Suspension receive by Calvin Ridley,Jaguars as lost everything today…
If anyone knows the pitfalls of gambling, it’s Calvin Ridley.
Back in 2020, the receiver had the world at his feet. Named a second team All-Pro despite playing the majority of the year with a broken foot, Ridley seemed ready to become one of the league’s most dangerous pass catchers. And yet, by the end of October that year, the former Falcon had stepped away from football to focus on his mental health.
That was when the problems really began.
In March 2022, Ridley was suspended indefinitely for gambling on NFL games that previous season. He forfeited his $11m salary, and was unceremoniously traded to Jacksonville before the year was out.
Ridley was reinstated back in March, almost a year to the day he was first suspended. He wrote an emotional open letter via the Players Tribune explaining the adversity he had been through. “I f***ed up. I’m not here to sugarcoat anything. In 2021, I made the worst mistake of my life by gambling on football… …I paid the price, believe me.”
Looking rejuvenated with the Jaguars in OTA’s so far, Ridley appears to have turned a corner in his career. But speaking to the Florida Times-Union earlier this week, he cut a frustrated figure when asked about the recent wave of gambling suspensions across the NFL:
“Yeah, it bugs me a little because my NFL buddies didn’t look at me and say, ‘Aw man, hell, that’s serious,’” Ridley told the TU’s Juston Lewis on Monday after the Jaguars held mandatory minicamp.
“I wish they would’ve looked at me and said, ‘Wow, they did him like that? I hope it doesn’t happen to me.’ Because that’s what I would’ve done. If I would’ve seen one of my NFL buddies get slammed like that, I would’ve been a little bit afraid and watching myself. But you know, it is what it is, they have to learn the hard way like I did.”
