Pete Rose may be the most famous athlete suspended for betting on games, but the NFL has had its share of gamblers over the years.
On Friday, five players joined the ignominious list after a betting scandal rocked the Detroit Lions.
The result? Four Lions players were suspended along with one member of the Commanders. Quintez Cephus, C.J. Moore and Shaka Toney were all banned indefinitely from the NFL and will be suspended at least one year.
Meanwhile, Jameson Williams and Stanley Berryhill will be suspended for the first six games of the 2023 NFL season.
This marks the second time in as many offseasons that the NFL has dealt with a betting scandal. Calvin Ridley became the fifth player suspended for betting on NFL contests during the 2022 NFL offseason.
The NFL prohibits all league personnel from placing wagers on NFL games, and commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement that Ridley "put the integrity of the game at risk."
There is nothing more fundamental to the NFL's success — and to the reputation of everyone associated with our league — than upholding the integrity of the game. This is the responsibility of every player, coach, owner, game official, and anyone else employed in the league. Your actions put the integrity of the game at risk, threatened to damage public confidence in professional football, and potentially undermined the reputations of your fellow players throughout the NFL.
The same applies to the latest scandal, and that's why the suspensions for the quartet of Lions and Toney are so harsh. Here's who they will join on the ignominious list, which dates all the way back to 1963.
MORE: Calvin Ridley gambling suspension, explained
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Alex Karras, 1963
Many will recognize Karras' name not from his NFL playing days, but from his days as an actor. He starred as Mongo in "Blazing Saddles" and had major roles in the 1980s sitcom "Webster" and 1982 movie musical "Victor/Victoria."
Before any of that happened, Karras was a defensive tackle for the Lions who was an AP All-Pro in two of his first five NFL seasons. He also became one of the first two players suspended for gambling in NFL history.
Karras missed the 1963 season after admitting to placing "at least a half dozen $50-$100 bets," per ESPN.
"I made a terrible mistake," Karras said. "I am truly sorry."
The Hall of Famer returned to the Lions in 1964 and played seven more seasons with the team before retiring. He had one of the greatest quips in NFL history during his first season back in Detroit after being asked to call the opening coin toss.
"I'm sorry, sir," Karras told the official, per ESPN. "I'm not permitted to gamble."
Paul Hornung, 1963
Karras wasn't the only player suspended for the 1963 season. Paul Hornung, the 1961 NFL MVP, was also banned from the league for a year after then-commissioner Pete Rozelle revealed Hornung had bet "up to $500" on NFL games, per ESPN.
Hornung was reinstated into the NFL along with Karras in 1964. The "Golden Boy" played three more seasons for the Packers, totaling 1,540 scrimmage yards and 18 touchdowns before a neck injury forced him to retire. He was on the Packers' Super Bowl I-winning team but didn't play because of a pinched nerve.
Though his reputation and career weren't hurt by his suspension, Hornung was retrospectively angry about his suspension when asked about it in 2012.
"You know what, looking back it just pisses you off," Hornung told NOLA.com. "I knew 10 other guys who bet. They didn't get them all in my day. I wasn't going to say anything, naturally. But I knew the guys who were betting. They'd brag about it and talk about it. Even back then, they didn't get everybody who was guilty.
"There was no use in me causing a stir by saying there were other guys who weren't caught that I knew were gambling. Sure, it was more of a, I don't know, a friendship deal where you'd bet $50 or $100, an insignificant amount. There was nobody betting enough money to throw a game or anything like that. That never happened."
MORE: Explaining the NFL gambling rule that Calvin Ridley broke
Art Schlichter, 1983
Schlichter was selected by the Baltimore Colts with the fourth overall pick in the 1982 NFL Draft. His career went downhill quickly, as fourth-round pick Mike Pagel beat him for a starting job and Schlichter got deep into gambling debt.
During his college days, Schlichter began betting on horse racing and later, other sporting events. He carried over his gambling habits to his pro career and this spiraled out of control from there.
Schlichter lost a whopping $389,000 from January to March of 1983, per the Indy Star. That led NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle to suspend him for the 1983 season.
