Right as the Baltimore Ravens got some much needed good news in the form of a 30-16 win over the Chicago Bears in Week 8 that snapped a 4-game losing streak, there’s bad news on the way.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on Monday, October 27, that the Ravens are facing an NFL investigation and possible fine after a controversy over how 2-time NFL MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson was listed on the injury report leading up to the game against the Bears.
Jackson has missed the last 3 games after he injured his hamstring in Week 4 but should return for a Thursday Night Football game against the Miami Dolphins in Week 9. The NFL will look into why Jackson was listed as a full practice participant during the week before playing the Bears while only taking scout team reps.
“The Ravens continue to insist that it was an honest mistake and they don’t think they did anything wrong,” Schefter said on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday. “The league is gonna conduct interviews this week..If the league finds any wrongdoing I don’t think it will be more than a fine.“
The NFL takes violations of its injury report policy seriously.
In 2023, former Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith was fined $25,000 and the team was fined $75,000 over an incident with running back Bijan Robinson.
In 2019, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was fined $25,000 and the team fined $75,000 for a similar injury report incident with former quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Ravens, Harbaugh Continue to Deny Wrongdoing
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh has continued to deny wrongdoing in regards to Jackson’s injury report status.
“It really is an honest mistake,” Harbaugh told ESPN’s Jamison Hensley on October 26. “I can tell you this: Nobody’s trying to hide anything. There’s no advantage to be gained with that.”
That’s kind of a wild thing for Harbaugh to say and think people would believe.
Preparing for Jackson, the NFL’s greatest running quarterback of all time, is different from preparing for any other quarterback in the NFL. The sheer amount of time it would have taken up for the Bears to make multiple defensive game plans for both Jackson and the actual starter, Tyler Huntley, would have been significant.
Injury Reports Serve One Purpose: Help Gamblers
While the NFL might say injury reports serve only to create a fair environment for teams to prepare for opponents by knowing who might be available in a given week, that’s akin to Harbaugh saying there was no advantage to be gained by fooling the Bears by playing games with Jackson on the injury report.
The real reason the injury report exists — its true purpose — is to serve a gambling industry that only continues to grow exponentially each year.
“NFL bettors are expected to wager approximately $30 billion on the league this season with legal sportsbooks in the United States,” ESPN’s David Purdum wrote on August 28. ” … The $30 billion figure is approximately an 8.5% increase from a revised estimate of $27.5 billion last year … The amount includes money bet on futures wagers, such as the odds to win the Super Bowl, and individual games from the preseason through Super Bowl LX, but only at traditional sportsbooks in the U.S.”
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