The NFL reinstated five players on Thursday after the quintet were handed year-long suspensions for violating the league’s gambling policy that saw them sit out the entire 2023 season.
Washington Commanders defensive end Shaka Toney, Indianapolis Colts outside linebacker Rashod Berry, Detroit Lions wide receiver Quintez Cephus and safety C.J. Moore, and free-agent defensive tackle Demetrius Taylor are all eligible to return for the 2024 season.
The gambling policy prohibits anyone in the NFL from engaging in any form of gambling in any club or league facility or venue, including the practice facility, per the league.
Toney was a seventh-round pick out of Penn State in 2021 after earning All-Big Ten honors twice for the Nittany Lions. He had 1.5 sacks in 26 games through his first two seasons.
Berry made the New England Patriots as an undrafted free agent out of Ohio State in 2020 and had played for three different teams in three seasons before his suspension.
Cephus was a fifth-round pick out of Wisconsin in 2020 and had 60 receptions for 568 yards through three seasons.
Moore made the Lions as an undrafted free agent out of Ole Miss in 2019 and had played four seasons prior to his gambling escapades.
Berry and another teammate, Isaiah Rodgers, were both released by Indy after the suspensions were announced. Colts general manager Chris Ballard made a statement following those roster moves:
All of the above players, apart from Toney, are now free agents who can sign wherever they want in the league—as long as they can find someone to take them.
Gambling in professional sports came to the forefront in 2022, when All-Pro Atlanta Falcons wideout Calvin Ridley was suspended for the entire 2022 campaign for betting on games, including his own, during the 2021 season,
therefore forfeiting his entire salary for that year. Ridley was the highest-profile player to be caught cooking up parlays until recently.
Gambling and pro athletes have come under the microscope again recently after NBA commissioner Adam Silver issued a lifetime ban for Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter after he was found to have violated the league’s
gambling rules, including placing bets on himself and his own team, some of which were on himself and his team to not do well.
Los Angeles Dodgers’ superstar and two-time American League MVP Shohei Ohtani is also the subject of scrutiny after his translator was fired for having lost over $40 million in sports bets.