean about a month ago in comments that make more sense in light of Thursday’s news.

“I was actually one of the people who asked one of the most questions when it came to fantasy football and things like that,” Petit-Frere said at the time. “I just wanted to make sure I learned as much as I could. When we heard about those suspensions and things like that, I’ll be honest, a lot of the guys felt like there just wasn’t a lot of teaching in general about this offense. … It kind of seems out of nowhere.”

Gambling is serious among athletes in pro and college sports. Always has been and always will be. The NFL – or any league – has no choice but to take a strict, unyielding stance, doing whatever is required to uphold confidence in the integrity of its game. Accordingly, leagues must be able to set and enforce gambling rules as they see fit. I’d never suggest otherwise.

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But for deterrence to be effective, it can’t be a secret. If the NFL is going to suspend players six games for the location of the bets placed – rather than the bets themselves – there’s no excuse for failing to properly warn them about it.

There should have been signage up in bright, bold letters in every team’s facility warning against such activity.

This is a rule so easy to follow and a situation so silly that it shouldn’t have happened to anyone in the NFL. I mean, just wait until you get home.

We should be sitting here saying, “My gosh, how in the world did Petit-Frere not know?”

But when he says that he didn’t, I believe him. Because I didn’t, either.

Given that, it’s unsurprising the Titans had someone get caught up in all this.

What’s surprising, really, is that they haven’t had more.

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: NFL gambling: Petit-Frere suspended for rule he says he didn’t know