"Schlichter will not be reinstated until the league can be solidly assured that the serious violations of cardinal NFL rules he has committed will not be repeated," Rozelle said.
Schlichter nearly returned to the NFL in 1987 when the Bengals wanted to sign him as a backup to Boomer Esiason. However, Schlichter had been arrested in January for running an illegal, multimillion-dollar sports betting operation. Rozelle vetoed the deal, as a result, and Schlichter never returned to the NFL.
The CFL and the AFL both gave Schlichter a chance, and he won Arena Bowl IV after an MVP season in 1990. However, he eventually retired from the AFL after betting on some of its games.
Schlichter has spent much of his life in and out of prison as a result of his gambling addiction, which he addressed in a 2006 interview.
"This addiction has taken everything I've ever loved or owned in my life," Schlichter said from his prison quarters in Medaryville. "I don't have anybody to blame but myself."
Most recently, Schlichter spent 10 years in prison from 2011 to 2021 due to gambling-related theft charges.
Josh Shaw, 2019
The NFL's most recent gambling suspension prior to Ridley came in 2019 when Roger Goodell suspended then-Cardinals defensive back Josh Shaw for betting on games.
Shaw was on IR in 2019 when he went to a Las Vegas casino and placed bets of an undisclosed amount on several sporting events. Per NFL Network, Shaw misunderstood a 2018 Supreme Court ruling that struck down a federal ban on sports betting.
NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported, per sources informed, Shaw went to a Las Vegas casino this fall along with close friends from high school and placed sports bets for the first time based on a misinterpreted understanding of the recent 2018 Supreme Court ruling. He used his own player card and ID.
The NFL reinstated shaw on March 20, 2021. He has yet to sign with another NFL team after playing for the Bengals, Chiefs, Buccaneers and Cardinals from 2015 to 2019.
This wasn't the first time that Shaw found himself at the center of an odd story during his playing career. In 2014, while he was at USC, he claimed that he jumped off a balcony to save his nephew from drowning in a pool. However, it was later revealed that he had gotten into a heated argument with his girlfriend and jumped off the balcony to avoid the policy, per the Los Angeles Daily News.
Shaw suffered injuries to both his ankles as a result of the jump. He was suspended by the Trojans and then-coach Steve Sarkisian and wasn't reinstated until mid-November.
MORE: Calvin Ridley defends himself on Twitter after NFL gambling suspension
Calvin Ridley, 2022
Ridley was handed an indefinite suspension by the NFL on Monday and he will miss the entire 2022 at a minimum as a result. The Falcons' receiver was caught betting on games over a five-day span from Nov. 23-28.
Weeks before placing those bets, Ridley had stepped away from the Falcons to deal with mental health concerns. The NFL announced that he wasn't playing when he placed his bets, but Ridley did bet on games involving the Falcons.
Ridley revealed on Twitter that he had bet $1,500 total on the games and said that he "doesn't have a gambling problem." He also downplayed the severity of his suspension in subsequent tweets.
Just gone be more healthy when I come back
— CALVIN RIDLEY (@CalvinRidley1) March 7, 2022
I know I was wrong But I’m getting 1 year lol
— CALVIN RIDLEY (@CalvinRidley1) March 7, 2022
Ridley was eligible to apply for reinstatement on Feb. 15, 2023 and eventually did so. He was reinstated and will be returning to the NFL in 2023 as a member of the Jaguars.
Jameson Williams, Quintez Cephus, C.J. Moore, Stanley Berryhill & Shaka Toney, 2023
These five players — four Lions and one Commander (Toney) — were all suspended on April 21, 2023 after the NFL ruled that the players have violated the league's gambling policy.
However, only three of them were suspended indefinitely: Cephus, Moore and Toney.
Williams and Berryhill were each suspended for six games. Why? Because they had just bet on non-NFL games while inside an NFL facility; the others had actually bet on NFL games.
Of the bunch, Williams is the most notable having been a first-round pick. the other three Lions — Cephus, Moore and Berryhill — were all backups or fringe roster players. In fact, Cephus and Moore were each cut in wake of their indefinite suspensions.
Still, the scandal was notable, as it doubled the amount of gambling policy suspensions over the league's history.
