PARIS - Dont laugh. Theres nothing funny about the gambling industrys latest wheeze to sink its teeth even deeper into football and its fans.Were talking here about David Ginola. So silky as a player for Newcastle and Tottenham; so ridiculous now with his car-crash campaign for the FIFA presidency.Ginola has zero chance of unseating Sepp Blatter. FIFAs election and ethics rules will almost certainly keep him off the May ballot. After Thursdays passing of the entry deadline, Team Ginola should fade away.But thats not the point here. This was about making a splash. In pocketing 250,000 pounds (335,000 euros; US$375,000) from bookmaker Paddy Power for this stunt, Ginola became the latest Trojan horse in the gambling and gaming industrys creeping and creepy embrace of football.Im here today to talk about love were the Frenchmans seductive opening words at his campaign launch in London this month.But the targets were our wallets and spending habits, not our hearts. That much was clear from the Paddy Power branding.Bet. Bet again. Bet some more.That is the message that football, more than most other sports, is mainlining into our homes, helped by names like Ginola and teams lending their cachet, stadiums, jerseys and players to the industry that had cash to splash when the 2008 financial crisis hobbled other sponsors.Its eyeballs were after, 12Bet executive Rory Anderson, quoted in the Daily Mail, said when the online bookmaker became the name on Hull Citys shirt for this Premier League season.And how about this blurb from Sky Bet, title sponsor since 2013 of Englands three divisions below the Premier League. It reads like a plug for Fifty Shades of Grey.Sport matters more when theres money on it, it says. Theres more passion, more pleasure and more pain.Whoa. What ever happened to sport for sports sake, for the buzz of competition, not a bet? How quaint. That was before online bookmakers offered odds on anything and everything, from match results and goals scored to which team will win the coin toss or take the first corner, and before their relentless advertising.Sports and gambling have, of course, long gone together, feeding off each others success and growth. Tuning in for results of football betting pools, which offered big jackpots for small stakes, was a Saturday afternoon ritual for many 20th Century English families.But gambling advertising wasnt as in-your-face as now. In the UK, which liberalized gambling advertising in 2007, adults exposure to gambling commercials on television soared five-fold in eight years to 2012, regulator Ofcom found. The increase was three-fold for children aged 4-15.Asking your kids to make tea during half-time breaks wont shield them from the bombardment, not with gambling ads flashing throughout matches on pitch-side light-boards. Hull against Aston Villa on Feb. 10 will pit two Asian online bookmakers against each other. Villas shirt sponsor is dafabet, a name that works better in Chinese, where dafa means big wealth. Stoke and Burnley players are billboards for Bet365 and Fun88 (another name that plays on the Chinese word to get rich).All this in a sport grappling with the increasing danger of gambling-related match-fixing and with ample examples of gambling-addicted players who frittered away their wealth.One of those is Kevin Twaddle, a former player for Motherwell and other Scottish clubs who told his story in the biography, Life On The Line: How to Lose a Million and So Much More. He no longer gambles and has delivered talks to other players about the risks.Twaddle takes a very dim view of Ginolas Paddy Power-backed grab for FIFA.Its an absolute disgrace, he said in a phone interview. Its great for Paddy Power. But I mean youre talking about one of the biggest, powerfulest jobs in football and all youre getting to hear about is Paddy Power.It just makes like a mockery of football.Imagine, for a moment, a Paddy Power-financed FIFA president. It wont happen; FIFAs ethics rules should see to that. But the mere thought of the gambling industry even attempting to place a stooge at the very top of football makes the prospect of another Blatter term seem perhaps not quite so bad.And that isnt funny at all.___John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester@ap.org or follow him at http://twitter.com/johnleicester Oribe Peralta Jersey . Fourteen players were suspended last summer by Major League Baseball as part of the Biogenesis drug scandal, ranging from All-Stars to also-rans. Carlos Salcedo Jersey . 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Bjoerndalen, who had failed to win any major race for two years before Sochi, writes in a Facebook entry that he is "full of energy and inspiration" after winning the 10-kilometre sprint and mixed relay at last months Olympics. HOUSTON -- The Houston Texans released nine-time Pro Bowl safety Ed Reed and put running back Arian Foster on injured reserve Tuesday, the latest blows in a disaster of a season. Reed missed the first two games after hip surgery and was recently relegated to a backup role. On Friday, he expressed his displeasure at not starting. On Sunday, after Houstons seventh straight loss, he publicly criticized the team and said they had been outplayed and outcoached in the teams first full game without coach Gary Kubiak, who is recovering from a mini-stroke. Interim coach Wade Phillips, who is the teams defensive co-ordinator, seemed unhappy when asked about Reeds comments on Monday. "Everybody has their own feelings about whats happening," Phillips said. "They have their own ideas about whats happening or didnt happen. We try to keep everything in house." A few hours before the Texans announced his release, Reed tweeted: "Thanks to the Texans! And the City of Htown!" The 35-year-old Reed was signed to a three-year, $15 million contract in the off-season after he spent his entire 11-year career with Baltimore. The Texans courted him in an effort to beef up what they saw as an elite defensive unit that needed an upgrade in the secondary to make an expected run at the Super Bowl. But Reed never showed the playmaking ability he had become known for in Baltimore and had just 16 tackles this season.dddddddddddd. The move could mean the end of the career of a player many believe is the best to ever play his position. He was the AP Defensive Player of the Year in 2004 and led the league in interceptions that season and again in 2008 and 2010. Hes made the Pro Bowl in each of the last seven seasons and was a five-time All-Pro. He started each game for the Ravens last season and had four interceptions and 49 tackles to help them to a Super Bowl win. A first-round draft pick in 2002, his 61 career interceptions were most among active players and he has 109 passes defended, 524 tackles and 11 forced fumbles in 167 games. The Texans (2-7) have gone from Super Bowl contenders to AFC bottom-feeders. Besides Kubiaks health problems, quarterback Matt Schaub was benched and standout linebacker Brian Cushing was lost for the season to an injury. Now the Texans lose Foster, who needs back surgery. He didnt practice last week after injuring his back on Houstons first series against Indianapolis. The former Pro Bowl player gained 542 yards on 121 carries with one touchdown and had 22 receptions and another score this season. Ben Tate, still recovering from four broken ribs, carried 15 times Sunday against the Cardinals for just 56 yards. 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