Gambling Controversy

Gambling has always been a huge part of the NFL throughout it's history. The current season going on right now is projected to have people bet $95 billion throughout the season. Out of that money, $93 billion of it is projected to be illegally gambled. Since gambling is banned in nearly every state in the United States, people have to go through with their gambling illegally, and people have clearly been getting their bets in. An example of a gambling controversy in the NFL's history would be with an ex player named Jerry Sturm. Jerry Sturm was a Houston Oilers center who was part of one of the two potential game fixing schemes known about in NFL history. Sturm says that back in 1971, he was approached by a former teammate, who was no longer in the league at the point, and was asked to throw the game on December 5th against the Steelers for $10,000. This amount of money may not seem like much today, but back then, Sturm was only making $30,000 a year. The former teammate that offered this money was running back Donnie Stone. Sturm said Stone asked him to snap the ball badly on extra points and field goals, and make an occasional bad snap to the quarterback to blow the game. Sturm ended up turning away the offer and turned Stone into the FBI. Nothing happened to Stone however, as he denied the allegations and got away with it. This was one of the few known times where a gambler has tried to interfere with a game in the NFL's history.