SoccerIs gambling among teammates common in professional sports?

Beginning of Story Content

It might be a different sport than the one I played - I’ll admit that I’ve never seen guns in a soccer locker-room before - but the root of the problem is still the same; teammates shouldn’t gamble with each other.

I have seen teammates go toe to toe with each other in training and come away with broken cheekbones, black eyes, split lips and missing teeth. Most of the time those fisticuffs were because the players were full of testosterone, ultra competitive and not happy about losing a game in training.

Ask any athlete, current or former, and you will find that fights in training are far more common than people would think.

An 'individual', not team act

But there is a big difference between fighting because you want to win, and fighting because a teammate owes you money. Teammates who gamble with each other are only asking for trouble.

The entire purpose of a team is to be one unit working together to achieve a common goal. Regardless of the sport, the underlying principle is the same.

When you gamble with your teammates, you act as an individual, not as a team. You try to maximize your gain at the expense of your teammates. It is a selfish, dishonest, scheming pastime that is the exact opposite of what a team should be.

A team is supposed to be your family, your blood. When you walk onto that field/court/rink as a team, you should be willing to die for that team. Anything less than that and your team will struggle to fulfil its potential.

If you look at any successful team in any sport, the coaches and players always mention the togetherness of the group. They talk about how close they became over the course of the season, and how they covered for each other’s mistakes whenever it was needed.

In short, they had a mutual respect for each other and the jobs that they were asked to do.

Still a widespread practice

Gambling and taking money from each other removes that respect and breeds contempt and disharmony. You will struggle to find a successful team in any sport that is full of gamblers who routinely take large sums of money from each other. The two just don’t go hand in hand.

Yet the practice of gambling is still widespread in sports.

I have played on teams where gambling became such a problem that the manager had to ban card games on the team bus. Players were gambling on cards and sometimes losing thousands of dollars to each other.

Imagine how difficult it would be to concentrate on doing your job on the field when you’ve just lost that much money gambling on cards?

For some players, gambling is seen as a way to bond with your teammates. Some have the mentality that it is all in good fun, and you win some and lose some.

They have a point, to a certain extent. It can be a good laugh if the stakes are small and it done in a friendly manner.

But in the world of professional sports, things are rarely done for fun and eventually everything becomes a competition. Athletes want to win at everything they do, whether it is a game of cards or a World Cup final.

If you throw large sums of money into the mix, you have the makings of a disaster.

Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton let that competitiveness get the better of them, and for that they will pay a heavy price. But whatever their punishment is deemed to be, they should consider themselves fortunate - at least they are alive to face the music.

End of Story Content

Back to accessibility links