NFL Replacement Referee Shannon Eastin Has Gambling Past

With the current NFL referee strike, the league will be digging in to a pool of potential replacement officials to fill the void and continue the action throughout the season. One of those replacement officials, Shannon Eastin, was brought into the headlines because she will become the first female official in the National Football League.

However, Eastin is now going to be in the headlines for a much less flattering topic. She has a history as a high-stakes poker player. The NFL prohibits any gambling from officials so this could create a major problem.

Eastin has played in the World Series of Poker. ProFootballTalk.com reports that locked-out officials plan to point out Eastin’s poker past to the league office.

Of course, if the NFL was previously aware of the poker past this will likely be a non-issue. But if this is news to the NFL and Eastin kept it a secret, we could be headed into murky waters.

Something as small as poker may not seem like a big deal but the NFL clearly prohibits gambling from officials. Allowing an official with a gambling past to ref a game in the NFL — even if it is as a replacement ref — could really set a bad example, especially when you consider the league is currently suing New Jersey to prevent gambling on NFL games.

Here is the league’s stance on gambling officials as can be seen in the Collective Bargaining Agreement:

“Gambling is an unacceptable activity for Game Officials in the National Football League. Such activity constitutes conduct detrimental to the integrity of, and public trust in, the NFL.  Because it is the responsibility of the Game Officials to ensure the fairness of NFL play, including the complete confidence of the fans in the legitimacy of the game, it is critical that NFL Game Officials maintain the appearance of the highest ethical conduct.”

If this holds true for replacement officials, Eastin should be disqualified from officiating a NFL game. If not, it could lead to an issue that would mess with the integrity of the game and no one wants a NBA-like scandal with officials.

It would be nice to see Eastin become the first woman to ref a NFL game but it would be too dangerous to allow her to do so with her gambling past. This has nothing to do with gender. It has everything to do with the rules set forth by the NFL. The league needs to be careful with this one. It is a can of worms they do not want to open and it is an issue that the NFL should just avoid all together.