When I first kicked around names for this blog, one of my favorites was Tuescher’s Take. This week, you’re getting exactly that.
Sports gambling is bad. If you are gambling on sports, stop it!
If that sounds blunt, good. It is meant to be.
We’ve seen the headlines recently. College quarterback Brendan Sorsby seeking help for a gambling addiction. NBA-related gambling scandals making their way through the courts. And every time one of these stories breaks, I think of that famous line from Casablanca:
“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.”
The truth? No one should be shocked because we didn’t just allow gambling into sports, we rolled out the red carpet for it.
The NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA… all of them have partnered, promoted, and profited from an industry that used to live in the shadows. What once required a whispered conversation on a street corner is now an app on your phone, a commercial during halftime, or a scrolling ticker during the game.
It’s everywhere, and that’s the problem.
Now, I know what some of you are thinking, “Wait a second, you go to Las Vegas.”
You’re right. I do. I enjoy a little blackjack, and I’ll sit down at a video poker machine now and then. That’s entertainment. That’s me versus the house.
But sports gambling? That’s different, because now you’re not betting on a game of chance. You are betting on people.
Sport, at its core, is about human excellence. It’s about preparation, discipline, sacrifice, and the pursuit of greatness. It’s a pitcher grinding through the late innings. A point guard managing the final possession. A kicker trying to make the game winning kick as the final seconds tick off the clock.
It’s competition at its purest.
And when we reduce that to point spreads, prop bets, and parlays, we cheapen it. We turn something meaningful into something transactional.
We stop watching the game for the game, along with all the beauty that the game provides, and we simply start watching it for the bet.
Even worse, we’re creating an environment where the integrity of competition is constantly under pressure. When money is attached to every play, every call, every outcome, the temptation—and the consequences—grow.
Let’s be clear about this, ESPN and the major networks aren’t helping. When pregame shows start sounding more like betting analysis than sports coverage, we’ve lost the plot.
Now, I will admit that there is a libertarian streak in me. I don’t love being told what I can and can’t do by the government.
But just because something is legal, that does not make it right, and we don’t have to make something illegal to do the right thing.
We’ve normalized something that shouldn’t be normal.
We’ve commercialized something that should be respected and re.
In the process of making sports gambling ubiquitous, we are losing a lot of what makes sports special in the first place.
We can do better.
We should expect better.
Because sports deserve better.
That’s my take.
—Coach T
Perspective from Petenwell
Until next Friday…
