NFL could fine players for arm wrestling at Las Vegas casino

LAS VEGAS – Current NFL players who participated in the Pro Football Arm Wrestling Championship at a Las Vegas casino could be fined by the league.

More than 30 professional football players were scheduled to compete at the weekend event held at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, according to a news release.

“We are looking into it, and we became aware of it as it was under way,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “A long-standing policy prohibits any NFL personnel from promotional appearances at a casino.”

Any player who is in the league now would be in violation of that policy, which is laid out in a manual distributed to players and other employees before each season.

The policy prohibits “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.”

“We still haven’t confirmed which current players were on hand and that’s the concern,” McCarthy said.

The event comes just a couple of weeks after NFL owners gave the go-ahead, with a 31-1 vote, for the Raiders to move to Las Vegas from Oakland, giving the sport its first franchise in Sin City.