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(PHOTO: Mark J. Rebilas - USA TODAY Sports) Considering how inconsistent the league is with it’s rules and punishments, apparently Tony Romo is feeling a little frustrated and has drawn Rob Gronkowski into his legal woes against the NFL.
Romo, who is in the middle of a lawsuit against the NFL after having his Fantasy Football Event get cancelled last year, saw his private event get shut down because it was set to be held at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, which also contains a casino. Romo’s attorney argued that the league ‘took a blind eye’ to Gronkowski’s ‘party gambling cruise’, which lead to the admission by the NFL’s attorney that the league is indeed investigating the Patriots tight end’s event to see if it was in violation of their own policies.
Here’s the league’s policy on gambling:
https://twitter.com/WerlySportsLaw/status/704358466916212736
This part here more or less states that what Gronkowski shouldn’t be considered outside their rules: “Attending legally-operated casinos and horse or dog racing tracks and wagering on casino games or races on personal time is not prohibited by this policy.”
Cruises allow gambling but not until the ship is out in international waters and they won’t even open their casino until that point, which is when it becomes legal to do so.
The argument about that policy not being an issue should be backed up by the fact that even Romo’s attorney said that the NFL officials admitted their gambling policy was not reason for reversing its support of Romo’s event. So if they had no issue with his event being held at a casino, then by that same logic, Gronkowski’s cruise shouldn’t have been a problem either.
To take it one step further, Gronkowski’s event also didn’t have anything to do with NFL Properties or other player’s names, which seemingly would be the bigger problem the league might have with an event like Romo’s, and the quarterback’s legal team admitted that was probably more of an issue because the NFL wasn’t going to “get a cut” of the proceeds.
Ben Volin reported that a league spokesperson denied the report of the tight end being investigated, and hopefully this story won’t amount to anything. Hopefully it doesn’t become any bigger than it needs to be, but given what we know, it’s tough to rule anything out anymore when it comes to the NFL.
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