Another name in the NFL’s gambling crosshairs has dropped. The league will hand a six-game suspension to Titans tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere for violating the gambling policy, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter).
A third-round Titans draftee last year, Petit-Frere became the team’s starting right tackle as a rookie. Petit-Frere said in a statement he did not gamble on NFL games but admitted to violating the betting policy. His betting on non-NFL games from a team facility will induce the six-game ban.
This comes a day after Schefter reported other players, in addition to Colts cornerback Isaiah Rodgers, were targets in the league’s gambling probe. This is the first mention of Petit-Frere, however, in connection with gambling. Rodgers is set to draw a season-long ban for making bets on NFL games. Expanding what is becoming a widespread issue for the NFL, Petit-Frere is the seventh known player popped for a 2023 gambling violation.
This suspension is consistent with the bans handed to Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams and former Detroit wideout Stanley Berryhill. While other since-cut Lions — and Commanders defensive end Shaka Toney — were hit with indefinite suspensions for betting on NFL games, Williams and Berryhill were found to have bet on other sports from team grounds.
Chosen 69th overall out of Ohio State last year, Petit-Frere won the Titans’ starting tackle job in training camp. He started 16 games as a rookie, during a season in which Tennessee’s offensive line endured a rash of injuries. By season’s end, longtime starters Taylor Lewan, Ben Jones and Nate Davis were on IR; Petit-Frere and guard Aaron Brewer were the only first-string blockers left standing. The team has since cut Lewan and Jones; Davis signed with the Bears in free agency. Petit-Frere and Brewer are ticketed to stick as starters, but the Titans will need to make other plans at right tackle to start the season.
Pro Football Focus did not view Petit-Frere’s rookie year fondly, grading the former Big Ten blocker 74th among tackles last season. The Titans have also gone through some issues staffing their right tackle spot in recent years; this adds to a growing list.
Since the team passed on Jack Conklin‘s fifth-year option, it has not enjoyed continuity at the position. After Conklin left for Cleveland in 2020, the Titans drafted Isaiah Wilson in the first round. Wilson became a spectacular bust, playing all of four NFL plays, and lasted one season in Tennessee. The Titans then drafted North Dakota State’s Dillon Radunz in the 2021 second round. Radunz has been unable to win the right tackle job, losing the camp competition to Petit-Frere. Radunz could find himself back in the mix for the role, but the Titans’ offseason retooling effort up front now will include a right tackle change as well.
This move also could affect where the Titans station first-round pick Peter Skoronski. Viewed as a guard by most evaluators, the Northwestern prospect played only tackle while in college. He worked at both tackle and guard during the Titans’ offseason program. Sixth-rounder Jaelyn Duncan and swingman Jamarco Jones also loom a potential stopgap options, in case the Titans view Skoronski as a guard. The team also may look for a veteran. Dennis Kelly, who started for the team in 2020, is unattached. Though, George Fant, a three-year Jets starter, probably represents the top available option. Marcus Cannon, Ja’Wuan James and Chris Hubbard are also available.
Tennessee’s O-line will now roll out four new starters to open the season. Brewer is expected to shift to center to replace Jones, but new pieces will comprise the rest of the group. The Titans signed left tackle Andre Dillard in free agency, with ex-49ers exec-turned-GM Ran Carthon adding former San Francisco guard Daniel Brunskill as well. Another new blocker will now be in line to follow Dillard, Brunskill and Skoronski as a Titans starter — health permitting — in Week 1.
Unless the NFL or NFLPA are monitoring players phones, or the players are ‘self reporting, then data specifically defining ‘whom’ is placing bets has to be coming from the “betting houses”.
I’d be thinking this violates confidentiality and if this is part of the agreement between the NFL / NFLPA and Government (that allowed such legislation) I’d be seeking a legal interpretation of this collusion
When you sign up for one of the gambling sites they verify your SSN and always track your location. That way they know what state you are in and if gambling is legal/what you are allowed to bet on. And they know who is placing the bets. There’s no collusion because in order to even sign onto the app you have to allow verifying your location. Anyone who bets loses all confidentiality the second you sign up for any sportsbook. Meaning you and I or million dollar athletes. The government is always monitoring the American people, the NFL/NFLPA doesn’t have to do it themselves.
