Oklahoma QB Refutes Sports Betting Allegations, Calling Rumors “False”
Image: Oklahoma Athletics
By Aidan Sidoti
One of the dumbest ways a student-athlete could allegedly get caught for sports betting may have just happened.
Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer found himself at the center of college football controversy Monday night after screenshots surfaced online showing Mateer’s Venmo transactions during his freshman season at Washington State in 2022. Showing he paid then-teammate Richard “Landon” Roaten on Nov. 20 for “Sports gambling,” followed by another Venmo transaction to Roaten labeled “Sports gambling (UCLA vs. USC)”.
The tweet has already accumulated over six million views in less than 24 hours:
How stupid can you be, John Mateer?
That’s a legitimate question. Regardless of being an 18-19 year-old freshman at the time, you were not only dumb enough to publicly label a Venmo transaction to your teammate that specifically says “Sports gambling”, but then you double down and send ANOTHER transaction that included “UCLA vs USC” just a day after the game.
At the end of the day, it probably was a joke, right?
Take a look at these other John Mateer public Venmo transactions before privating his account:
Just a bunch of guys being dudes, indeed.
The University of Oklahoma, however, may not view Mateer as simply a “guy being a dude,” given that he is now under investigation by the school for those public Venmo transactions.
“The allegations that I once participated in sports gambling are false,” Mateer wrote in a statement on social media after practice Tuesday. “Venmo descriptions did not accurately portray the transactions in question but were instead inside jokes between me and my friends.” He went on to say “I can assure my teammates, coaches, and officials at the NCAA that I have not engaged in any sports gambling.”
An inside joke? …Really?
That was the best explanation you could come up with?
As for Mateer, I hope the big, bad NCAA lawyers in $10,000 suits buy the idea that your Venmo transactions were just “inside jokes,” because not a lot of people in Norman are laughing with a half-season suspension on the table.
