Gambling and the Super Bowl have always gone hand in hand. To University of Iowa sports media scholar Tom Oates, what makes the developments of the past few years so remarkable is the NFL’s stunning reversal on its own attitudes toward betting. Gone are the quaint days of league officials lobbying Congress to put restrictions and guardrails in place.

It’s the shut up and just play ball vitriol of bigots and racists that has kept the 31-year-old Kaepernick off of every one of the league’s 32-team rosters for two seasons and counting. Last Thursday, Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax, who is African-American, voiced his position on the issue, saying, “I have grave concerns about the way that [Kaepernick] has been treated.”