Steelers James Harrison and Maurkice Pouncey face potential fines, a source told the Post-Gazette on Monday, as a result of their participation in a charity event at a Las Vegas Casino over the weekend.
Harrison and Marshawn Lynch co-hosted the Pro Football Arm Wrestling Championship over the weekend along with as many as 30 other current and former NFL players at the MGM Grand Casino. The league, which prohibits players from appearing for such promotions at casinos, is not happy about it.
"Had we been asked in advance if this was acceptable, we would have indicated that it was in direct violation of the gambling policy," NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart told USA Today.
Although NFL owners two weeks ago overwhelmingly approved the move of the Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas, the league still has a policy banning players from the kinds of activities at casinos that Harrison and others participated in over the weekend.
Besides games of chance, casinos in Las Vegas also have legal bookies that accept bets on sporting events.
"We just became aware of the event and will look into it further," said Brian McCarthy the NFL's vice president of communications. "This is a longstanding policy."
That policy, distributed to each player in a manual he receives from the league, prohibits all NFL personnel "from engaging in any advertising or promotional activities that reasonably can be perceived as constituting affiliation with or endorsement of gambling or gambling-related activities including, without limitation, the following:
_Making promotional appearances at casinos or other gambling-related establishments.
_Making promotional appearances at events that are sponsored by or otherwise marketed or advertised in connection with casinos or other gambling-related establishments.
Linebacker Lawrence Timmons left in free agency, moving Vince Williams into the starting lineup in 2017.
_Using or allowing others to use one's name and/or image to promote, advertise, or publicize casinos, other gambling-related establishments, or events sponsored by or otherwise marketed or advertised in connection with casinos or other gambling-related establishments."
Harrison promoted the arm wrestling tournament on his Twitter and Instagram accounts over the past several days.
He showed a photo of him and pro arm wrestler Travis Bagent about to compete on Sunday with the words, "Lockin up with the Champ." He also posed for various photos he posted on social media. Marshawn Lynch, aka Beast Mode, also participated. Lynch, who retired from the Seattle Seahawks after the 2015 season, reportedly wants to return to play for the Raiders this year.
"Out here with @beastmode coachin up these boys for the Team Challenge," Harrison wrote Saturday on Instagram from the event.
The tournament was taped by CBS and will be broadcast by the network May 27, according to Harrison.
Harrison is no stranger to NFL investigations. During training camp last August, the NFL cleared him and others accused of using performance-enhancing drugs in a discredited Al-Jazeera documentary. The league announced it found no credible evidence to back up the accusations made in the report.
The linebacker also was fined over $150,000 for various hits the league deemed illegal through the years, and suspended him one game in 2011 for a hit to the helmet of Cleveland Browns quarterback Colt McCoy.
Harrison and his representatives did not respond to requests for comment but a close friend of the linebacker said he never gave it a thought that he was violating any NFL policy.
"This is one of those things you don't even think about," he said.
The NFL has not always been consistent with its policy regarding casinos. Owners voted 31-1 to allow one of its teams to make its home in Las Vegas, raising the issue of whether it was hypocritical of trying to keep players away from promotions in a city that is dominated by the gambling industry.
In 2015 the league warned Tony Romo, who retired last week as Dallas Cowboys quarterback, and other players not to participate in the National Fantasy Football Convention at a Las Vegas casino and that event was canceled as was another in 2016.
The league has been sued by various entities over the cancellation or relocation of such events under threats that the players would be either unable to attend or would be disciplined if they had.
One such suit was filed last year by the nonprofit Strikes for Kids after the charity said the NFL pressured it into moving its 2015 event out of a Las Vegas casino bowling alley. A reported 25 NFL players were to participate.
"There's no consistency with what the NFL does in regards to these policies," said Strikes for Kids attorney Julie Pettit the Legal Sports Report, who called the league a bully. "The NFL has a tendency to selectively enforce their own policies when it's convenient for them or when it makes sense for them."
Fan Expo LLC also sued the NFL in October for more than $1 million in damages over the canceled NFF convention in Las Vegas last summer, according to ESPN.
Other events involving NFL players at casinos reportedly have not come under scrutiny by the league, including a 2014 Strikes for Kids event held at a casino, according to the Legal Sports Report.
