I grew up with gambling on sports. From my grandfather's house in Providence on Saturday afternoons when one football game was on television and another was on the radio, to a barber shop in Barrington where the talk always was of point spreads and gambling lines.
Gambling was always there, like some shadow world, complete with its own language.
What's the line?
What's the number?
That was always a part of college and professional sports.
Illegal?
Yeah, right. Wink, wink.
It was all an alternate universe then, back before the betting line became just another part of the game, the point spreads in virtually every sports section in the country, part of the pre-game talk.
Now?
Now sports gambling has gone corporate.
Welcome DraftKings and FanDuel.
The two big-time game changers.
Even if they say it's not really about gambling.
But this seems to be their coming out party. A front-page story in the Boston Globe recently pointed out that the Boston-based DraftKings ran more national television ads in the past month - over 25,000 - than any other brand - and FanDuel, based in New York, was fifth, with over 10,000. You almost can't turn on an NFL game without seeing an ad for one of them. Then there's the fact that Robert Kraft is an investor in DraftKings, and that there now is a DrafKingsFantasy Sports Zone, on the main concourse of Gillette Stadium.
So what in the name of Vince Lombardi is going on here?
Is the NFL and sports gambling now in the same locker room?
Interesting question.
The NFL would undoubtedly tell you that this really has nothing to do with gambling. Heaven forbid. No matter that much of the NFL's great appeal is gambling. Or that people have been gambling on the NFL since it first began. Remember those weekly football cards? The NFL really wants you to believe that everyone is life and death about those Sunday night matchups, never mind the very idea of actually betting on them.
And there seems to be little doubt that "fantasy leagues'' are the game's next frontier.
Or what is more enticing than the TV ad of the young guy in the bar, hat on backwards, the anxiety all over his face, as he waits to see if he's going to be the next big winner? Talk about pre-game jitters. And when he wins the million dollars - or is it $2 million- it's as if he's Tom Brady and he's just won the Super Bowl.
Or you, too, can get rich with football, and you don't even have to work out to do it.

This is a reprint from providencejournal.com. to view the original, click here.