Thanks for clarity- I don’t gamble, outside of with close friends, so I had no idea how the process is closely tied to irs
100% I know a lot of people are confused of how the NFL gained the info on these guys and most are unfamiliar with gambling. You’ll never be able to make a dollar in this country without the IRS somehow getting their share. If you hit big on a bet, or make over x amount on gambling in a year, best imagine they’ll want their share during tax season.
You can absolutely make money in this country without the IRS knowing about it. Gambling existed before the internet. There were a lot of people illegally betting on sports for years, and the NFL and US government were not getting a piece of the action. Online sports betting exists to counter the off-the-books underground sports betting, this way the US gov. and the NFL get to wet their beaks. Why do you think they legalized cannabis in so many States? Drug dealers make a lot of money off the books, when States legalize it they are saying hey do not buy your drugs illegally (tax free) buy your drugs from us so we can tax you.
I mean illegally you can do whatever you’d like. I’m not the type to show my hand though.
I do get where you’re coming from, but for the base of this conversation we were discussing how the NFL knows their players bet. I’d assume the NFL wouldn’t know anything on the illegal end of the spectrum, and truthfully they’d probably turn a blind eye due to not wanting to open up this can of worms they’ve found themselves in today.
Well, it’s definitely going to become a nasty can of worms for Goodell and it will be quite interesting to see if the “blind eye” approach is adopted if some game officials are exposed as having bet on NFL games.
If they find out refs have bet on games, I 100% believe they’d be hiding it. That could potentially be the end of the NFL. Enough fans already think refs rig games every Sunday, if anything actually came out that’d be a potential death sentence. All credibility gone.
A Watergate style coverup would actually prove to be more damaging to the NFL. I think Goodell would simply arrange to have them fired, then use his best snake oil voice to assure the public that this was an aberration and that the other 99% of refs were of the highest integrity…yada yada yada. Since many fans are as addicted to NFL football as junkies are to drugs, Goodell could conceivably succeed with this con job…at least until the next scandal broke.
“The boxmen are watching the dealers. The floormen are watching the boxmen. The pit bosses are watching the floormen. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. I’m watching the casino manager. And the eye in the sky is watching us all.”
-Ace Rothstein
“A lot of holes in the desert, and a lot of problems are buried in those holes. But you gotta do it right. I mean, you gotta have the hole already dug before you show up with a package in the trunk. Otherwise, you’re talking about a half-hour to forty-five minutes worth of digging. And who knows who’s gonna come along in that time? Pretty soon, you gotta dig a few more holes. You could be there all f___g night.
-Nicky Santoro
Hmmmm. Maybe if you didn’t push and promote gambling so much, this wouldn’t be as much of a problem. Rise of advertising and pushing of gambling by the NFL and other sites has a direct relationship to the rise in players suspended for gambling. If I’m wrong, please do tell me how.
The only difference is people get caught now.
Advertising does not impact a friend going “hey dude i got this sweet line and you should do it too”
Advertising does give you $500 in free bets for a $1 deposit though… Thinking advertising doesn’t play even a tiny hand in this would be extremely naïve.
It doesn’t play a hand in millionaires gambling. That would be their friend circle, which may be influenced by the advertising. At best it is an indirect correlation.
I’m not sure what world you live in… It doesn’t matter how much money you have, the word ‘FREE’ always entices a person. Hell the reason why the 1% are so rich is because they pinch their pennies, not because they pay $15 for a big mac like us idiots…
The NFL set their rules. Abide by them or quit
@Joshy / I don’t disagree with you on that point. Many people today are carrying far more debt than they should be and it’s basically for the same reasons as you mentioned. Finance and lending institutions constantly bombard us with offers that appear to be easy money when in fact it’s usually a deception to lock us into long term debt. I get at least 2 or 3 of these approaches in the mail every week.
I love it when people are confused and offended that the NFL is prioritizing the health of their multi-billion dollar cash cow over the individual right to gamble of it’s peon players…
Like, welcome to planet Earth.