The NFL recently suspended four Lions players for violating its gambling policy and, according to a report, the Lions have a fifth player under investigation
Receiver Jameson Williams will serve a six-game unpaid leave for betting on non-NFL events from an NFL facility. Players are allowed to bet on non-NFL sports but not at a team facility.
Williams said last week he did not know he had violated the policy.
“It hit me out of the blue,” Williams said.
The NFL annually educates players on its gambling policy, but some of the Lions players obviously either let the message go in one ear and out their other or they did not heed the warning. So, the team is doing its own training in the wake of the suspensions.
“It’s much more an emphasis from us, as opposed to just leaving it to the league,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said, via Kyle Meinke of mlive.com. “Like, we need to make sure that we really hit this ourselves and make a point of it. We did, but obviously not enough. The proof’s in the pudding. So for us, let’s take it out of their hands. They will have what they do every year, but now we need to put our own emphasis on it. And I think that is the best way to do it, is to highlight it. And that is what we are trying to do.”