Why Titans' Nicholas Petit-Frere found issue with NFL's gambling crackdown — a big one
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story about Nicholas Petit-Frere initially published June 5. It has been updated after Petit-Frere was suspended six games June 29 for violation of the NFL's gambling policy. You can read that full story here.
The issue isn't what's right or wrong. It's what's understood.
The NFL has continued its crackdown on gambling offenses this offseason. Five players were suspended in April for sports betting and, per a report from ESPN, more investigations are on the way. No Tennessee Titans players have been implicated in these suspensions, but online sports betting is legal in Tennessee, meaning players, coaches and staff need to be vigilant about what activity is and isn't allowed.
"I think that ‘right from wrong’ is probably the wrong way to put it," Titans coach Mike Vrabel said. "We talk to the team. I try to talk to the team about a number of things. How we act away from the building. I try to explain to them what the personal conduct policy is. What the gun policy is. What the gambling policy is. Sometimes we’re held to a higher standard based on what we do and who we do it for. It’s certainly something we try to talk to the players about and explain to them what their responsibility is."
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Sports betting is more than just legal in Tennessee. It's thriving. According to data reported by PlayTenn.com, bettors placed $5.065 billion in wagers on sports from November 2020 through July 2022. Based on U.S. Census estimates for Tennessee's population, that works out to about $718 in bets per Tennessean.
The Titans are just one of 18 NFL teams that play in a state where online sports betting is legal. But state laws and NFL regulations aren't the same. NFL personnel are prohibited from betting on NFL games for competitive integrity reasons. But they're also prohibited from making legal online bets on any sport while inside team facilities or while traveling with the team, from participating in daily or weekly fantasy leagues with prizes and from playing in season-long fantasy football leagues with prizes greater than $250.
Vrabel likens the situation to the league's drug policy. Just because it's legal to buy a supplement at GNC doesn't mean that supplement is allowed by the NFL. The same principle stands for gambling.
The big-picture problem
But, as Titans offensive tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere sees it, the NFL could've done a better job of outlining what is and isn't permissible before handing out suspensions.
"I’ll be honest with you: There wasn’t really a lot of teaching from the NFL and things like that," Petit-Frere told The Tennessean. "I was actually one of the people who asked the most questions when it came to fantasy football and things like that. I just wanted to make sure I learned as much as I could.
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"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. I just feel like that’s something the NFL should kind of harbor a little bit more and understand these guys are making mistakes that they didn’t even know was a thing."
One of the players suspended in April was Detroit Lions receiver Jameson Williams, a college teammate of Petit-Frere's who is suspended six games for betting on a non-NFL sport. Speaking to the Detroit Free Press in May, Williams said he doesn't recall when or where he placed a bet and wasn't familiar with the rule he's been suspended for before the suspension was levied.
Petit-Frere sees stories like this as the big problem. The NFL is cracking down when some players don't know or understand the rules. He thinks the focus should be less on punishing players for making mistakes and more on teaching them how to avoid making mistakes, and that there should be more grace for unknowing first-time offenders.
"It’s tough. None of us ever want to do anything that jeopardizes the shield, that jeopardizes the NFL," Petit-Frere said. "Our mission, every single day, and we’re blessed to do this, is to play this children's game. We’re getting paid to do it. Not only that, we get a lot of great experiences from not only the teams that we build but the players we’re a part of and also the fans. I would say I feel like the outlook of it is that it is something that should be more visited by the NFL and looked into more as a teaching moment than really a moment of coming down hard. Because in all honesty, if you ask guys, they weren’t taught this."
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on Twitter @nicksuss.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nicholas Petit-Frere suspension: Titans OL miffed by NFL gambling policy
