Falcons coach Arthur Smith just doesn’t understand the problem with the concealment of running back Bijan Robinson’s illness on Sunday.
On Wednesday, Smith was dismissive and flippant about the situation. As noted earlier, Smith called the issue and the league’s investigation of it “sensationalized things.”
“I understand outrage and drama sells,” Smith said. “Guys, like, if you really understand how things really operate that there’s nothing, there’s nothing there. So I don’t know what, I haven’t given one second of thought about it.”
He apparently has given at least one second of thought about it, because Smith also riffed on the implications of a world in which teams are required to disclose player workload.
“Teams have to prepare for our three running backs, right?” Smith said. “It’s whoever has the hot hand. Maybe I’ll have to go tell [Titans coach Mike Vrabel], ‘Hey, [Tyler] Allegier got the hot hand. I’m gonna give him fifteen carries.’ Maybe that’s what I need to do. If that’s where we’re headed. Just make sure I don’t upset anybody and their fantasy team. So maybe I’ll yell across to [Vrabel], ‘Hey we’re gonna give [Cordarrelle Patterson] another carry here.’”
This isn’t about coaching decisions made with a full complement of healthy players. This is about hiding information that would have allowed people to consider whether a player might not have his full complement of work.
The NFL regularly talks about a desire to preserve and protect “the integrity of the game.” The NFL also needs to be concerned about the integrity of any wagers made on the game. Hiding an illness to a key player on fantasy football for money, daily fantasy games for money, and a variety of legal prop wagers for money undermines the integrity of those wagers.
Think of it this way. If you’re at the craps table, and the dice have a defect that might cause certain numbers to be far less likely to come up than others, you’ll factor that into your betting decisions. People inclined to risk legally hard-earned money on fantasy football or prop bets need to know whether, in this case, a player like Bijan Robinson might not be putting up his usual numbers because he might not be getting his usual workload.
That’s why he had only one touch. It wasn’t about someone naturally developing a hot hand. It was Smith and the Falcons hiding Robinson’s hot mess of an illness.
As we’ve said all week, there’s an incentive for teams to keep such things secret. The NFL must create a disincentive that sufficiently outweighs the incentive to hide such matters, especially at a time when the NFL has grabbed every last gambling dollar that it can.
