I have played fantasy football for over 15 years, I have been in every type of draft known to man including auction style drafts.
I understand what ESPN was trying to do, but considering the movie “GET OUT” and what is going on in our world right now, the last thing you need is Odell Beckham’s head on a stick while a bunch of white males bidding on him like he is property.
https://twitter.com/rjasonscales/status/897243556041170944
To be fair they did use white players as well like Brady and GRONK. This is more of an optics thing than them doing it intentionally, but they have to be more sensitive to the times we live in now.
I reached out to ESPN for a statement and here is what they said exclusively to BSO.
“Auction drafts are a common part of fantasy football, and ESPN’s segments replicated an auction draft with a diverse slate of top professional football players. Without that context, we understand the optics could be portrayed as offensive, and we apologize.”
I don’t think they meant any harm, but just think these things through when they are going through production. I don’t know who made the final decision, but if there were minorities in that room they should have spoken up.
Flip the page for full auction draft skit…