PA. GAMBLING COMMISSION Official risks losing NFL job for position

Rivers also works at Carnegie Mellon University.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Sanford Rivers, the newest appointee to the state's gambling commission, said he'll give up his job as a National Football League official if the league decides the gambling post runs afoul of its bylaws.
Rivers, 61, was named Sunday as the second of three appointees Gov. Ed Rendell gets on the seven-member board, which will regulate the 14 locations where up to 61,000 slot machines can be operated under the recently approved legislation.
"I had planned to retire from the NFL within the next three years anyway, and if they hasten my retirement, so be it," Rivers said Monday. "I would do nothing to jeopardize the integrity of the NFL. If their will is that I give it up, then I'm done."
Rivers is one of 17 head linesmen in the league, which he joined in 1989. The NFL pays its officials $2,100 to $7,700 a game, based on experience.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league had just learned of Rivers' appointment on Monday and would contact him soon about the appointment. NFL employees aren't allowed to associate with the gambling industry.
Rivers said he'll request a one-year unpaid leave of absence from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he works full-time as an administrator.
His term
Rivers will serve a two-year term on the gambling board with a likely salary of $145,000 to $150,000, Rendell spokeswoman Kate Philips said.
Rendell must make a third appointment by Sept. 4. Legislative leaders have two more board members to select.
Rivers joins Frank Friel, a former Philadelphia police officer, Bill Conaboy, a health-industry attorney, and Joseph W. Marshall III, a medical-industry executive and former chair of the state Ethics Commission, on the gambling panel.
Rivers, who has worked 34 years for CMU, said the gambling appointment is a career highlight.
"Athletically, working in the Super Bowl [XXXIII in Miami in 1999] was my big moment," Rivers said. "This is my big moment professionally."