Will sports betting turn fans’ alliance from orange and blue to green?
Let the gamblization of sports begin, and we know one thing for certain: This is going to really stink for Case Keenum. His job as Broncos quarterback is about to get more unpleasant, as every point on the scoreboard will be counted in money.
Wanna bet?
The NFL has a gambling problem. Or it did, until the Supreme Court voted 63 this week to establish the Patriots as 5to1 favorites to win the Super Bowl. So why fight gambling on sports one more day, when professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey can monetize it ASAP?
There are 150 billion solid reasons sports gambling should no longer be a shady, illegal enterprise in 49 of our great United States. But here’s my fearless prediction: With every dollar wagered, the rooting interests of spectators will change … and, in some ways, for the worse.
As the NFL snuggles up to legalized gambling, Broncos Country will bleed less orange and more green. When the fan sitting next to you at the Broncos’ stadium wagers $250 Keenum will throw for more than 250 yards against Oakland, don’t be surprised when he gets booed running off the field if Denver beats the Raid
ers but the quarterback fails to cover the bet.
What happens in Vegas is spreading to the rest of the United States, and although nobody asked me, we need a legal sports book on every street corner about as much as we need another coffee shop to serve up caramel macchiato.
This is not a puritanical rant. I don’t smoke Camels or shoot an AR-15, but if that’s your thing, it’s your money. In America, when was the last time anybody viewed gambling as a vice? It’s a way of life, whether we’re talking Powerball or fantasy football.
Fantasy football, I think, offers a glimpse of how more widespread legal gambling will change the way fans relate to their local team. I’m reminded of a conversation with running back C.J. Anderson after the Broncos started the season 2-0 in 2015, but Anderson gained only 56 yards on 23 carries in the two victories.
He caught holy grief on social media from disgruntled fantasy players who acted as though they owned Anderson.
“I don’t go to other people’s jobs and tell them: ‘Hey, you (stink). You’re trash,’ ” said Anderson, expressing a desire to shout on national television for every fantasy general manager to cut him from their fantasy leagues, where there was nothing at stake except a few bucks in the office pool.
Just wait until some knucklehead wagers — and loses — $1,000 because Keenum throws an interception that costs the Broncos a game.
Which brings me to a piece of advice from Anderson that really stuck with me: “Don’t bet on sports. You never know what’s going to happen.”
It seems reasonable to expect a spike in everything from TV ratings to franchise valuations with the introduction of legal gambling to NFL games. A fan is more likely to watch the Bills play the Browns in late December if there’s money riding on the outcome. But the juiciest stories will be found in the you-never-know of unintended consequences from the proliferation of legal gambling on sports.
What we cheer for reveals what’s in our hearts. So what worries me about gambling being extensively woven into the fabric of the NFL aren’t the big issues of enforcement and integrity, but how gambling could slowly begin to fray the community spirit that has made the Broncos about the only thing almost everyone in Colorado solidly supports.
Around here, the one sure thing has been the sound of 70,000 die-hards at Mile High, united in orange as brothers and sisters in football, all cheering for the same thing, exiting the stadium happy together, so long as the home team wins. Most people, however, are more loyal to their wallets than the home team. And that’s how gambling could change everything.
For example: What happens when Denver is favored by 6K points and the coach orders Keenum to take a knee to protect a 21-17 lead with the Broncos in easy field goal range during the final minute of the fourth quarter? Who cheers? And who boos?
All bets are off.