Report: Sports gambling played role in Cowboys' release of Joseph Randle

UPDATE (Tuesday, 1:30 a.m. ET): Running back Joseph Randle denied the Dallas Morning News report that he was cut by the Cowboys because he gambled on sports, telling the Fort Worth Star-Telegram “No truth at all.”

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Original story

Former Dallas Cowboys running back Joseph Randle was arrested for the fourth time in the last 17 months outside Irving, Texas, on Monday morning. But according to a report in the Dallas Morning News, Randle’s legal issues were not the reason behind his Nov. 3 release.

And if the details of the report are true, the reason behind his release could be even more damaging to a potential return to the NFL.

Citing four unnamed sources, the Morning News reported the Cowboys cut the 24-year-old Randle when the team learned he had been betting on sports.

Randle had shown signs of "mental instability" and was "involved in placing wagers on sporting events during the 2015 season", according to the report.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones reportedly said that the club did not know of the gambling when the season began, but rather cut Randle once they knew after the season had begun.

"All of that became apparent to us right during the season," the Morning News quoted Jones as saying last week from a Senior Bowl practice in Mobile, Ala. "Not before the season. It became real acute, a combination of things. Some issues ... became more apparent."

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league never investigated Randle for gambling and had no knowledge of him betting on sports.

"We have never had any information relayed to us alleging that Joseph Randle bet on sports," said Aiello.

When asked if the team knew of any evidence that Randle bet on any NFL games, Jones said, "at this time, no. "

The Cowboys drafted Randle out of Oklahoma State in the fifth round of the 2013 NFL Draft. Before his release, Randle compiled 820 yards and scored nine touchdowns on 181 carries in 35 games in his two-plus seasons.