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Lions OL Asks Why Politicians Can Buy Stocks If Players Can't Bet on Games

He compared government officials buying and dumping stocks to players betting on games.

Dan Lyons

Lions OL Asks Why Politicians Can Buy Stocks If Players Can't Bet on Games
Lions OL Asks Why Politicians Can Buy Stocks If Players Can't Bet on Games /
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Lions offensive lineman Tyrell Crosby majored in public policy and management while at Oregon. On Tuesday, he asked a very pertinent question relating to those interests on Twitter, and it has drawn a major reaction.

“If as an NFL player we aren't allowed to be on games (which I fully agree with), why are government officials allowed to buy stocks/stock options?” Crosby asked. 

His first tweet has over 50,000 total retweets and 300,000 likes on Twitter.

Crosby followed his initial tweet, bringing up  numerous instances of congress members violating the law in recent years.

According to Insider, 54 members of Congress “failed to properly report their financial trades” as directed by the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012. The penalty for failing to quickly disclose a trade is a relative pittance for most members of congress, usually totaling $200. 

In the first few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the U.S. Senate sold millions of dollars worth of stocks after a briefing on the virus. There has been a renewed push to ban all trades by members of congress from both sides of the aisle in recent weeks.

Betting on games has long been banned for athletes, and as Crosby says, for good reason. And he likely isn't alone in believing that other high-profile professions should be held to similar ethical standards.

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Dan Lyons
DAN LYONS

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