Peter King: Here's What I'd Change If Made NFL Commissioner for a Day

(EDITOR’S NOTE: If you want to listen to the Peter King interview, click on the following link: Megaphone)

I can’t imagine starting a week without first reading Peter King. So I won’t.

In recognition of his weekly “Football Morning in America” (nee “Monday Morning Quarterback”) columns that ended last month when King retired after 44 years of sports writing, we’re offering a “Talk of Fame Two” first: Back-to-back Peter King interviews ...and, yes, I know: It’s not the same. Instead of reading him, you’re listening to him.

But if you can’t … or won’t … we offer King in print today … on Monday … where he belongs.

The former Sports Illustrated and NBC writer was a guest on the latest “Eye Test for Two” podcast where he covered a broad spectrum of topics – including his best and worst interviews, favorite memories, retirement, advice for young journalists and even – remember, it’s Peter King -- the Oscars. But he was also asked about his next move.

“Honestly, I just want to do nothing for a couple months,” he admitted, “and really figure out what I want to do after that.”

Fair enough. Except we wouldn’t let him. So we made the next move for him, telling him we’d make him NFL commissioner for day. Then, we wanted to know, what he would change first.

Welcome to “Football Morning on the Talk of Fame.”

“I’ve always thought that the biggest thing … and it’s going to sound small because it’s not big … but I would change the pass interference penalty,” he said. “Because I think it’s terribly insane. It’s just crazy that two guys can joust going down the field … and they can have arms on each other … they can be all ‘grabby…’ they can push each other … and quarterback 'X' can throw a ball 50 yards down the field. And even though both players are guilty of clawing at each other and hitting each other and grabbing each other, if you call it on the offense, it’s one thing. But if you call it on the defense it could be a 55-yard penalty. It’s insane. It’s just insane. That’s the worst thing.”

King is not alone there. Mike Pereira, the NFL’s former vice president of officiating and now a FOX rules analyst, has been pushing for that change for years. He believes the NFL should move to the NCAA rule where, unlike the pros, defensive pass interference is not an automatic first down at the spot of the foul. Instead, it’s less draconian. If the infraction is committed within 15 yards of the line of scrimmage, the penalty is an automatic first down at the spot of the call; if it’s beyond 15 yards, it’s a 15-yard penalty and automatic first down.

“When people say to me, ‘If, before you left (the NFL), and you could be commissioner for a day and change one rule,’ “ Pereira said on a ‘Talk of Fame Network” broadcast in 2015, “that would be the one I would change.”

Except he didn’t. So now it’s King’s turn. And, nine years later, nothing’s changed.

But King didn’t stop there. He mentioned one more subject he'd tackle, and it’s one fast becoming an issue in pro sports.

Gambling.

“I think the other thing I would do right now,” he said, “and I think it’s really, really important is that I would go to the Players Association … I would go to the owners … and I would just say, ‘We’ve gone overboard as it pertains to legalized sports betting, and we need not necessarily to eliminate it; but we need to put the genie partially back in the bottle. Because we’re going to wake up in 10 years, and we’re going to have more people in rehabilitation for Gambler Anonymous, let’s say, many more than are there for Alcoholics Anonymous.’

“You can see it right now. High-school kids. College kids. It’s taken the country by storm. Look, I don’t mean to be somebody’s grandmother saying, ‘This is awful, this is terrible. I don’t happen to gamble so I think this is bad.’ I don’t think necessarily the gambling is awful for people. I think the way the NFL shoves it down everyone’s throat is going to come back to haunt the National Football League.”

It already has. Sports gambling is a multi-billion-dollar industry once shunned by the NFL. But now the league embraces sports betting companies, has a football team in Las Vegas and just completed its first Super Bowl in Sin City. Moreover, it encourages fans to place bets on games while prohibiting employees – particularly players – from doing so, a move that hasn’t exactly worked,

In 2022, for instance, wide receiver Calvin Ridley was suspended indefinitely for betting (he was reinstated after one season), while 10 players were penalized one year later, including seven suspended a season for betting on games. According to the New York Times, two NFL employees were also fired within the past two years for violating league policy.

“What really bothers me,: said King, “is not how when gambling became legal and now it’s legal in 38 states … but the fact that every person in the United States is banged over the head minute after minute, hour by hour, all Sunday … every Sunday … in the NFL: ‘ Bet here. Bet there. If you place a bet (and) lose, don’t worry. We’re going to give you 200 bucks so you can keep betting.’

“I think it’s a sin. It is an absolute sin. And the NFL is going to look back at this era, and they’re going to regret these moments.”