After missing a month, Lamar Jackson returned in Week 9 and instantly regained his MVP form. But just as the buzz around the Baltimore Ravens started to build again, another storyline stole the spotlight. If you missed what went down, let’s rewind to Week 8.

Just a week before, Baltimore had marked Jackson as a full participant in practice and labeled him questionable for their matchup with Chicago. But the following day, the team ruled out the two-time MVP and clarified that he had, in fact, been limited during that earlier practice session. That quick turnaround raised a few eyebrows across the league.

Baltimore cooperated with the NFL’s review and later explained the confusion, noting that while Jackson had gone through the full practice, he hadn’t taken the starter reps, which, under league rules, technically classified him as “limited.” The league, too, decided the mix-up wasn’t an attempt to hide anything. Still, negligence or not, it came at a cost: a $100,000 fine.

However, NFL senior writer Armando Salguero pointed out something bigger. “Another chapter of the circumstances tale is that the over-under line on the game moved significantly from Friday when the Ravens first made their report to Saturday when they corrected it and ruled Jackson officially out for that Bears matchup. The change in the betting line of up to 5 points might have cost bettors significant sums.”

As per Salguero, as OutKick’s X post suggested, “the Ravens got off light in context of past penalties and timing of last week’s NBA gambling arrests“.  

Read Top Stories First From EssentiallySports

Click here and check box next to EssentiallySports

Well, yes, Baltimore’s clarification came right as federal authorities, including the FBI, revealed the arrests of NBA coach Chauncey Billups and player Terry Rozier on gambling-related charges, putting Baltimore’s blunder squarely under a brighter spotlight. After all, as authorities revealed, “multiple NBA players and coaches, who allegedly took advantage of their own positions of power to rig gambling systems for their own benefit” and “[Rozier] let others close to him know that he planned to leave the game early with a supposed injury. Using that information, members of the group placed more than $200,000 in wagers on his under statistics”.

So, Salguero was perhaps right in arguing that “Baltimore just walked away with a traffic infraction for a misdeed that could have been a treated as a felony by the NFL.”

But the league wasn’t buying into any conspiracy theories. According to a league source, this was just “an honest mistake.” And as Salguero explained, the NFL wants nothing to do with being tied to gambling misdeeds. Sure, there were whispers about harsher punishments, maybe losing draft picks or individual fines. None of that happened. The league closed the case and moved on. Even so, not everyone’s ready to forget.

As Salguero added, “We say many fans because the gamblers that may have lost money as a result of Baltimore’s now fined offense might still feel the sting of their losses.”

However, the Ravens have accepted the consequences for their Lamar Jackson mistake.

Ravens move forward after costly slip-up

Soon after the league dropped the verdict, the Ravens released a statement that felt direct and accountable.

“It is critical that the Baltimore Ravens always operate with integrity and in full accordance with NFL guidelines. We clearly made an error regarding player injury reporting and cooperated transparently with the league’s investigation, we accept the decision by the NFL that we violated the policy and have taken steps to ensure that we will be compliant moving forward. We will not appeal the ruling and are focused on our upcoming game versus the Vikings.”

However, they didn’t go into details about what those “steps” actually are. That left fans wondering who was responsible for this mistake. When asked, Head Coach John Harbaugh didn’t dodge the question. He pointed toward the behind-the-scenes crew: the public relations and training staff.

“Yeah, that’s in the training room and the PR and the other side. It’s not in the football side,” Harbaugh explained.

However, he also made it clear there was no shady intent. “But it’s an honest mistake. It really is an honest mistake. I can tell you this, nobody’s trying to hide anything… There’s no advantage to be gained.”

So, as the chatter continues around the league, the team’s focus has shifted to football again. With Lamar Jackson back under center, the Ravens know it’s time to fix the record and quiet the noise.