Cardinals safety Josh Shaw was suspended by the NFL on Friday for betting on football games while he was injured. We now know a bit more about those bets and why the NFL punished him so swiftly and thoroughly.
Shaw, who was suspended for the remainder of the season and through the 2020 season, reportedly bet on the Arizona Cardinals, a team he currently is employed by, though he was injured and not taking part in football activities. What’s more, he bet that the team would lose.
According to ESPN’s David Purdum, Shaw placed a wager on a three-team second half parlay that included the Cardinals. The bet, which he submitted to Caesars’ sportsbook in Las Vegas on November 10, included the Cardinals losing.
The bet was on the second halves of three Week 10 games, the sources said, and included the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who were leading the Cardinals 17-13 at halftime. The Buccaneers were 1-point favorites for the second half. They failed to cover the second-half spread but went on to defeat the Cardinals 30-27. Shaw’s bet lost, according to the sources.
As Purdum noted, parlays are not usually associated with true betting scandals like match fixing and point shaving because they involve multiple working parts to get right. In theory, Shaw could only impact what happened in a game the Cardinals were playing, not two other games as well. Still, the whole situation is extremely weird, including him listing his real occupation on the betting information needed to open an online account.
According to gaming industry sources, Caesars contacted the Nevada State Gaming Control Board on Nov. 10, and subsequently the NFL, shortly after discovering Shaw had placed the wager.
Shaw was open about his line of work when filling out his application for a betting account with Caesars, even listing “professional football player” as his occupation, the sources said.
The wager will now cost him next season, not to mention the money he put up for the bet.
