A majority of early NFL owners were known gamblers. Some were even tied to organized crime. One time Dallas Cowboy owner Clint Murchison Jr., Kansas City Chief owner Lamar Hunt (son of oilman H.L. Hunt Jr.), Cleveland Brown/Baltimore Raven owner Art Modell, New Orleans Saints owner John Mecom Jr. (who had very close ties to Mafia boss Carlos Marcello, a key player in bringing a team in New Orleans), Chicago/St. Louis/Arizona Cardinal owner Charles Bidwell (who was a bootlegger and an associate of Al Capone), and Philadelphia Eagle owner DeBenneville "Bert" Bell (who had ties to the East Coast Mafia) all were known to have been gamblers and bet on football (some even their own teams). Carroll Rosenbloom, one time owner of the Baltimore Colts, not only bet on his team, but also altered the outcome of a game because of it.

Oddly enough, it was this very game that legitimized football for the television networks. It has been called the greatest game ever played: the 1958 NFL championship game. Rosenbloom’s Colts were playing the New York Giants, who were 3 ½ to 5 ½ point underdogs. Rosenbloom laid down $1 million on his boys to win. [8] The Colts were losing until the last seven seconds, when Colts kicker Steve Myhra kicked a field goal to tie the game at 17-17 and send it into overtime. In overtime, the Colts marched 80 yards down the field to get to the Giants eight-yard line – easy field goal territory. But they never kicked. Instead Rosenbloom, knowing the game was won but his bet lost with a field goal, had his general manager force Coach Ewbank to go in for the touchdown. Final score: Colts 23, Giants 17, which covered the point spread, and Rosenbloom's money. [Sports gamblers generally bet not just on the victor, but on a particular "spread," or margin of victory.]

Players, too, have been tempted by the bookmaker. Several star players of the 1950s-1960s were known to have gambled, and some to have fixed games. Bookmaker/Gambler Don Dawson has admitted that during those two decades, he had personally been involved in fixing no fewer than 32 NFL games. [9] Washington Redskin quarterback Sammy Baugh, Pittsburgh/Detroit quarterback Bobby Layne, and Kansas City quarterback Len Dawson, were alleged to have gambled (and perhaps shave points), but were never charged or convicted of a crime. Green Bay Packer great Paul Horning and Detroit Lions star Alex Karras were not so fortunate.

On the January 16, 1963 edition of the NBC evening news program The Huntley-Brinkley Report, Detroit Lions star defensive tackle Alex Karras admitted that he had bet on football games in which he played. A national scandal erupted. It was quickly quelled on April 17, 1963 when NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle indefinitely suspended Alex Karras and Paul Horning (who had bet on games in which he played as well) and fined 5 other Detroit Lions $2,000 each for betting on games in which they did not play. Rozelle also announced at that time that he had evidence that several other players around the League were gambling on the NFL, and that these players had been "reprimanded, but not fined." [10]

The NFL's FBI

As a result of the 1963 betting scandal, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle created NFL Security. NFL Security (the NFL's FBI, if you will) has employed former intelligence officers, Justice Department officials, and ex-FBI officers throughout its years. It has branches in every city in which the NFL plays. Former director of NFL Security Warren Welsh has said, "These representatives [NFL Security officials] are on retainer to the League, and they specifically report to the League. In addition to their game-day coverage and their liaison with the local law-enforcement community, they would also do background investigations that we might have for game officials, an ownership group, impersonations, misrepresentations, whatever it might be, as opposed to just working for the local team." [11] They are on the watch for gambling, drugs, and whatever other troubles the players and coaches can get into. And these men are kept very, very busy.

In their extensively researched book Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL, authors Jeff Benedict and Don Yaeger chronicle just how rampant criminal activity is in the League. According to their research dated 1998, one out of five (21%) of the players in the NFL have been charged with a serious crime. The crimes they detail go beyond the drinking and driving offenses we often hear reported. These crimes include rape, kidnapping, assault and battery, domestic violence, and homicide. Of course, there is a big difference between being charged and being convicted, but the fact that this many pro football players have such problems is alarming.

Even worse, these players are allowed to continue to play in the NFL. Some of these criminals are star players including: Cornelius Bennett (rape, sodomy – pled to a reduced charge), Corey Dillon (assault – convicted), Eric Moulds (domestic violence, assault – pled guilty), Jake Plummer (4 counts of sexual abuse – pled no contest), and Deion Sanders (battery – pled no contest). The list doesn’t include players like Ray Lewis, Warren Sapp, Michael Irvin, Cortez Kennedy, Warren Moon, John Randle, Andre Rison, Bruce Smith, Dana Stubblefield, and Rod Woodson, all of whom either had charges dropped, or were acquitted.

Surprisingly, none of these cases involved drugs or drug possession.

Drug Dealings

Drugs are a way of life in the NFL. They surround its players like a pack of ravenous dogs, waiting to take the weak and feeble. One of the first things discussed at the NFL rookie camp are drugs, but these talks tend to fall on deaf ears. Be they illegal like marijuana or cocaine, or legal prescription drugs like steroids and pain killers, drugs are very much in use in the NFL. Former NFL player Tim Green claims in his book The Dark Side of the Game, "Moderate use of some drugs is just a necessary reality of big-time football." [12] He goes on to say, "One of the main reasons performance drugs [i.e. steroids] have played such a major part in the evolution of the modern football player is because the players themselves feel like they will never die . . . They'll do whatever it takes to be the best they can be." [13]