Do you believe John Mateer? Oklahoma’s starting quarterback claims that his Venmo transaction history had nothing to do with sports gambling even though three separate payments were explicitly labeled as “sports gambling.”
Although his excuse does make sense, it also leaves one specific question unanswered.
This will likely be the last time this scandal (or lack thereof) gets discussed ad nauseam before it blows over because there is no way to prove that he was actually betting on college football. Regardless of whether he is telling the truth or not, Mateer was an idiotic 18-year-old who made a big mistake.
John Mateer claims innocence.
The former Washington State signal-caller released a public statement about the ongoing controversy on Tuesday afternoon. He claims it is all a big misunderstanding. Oklahoma is not worried either.
Mateer labeled his Venmo payments in this way because of an inside joke with his buddies. One of those buddies appears to be former Cougars offensive lineman Landon ‘Richard’ Roaten, with whom he exchanged three suspicious transactions in the fall of 2022.
“The allegations that I once participated in sports gambling are false,” John Mateer wrote. “My previous Venmo descriptions did not accurately portray the transactions in question but were instead inside jokes between me and my friends. I have never bet on sports. I understand the seriousness of the matter, but recognize that, taken out of context, those Venmo descriptions suggest otherwise. I can assure my teammates, coaches and officials at the NCAA that I have not engaged in any sports gambling.”
I totally get it. Who amongst us has not sent an innocent Venmo payment with a description that does not match?
I often label my payments, say for pizza or rent, as something stupid like “rash cream” or the snow emoji just because. That was especially true in college so Mateer’s explanation does make sense.
Why were the Venmo descriptions so specific?
One of the three Venmo transactions traces back to a gut-wrenching interception by former UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson against USC. The payment was labeled as: “Sports gambling (USC vs UCLA).” The payment was dated Nov. 20, 2022.
Washington State played its college football game against Arizona at 11:00 a.m. on Nov. 19, 2022. The Trojans and the Bruins played the late game on that same day.
Why was the inside joke so specific? I would not be surprised if John Mateer and Richard Roaten placed some kind of handshake bet on the USC/UCLA game on the plane ride home but the former claims not.
On the other end of this theory, Roaten paid Mateer for “Ultra sports gambling fifa World Cup” on Nov. 23, 2022. The World Cup was ongoing from Qatar at the time but that description does indeed seem to be as sarcastic as it gets.
Even if John Mateer is telling the truth and these payments were part of an inside joke with his friends, which I believe he is, he should’ve known better. Freshmen in college make mistakes. This was a big one.