The morality of sports betting

[Sports Commentary]
Gambling in sports, for a long time, has been viewed as somewhat of a taboo among many circles of athletics.
Ever since the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this year that made gambling in sports legal however, many have begun to have second thoughts on the morality involved in the entire issue of gambling in sports.
The issue with morality and sitting on that metaphorical high horse that many professional sports leagues have in regards to gambling, is that once the tides of public opinion turn, who you are and how you truly feel about those conflictingly moral issues are shown in totality.
For decades, the media has glossed over and romanticized the immorality that sports leagues all over the world partake in under the guise innocence and fandom stereotypes, to the point where what objectively obvious in the past is now simply a reactant of public opinion.
With gambling now legal in sports nowadays, it is only natural that those same leagues who suspended Pete Rose and are keeping him out of the Hall of Fame have found ways to get a piece of that pie for themselves.
With sites such as Fanduel, leagues have introduced ways to insert themselves into the cash flow, and just like that, what was once a sports taboo is just another part of NFL game days afternoon programming.
I am not against sports gambling, and I think that if a private company wants new revenues of money, then more power to them in securing their bag.
This being said, the hypocrisy that comes as a byproduct of how they do business makes them seem more and more insincere by the day in regards to any judgement they hand down to their players.
The biggest thing in professional sports is respecting the name of the league that you play in, and having respect for such a thing is a reasonable request for most people.
The problem with that mindset however, is that it seems only the players must be held responsible for the image of their respective leagues, and that has to stop if any of the major sports leagues want any semblance of respect from their employees.
At some point, these leagues will have to represent something outside of their bottom line, and at some point, they will have to stand for something, regardless of how it may look to the media.
If the biggest issue for sports teams is for the players to protect their image and respect the foundations of the game, then the least they can do is stand strong by the foundations that they so righteously stood upon in the beginning.