WR Calvin Ridley’s gambling issues are apparently much deeper than originally thought. The NFL suspended Ridley indefinitely & for at least one full season as they discovered that he had placed bets on pro football games while taking a mental health break from the team in November. Ridley tweeted out at the time that he had “only” bet $1,500 on games, while also indicating that he did not believe he had a gambling problem. A new report from Sports Illustrated indicates otherwise, as the report alleges that Ridley bet more than $3,900 on NFL games and more than $32,000 on other sporting lines! None of this is a good look for the receiver, who missed most of last year while on a mental health break from the Atlanta Falcons. I’m going to dive into all of the reasons why I believe it’s time for the team & player to move on.
Misuse of trust
The Falcons trusted Calvin Ridley to use his mental health break from the team properly. They probably weren’t expecting it to last the entire rest of the season, and they surely wanted him to come back fresh and ready to go in 2022. He misused their trust by betting on NFL games during his time off, which fair or not is a clear violation of league rules that carries consequences. It’s not like he wasn’t aware of the rule, as all league personnel are required to take yearly training programs designed to inform them of the rule and the consequences thereof. Additionally, Ridley resurfaced on social media in late January after months removed from it. What did he do? He liked a tweet from a fan saying, “I hope the Miami Dolphins get Calvin Ridley!” I can’t imagine the team was very thrilled to hear the news after months without any.
Same dilemma next offseason
Here are a few of this off-season’s storylines involving Calvin Ridley. Will the Falcons trade Calvin Ridley? Will Calvin Ridley return in good shape & play well in the last year of his deal? These are the exact same questions the Falcons would have to answer next offseason should they decide to give Ridley another chance by keeping him on the roster through 2022. My question then becomes, why wait? Is it really worth the headache to keep the guy around? Sure, he’s a talented player but as we saw with Antonio Brown, this type of behavior becomes a distraction to the team at some point regardless of how talented the guy is on the gridiron. He’s going to miss at least a year of football regardless, and I’m not sure he’s worth us waiting for.
Need to rebuild the receiver room regardless
With or without Calvin Ridley, the Falcons are going to need to rebuild their receiver room from scratch as the team only has one other receiver (Frank Darby) under contract in 2022. CBS reported that the Eagles were close to finalizing a trade for the star Falcons receiver before the gambling suspension was revealed, which from the Falcons perspective indicates that the team was planning on moving forward without the enigmatic receiver on their roster in 2022. Receiver was already a position of need for the team in both free agency and the draft, and with the Ridley news it’s clear that this should be atop the Falcons offseason priorities. Re-signing Russell Gage & Cordarrelle Patterson and drafting multiple receivers would help fill the room.
The bottom line
It’s clear that both the team and player need a clean break from this toxic relationship. The Falcons would be doing Ridley a solid by allowing him an opportunity to pick his next team. He might carve himself out a nice role elsewhere, but he also might wash out of the league too. Remember, this regime didn’t draft Ridley and yet allowed him to take his mental health break. They could do well for all involved by granting one more act of kindness in releasing the player.
The Sports Beacon 