Calvin Ridley reported to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Wednesday, and the former Alabama wide receiver is looking forward to producing “1,400 yards a season” for his new NFL team.

That’s a long way from how Ridley felt the last time he played in an NFL game almost 17 months ago.

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The NFL reinstated Ridley on Monday from an indefinite suspension imposed on March 7, 2022. The NFL suspended Ridley for breaking league rules by betting on football games in November 2021.

In a post for theplayerstribune.com that appeared Wednesday, Ridley called gambling on football “the worst mistake of my life.”

“In a dark moment, I made a stupid mistake,” Ridley wrote. “I wasn’t trying to cheat the game. That’s the thing I want to make clear. At the time, I had been completely away from the team for about a month. I was still just so depressed and angry, and the days were so long. I was looking for anything to take my mind off of things and make the day go by faster. One day, I saw a TV commercial for a betting app, and for whatever reason, I downloaded it on my phone. I deposited like $1,500 total, literally just for something to do. I was going to bet like $200 on some NBA games that night, but then I just added a bunch more games to a parlay. I put the Falcons in on it. I was just doing it to root on my boys, basically. I didn’t have any inside information.”

READ CALVIN RIDLEY’S “A LETTER TO THE GAME”

When Ridley placed the bets that led to his suspension, he had been away from the Atlanta Falcons for almost one month.

Ridley hasn’t played in an NFL game since Oct. 24, 2021.

After missing the Falcons’ game on Oct. 31, 2021, Ridley issued a statement that said he needed “to step away from football at this time and focus on my mental wellbeing.” The Falcons placed Ridley on the non-football injury/illness list, and he missed the remainder of the 2021 season.

In his most recent full season, Ridley had 90 receptions for 1,374 yards and nine touchdowns in 2020 for the Atlanta Falcons.

Ridley said he played most of that season with a broken foot, although at the time, he was told it was a bone bruise. An offseason evaluation by a foot specialist revealed the injury went beyond that.

After surgery, Ridley planned to “get through another season with pills and shots.”

The Falcons opened the 2021 season with a 32-6 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. When Ridley, his wife and daughter returned home, they found it had been burglarized during the game, and when the security video showed the intruders had “come in with guns drawn,” Ridley wrote he “really just started to feel the weight of the world on my chest.”

Ridley played in only four more games in the 2021 season.

“I was depressed,” Ridley wrote. “I was battling anxiety. I didn’t even want to leave my house. Football was the only thing that ever gave my life meaning, and I couldn’t even find any joy in that at the time. Honestly, I couldn’t even get up off the chair in my living room. Everything was just dark.”

While Ridley was suspended, the Jaguars obtained him in a trade with Atlanta on Nov. 1, 2022.

By seeing a therapist, Ridley wrote, he was able to understand what was happening to him and how to cope with it. Now he’s looking forward to a banner season of good health and passes from Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence in the 2023 NFL campaign.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.