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Giants backup quarterback Tim Hasselbeck remembers all too well the dark cloud that descended over the Boston College football program a decade ago. And it had nothing to do with the fickle New England weather."I was in the locker room with guys betting against our team. It's not pretty," says Hasselbeck, who with his older brother Matt, was a member of the 1996 Eagles squad enveloped in the biggest gambling scandal in college football history. "It's an ugly, ugly situation." Thirteen Boston College players were suspended for gambling infractions including two players - Jamall Anderson and Marcus Bembry - who bet against BC in a lopsided loss to Syracuse that season. The Eagles finished 5-7, while the school suffered a year-long backlash of negative attention - everything from revelations of BC student bookies to ties with organized crime. "An ugly situation," Hasselbeck repeats.
But Hasselbeck has a different take on the fantasy football craze in America, where an estimated 15 to 20 million sports fans - including Colts linebacker Cato June and Redskins tight end Chris Cooley - get to act as faux general managers, create their own teams, draft and trade real players and try to accumulate the most points each week based upon different statistical categories. Participants scrutinize NFL game stats with the intensity of a pro football general manager.
When asked if players participating in fantasy leagues could lead to another gambling scandal like the one he experienced as a BC undergraduate, Hasselbeck smiles.
"I know a lot of (football players) do play. And a lot of these fantasy football leagues are based on points and not necessarily money," Hasselbeck says. "But I'm sure there are plenty of them that revolve around money, which is essentially gambling. Anybody that I know who plays is playing for fun. But there's some criticism of the dangerous, slippery slope that it could possibly lead down."
The NFL may already be heading down that precarious path. June and Cooley went on the record about their fantasy football passion, with June boasting about his fantasy "Juneimus D" team featuring starting QB Tom Brady. "Playing New England, I can't be happy with him throwing a TD pass, but in the back of my mind, I'm like, 'Yeah, I just got six points in my fantasy league,'" June told ESPN a couple of weeks ago.
If it sounds like the NFL and its new commissioner Roger Goodell should be alarmed at comparisons that may be drawn between fantasy football and illegal gambling, think again.
Not only is the league not preaching concern about its players' fantasy league participation, the NFL itself promotes fantasy leagues through its own Web site - an estimated 1.3 million fans play via NFL.com - complete with grand prizes and runner-up gifts for the winners.
"It is not gambling and it is ludicrous to suggest an NFL player would give his fantasy team a higher priority than his NFL job," says NFL spokesman Greg Aiello.
Goodell, who has been on the job just over three months, echoed Aiello's remarks in a recent interview with the Daily News.
"We've been talking about that a little bit," Goodell said when asked about NFL players, fantasy leagues and possible fears of gambling. "They're not wagering on them. They're paying a fee to participate. At this point, no, it doesn't concern me, but I think it's something we'll keep an eye on - that if any way it even leads to a perception that it should concern us, we will address it."
Las Vegas gambling experts, however, see fantasy leagues in the same vein as your everyday casino patron placing a bet at the blackjack table. It's gambling, pure and simple.
"I do have a problem when the league sees gambling as this terrible thing and then they say fantasy football is this wonderful thing," says Wayne Allyn Root, the chairman and CEO of Winning Edge International, a publicly traded sports handicapping Web site. "It's the same thing. You're betting money, you're gambling, wagering, investing on the performance of players and teams, not whether they win or lose.
"If I bet on the Redskins plus-3 or plus-8, then I'm not betting on them to win. I'm betting on them to cover the point spread and the league frowns upon that. But if I'm betting on a certain Redskins player to gain 100 yards today and that's my wish in the fantasy football league, it's the same thing. I don't care if the Redskins win. I'm cheering for that one player to get yards and whether the team wins or loses means nothing to me. There's no question in my mind it's a hypocritical stance on the part of the NFL."
Adds Ed Looney of New Jersey's Council on Compulsive Gambling: "Fantasy football is like an interlude, like a stepping stone to sports betting."
Jimmy Vaccaro, a Vegas veteran who has run sports rooms for several hot spots over the last few decades and now does public relations for American Wagering, a company that owns and operates over 50 race and sports wagering locations throughout Nevada, says flatly that there is no difference in playing fantasy football and laying down a bet.
"Fantasy football is gambling," Vaccaro says. "The IRS expects you to report the money you win, end of (f------) story. I'd like to see how many IRS 1029 forms are filled out when fantasy football winners pick up their cash winnings. ... Pete Rozelle is probably turning over in his grave."
Giants running back Tiki Barber doesn't see it that way.
"I don't see anything wrong with it because most people do it for fun," Barber says. "I'm sure some people would construe it as a form of gambling, but again, since most of the fantasy leagues are friends playing together I don't see why it's a big issue.
"Unless they're putting money on it. But I don't think that's happening."
The NFL is not alone in condoning fantasy football. Both Major League Baseball and the NBA say they have no issue with their athletes morphing into mock GMs and playing with fantasy sports teams.
"We have no problem with players participating," MLB spokesman Rich Levin says. "We're not concerned."
A Division I football coach who bet with friends in an NCAA basketball pool three years ago wasn't as lucky. Rick Neuheisel, then the University of Washington football coach, was fired for participating in the pool (the NCAA prohibits betting on illegal activity). Neuheisel later won a $4.5 million settlement in his lawsuit against the NCAA and the university, when it was revealed that a university compliance officer had E-mailed Neuheisel and permitted the coach to participate in the pool.
"I understand the reasoning behind (Neuheisel's dismissal)," says Tim Hasselbeck. "But, I mean, if you could really tell me that Rick Neuheisel being in an office pool with the NCAA basketball tournament - how that affects him coaching the Huskies... Really, let's be honest. Was anything wrong really going on there?"
At least the NFL and gambling experts seem to agree on one aspect of fantasy leagues: With teams providing up-to-date injury reports throughout the week, every week, there is little chance that fantasy league enthusiasts would be able to glean insider information ahead of someone else.
"Injuries don't mean a thing," says Vaccaro. "You're better off making one straight bet on that team for the weekend. There are 10 other players on that fantasy team that can score or not score."
That doesn't stop fantasy fans from trying to get a step ahead of their competitors when the opportunity presents itself. Hasselbeck says he thought there was something unusual about the number of Seahawks fans suddenly popping up in New York City earlier this fall. Following Seattle's Oct. 22 loss to Minnesota, Hasselbeck was deluged with inquiries about his brother Matt, who had sprained his right MCL and had to leave the game.
"A lot of people asked me, 'How's your brother doing?' And I'm thinking, 'Gee, that's nice of them,'" Hasselback says. "Then as the conversation goes along, I realize, 'You know what? They're not asking me because they actually care.' They want to know because they're trying to figure out, 'Is (Matt) playing next week or do I have to draft someone else?'