NFL Investigating Reported Bets by Fryar, Teammates

The National Football League is investigating reports that wide receiver Irving Fryar and others on the New England Patriots bet on football games last season, the Boston Globe reported in its Thursday editions.

Warren Welch, National Football League director of security, told the newspaper an investigation was under way, “but we never comment one way or another about any ongoing investigation. That is our policy, and we are going to stick with it. I’m not going to say more than that.”

The newspaper quoted unidentified league sources as saying information on the alleged gambling was given to Patriot Coach Raymond Berry a month ago. “I don’t want to talk about it, at all,” Berry was quoted as saying.

The newspaper said it could not reach Fryar at his home in Easton, Mass.

Patrick Sullivan, the team’s general manager, said the Patriots had reported to the league “an unsubstantiated rumor that Irving might have been involved in gambling. We followed NFL guidelines and asked the league to investigate, just as we ask them to invrestigate any rumor.

“As far as we’re concerned, it’s an unsubstantiated rumor, nothing more than that, and that’s the way we’ll continue to handle it.”

The Patriots lost to the Chicago Bears, 46-10, in the Super Bowl last January. Fryar, from Nebraska and the Patriots’ No. 1 draft choice in 1984, scored New England’s lone Super Bowl touchdown.

He had returned to action after missing the American Football Conference playoff game when his hand was cut by a knife in what was reportedly an argument with his wife.

He also was named in reports as being one of six Patriots who admitted using drugs.