Calvin Ridley’s fellow NFL players are taking his side after he was suspended for an entire year for gambling on games.

Patriots pass rusher Matthew Judon took to Twitter on Monday after the suspension was handed down to the Falcons star, calling it “trash” and calling on the league to “free Calvin.”

Ridley was given a full-year suspension after it was revealed he gambled on NFL games – including Falcons games – during the 2021 season. The league’s bylaws strictly forbid players to wager on games, and his suspension is not without precedent – former Bengals cornerback Josh Shaw was dealt the same punishment in 2019.

However, the severity of Ridley’s suspension compared to other player infractions was possibly what drew Judon’s ire. When Ray Rice was initially arrested for domestic violence in 2014, the league only suspended him two games. Ezekiel Elliott was suspended six games for domestic violence in 2017. Deshaun Watson, who was accused by 22 women of sexual harassment and assault in both civil suits and criminal complaints, has yet to be suspended at all by the league.

Ridley made all of the bets while he was away from the team, and there is no evidence that he bet on a game he participated in. On Monday, he tweeted that he bet “1500 total” and that he doesn’t “have a gambling problem.”

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Ridley “placed multi-legged parlay bets involving three, five and eight games that included the Falcons to win.”

With the league’s strict rules, those wagers may have put his career in jeopardy.